Random Thoughts of ABW’s Friend

Flying out of JFK (rather than Newark) is a stupid, stupid, stupid thing for me to do.  Aside from the fact that I have to cross midtown Manhattan to get from my home to JFK (a 1.3 mile segment of the trip took 45 minutes to traverse this morning), it’s JFK.  That alone should be enough for me to know better.  Bad things happen when I fly out of JFK.

I’ve flown through JFK twice before.  The very first time was the day Homeland Security/TSA instituted the “no liquids past security rule”.  LIterally the first day. . . mere hours after the change in policy took place.  I had given myself a lot of extra time for the drive to JFK and made it to the terminal from the remote parking lot with a full two hours to spare before my flight left.  Unfortunately, the check-in area was a bit crowded and the lines stretched out onto the sidewalk.  I was still in line waiting to reach the ticket counter when my flight left . . . and it left late.  I ended up waiting around for a flight that afternoon- they couldn’t even check me in for a few hours I had so long to wait.  I HAD to fly out of JFK though.  Work was paying for the ticket and they insisted on buying the cheapest fare, even if it meant they spent more on other travel costs (e.g. more mileage for the drive to the airport, over $10 in tolls instead of $1, parking since no one could drop me off and extra time missed from work).

The second time was when I flew to a cousin’s wedding.  The problems with that trip had more to do with the Subway in NYC.  I decided not to drive to JFK because taking the bus into the city followed by the Subway and AirTrain would be a lot cheaper than driving.  I spent the night before the flight left with a good friend in the city and then headed out.  I ran into problems right away.  The subway line I needed to take had major delays due to some kind of incident.  So, I walked a few blocks closer to Central Park to take another line.  The new line also had delays.  A train in front of us couldn’t get it’s doors closed.  I had allowed quite a bit of extra time for the travel and made my flight that time.  It just wasn’t fun getting there.

Today has been a not so good JFK travel day.  I missed my original flight, but got on the next one standby.  Unfortunately, I had a connection to make and only had one hour on the ground between flights.  It wasn’t enough.  We left the gate at JFK about 30 minutes late and then spent almost 45 waiting to take off after pushing away from the gate.  The flight attendent says that she tells friends and family to allow a minimum of 4 hours for connections if JFK is involved in their travel plans.  Is it just me or is that really messed up?

My first flight was so delayed that I now find myself sitting in an airport waiting for an even later connecting flight.  I’m having such *great* travel luck today that it too is delayed.  We are currently scheduled to arrive at my destination almost 4 hours after I was supposed to get there.  If this was leisure travel I wouldn’t really care, but it isn’t.  I also just found that my day full of meetings that was supposed to start at 9 in the a.m. will actually be starting at 8.  The news just keeps getting better!

I did learn one good thing today.  The Charlotte, North Carolina airport has free wireless internet access.  So, you get to read my whining courtesy of the Charlotte International Airport.

P.S.- I have another flight scheduled out of JFK in around two weeks.  I might commit hari kari

. . . since I posted any bizarre news stories. I read two tonight that made me shake my head. The first because I still can’t believe the mother actually suggested this as a money-making scheme for her pre-teen daughter and friend. The second because I could have sworn the saying goes “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”.

Between a handyman who isn’t so handy, the return of the rude neighbor, and some other assorted happenings I wasn’t in a good mood tonight. Then I somehow stumbled on an article about UNESCO adding sites to the list of “World Heritage Sites“. It included a picture of one of the newly labeled “Natural Wonders of the World”. All it took was one look and I felt a smile starting. I looked up a few links and pictures to share and my mood got even better!

One of the newest World Heritage Sites is the Lagoons of New Caledonia and their coral reefs. A nice tropical location in the South Pacific. A quick google search turned up a travel website that lets you download images to use on your website as long as you link back to them. So, without any further ado, feast your eyes on New Caledonia!

Shabadran Mare New Caledonia

West Coast of Ouvea

Ilot Koure Lagoon

I would love to be on any one of those beaches right now . . .

For many individuals being homeless is a “temporary” state, but for others it is more of a chronic condition. The United States Department of Health and Human Services- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration published the following statistics about the chronicity of being homeless:

Most, or about 80 percent, exit from homelessness within 2 or 3 weeks. They often have more personal, social, and economic resources to draw from than people who are homeless for longer periods of time.

About 10 percent are homeless for up to 2 months, with housing availability and affordability adding to the time they are homeless.

Another 10 percent are homeless on a chronic, protracted basis, for as long as 7 or 8 months in a 2-year period. Disabilities associated with mental illnesses and substance use are common. On any given night, this group of homeless persons can account for up to 50 percent of those seeking emergency shelter.

According to the same website, over 66% of homeless individuals report problems with substance use and/or mental health and while veterans are 13% of the overall population in our country, they comprise 23% of the homeless population. VA estimates indicate that 45% of homeless veterans have a mental illness and over 70% have substance use/abuse problems, with some experiencing both mental illness and comorbid substance abuse problems.

Continue reading We Need More Programs Like This…

All things considered, this is a fairly simple blog format-wise. I use a free WordPress Template (with a picture I took uploaded into the Header), the free WordPress hosting and a photobucket account for my pictures. Other than that, I just use options available from WordPress. One of the ones I like is the “Snapshots” option.

If you hover over any link in a post on my blog you will see a small preview snapshot of the page I have linked to. With the links on my blogroll, if you hover you will see the RSS feed for the blog (Post titles, first few lines, and time since publication) and then keywords for the blog at the very bottom of the preview box. Sometimes the keywords are easy to understand . . . other times they are unique (for lack of a better word).

Outlaw 13 at Guidons, Guidons, Guidons! has a post up about the US Army Drill Team with a really great video of them in action (he found it via Kathy at Brazoscowgirl). I like watching precision in action with drill teams like this.

Of course, my absolute favorite drill team is the Texas A&M Fish Drill Team. The Fish Drill Team is a volunteer team of Freshman members of the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M. There are a upperclassmen who stay on to help train and instruct the new members, but the team itself is reconstituted every September at the beginning of the school year. This doesn’t stop them from being the best. In fact, the Fish Drill Team has won four consecutive national championships (most recently in February of 2008) competing against teams that don’t restrict themselves to just freshman. Here is a short video of them I found on Youtube this afternoon:

Most of you have probably seen the Fish Drill Team in action without even realizing it. Hollywood used them to serve as the Marine Drill Team shown at the beginning of the movie A few Good Men. Here is a clip of them from the movie:

I promise this blog isn’t going to become an A&M only blog, seeing the post by Outlaw 13 just brought this to mind.  I have a lot of good memories of my time at A&M.

Recently I found out about a project of an artist named Rick Mobbs. Each Thursday he posts an image prompt on his blog Mine Enemy Grows Older, people write in response to the image prompt and then link back to the post at his blog. He is also gathering the responses to the image prompts in a collaborative story book maintained in its own blog.

Although I have been watching the collaborative story book for a little while now, I never thought I would contribute something of my own. I’m not much of a creative writer and the images haven’t really “spoken” to me in the past. However, this week’s image prompt took me back to a different time and place. I wasn’t just thinking about that moment in time when I looked at the image, I was reliving the moment and the experience was bittersweet. My contribution to the collaborative story book is after the jump. It’s quite different than what I normally post here.

HARBOR LIGHTS

Rick Mobbs

Continue reading The Collaborative Story Book…

I was a little bit hesitant to write this follow-up post to Crazy College Days because to accurately tell the tale I’m going to have to use some language that will make for some interesting search engine hits. Apparently it was silly for me to worry about that. Recently someone actually came to my blog after searching for “Marine whores”. It would have been even funnier if the person who made that search was the visitor from the Army National Guard Bureau, but it wasn’t. I also still get hits for “Heather Locklear naked” and even had the infamous “pro bass fishing crack” hit, so I don’t think this post will make things too much worse than they already are.

If you haven’t already read the first installment in Crazy College Days, I recommend that you do before reading the rest of this post. If you have read it (or if you have decided to ignore my advice like most people do), get ready to hear about the experience I had with Dorm Girl and the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University.

Continue reading Crazy College Days Part Two…

I was checking out the pictures at the Multi-National Force - Iraq website today when I saw this picture:

The caption for the photo is:

Play Time

U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Max W. Donahue plays with Paco, his military working dog, in Lahib, Iraq, June 16, 2008. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Stuart Wegenka.

Don’t you love the expression on Paco’s face? Nothing is going to distract him from keeping his eyes on that Kong. The drool will be coming off that tongue any second too.

This picture made me think of one of LT. Nixon’s recent posts about milblogs that come and go. Too many milblogs that I have come to really enjoy reading have either come to an end when the servicemember redeployed or have been halted either due to official reasons or personal ones. Some of the really good ones are even taken down completely (most recently Kaboom by LT. G).

I made the connection to LT. Nixon’s post when I saw this picture because it has been quite a while since Sgt. Dowling posted at K9 Pride. I’ve written about Military Working Dogs (MWDs) a number of times on this blog and I think you all know how much I respect the work of the MWDs, their handlers, and everyone who supports them. I really enjoy reading posts written about MWDs from the perspective of the handler…someone who has “been there and done that”…and I hope Sgt Dowling starts posting again soon. Maybe a few encouraging words in his comments section will bring him back?

Note: This story is the result of a few comments exchanged with LT. Nixon on his blog. Some of the things in this story will make more sense if you read the comments at his blog. I’m too lazy to explain it all here right now.

As some of you know, I attended Texas A&M when first out of high school and consider myself an Aggie (even though I didn’t graduate from A&M). One of the most ridiculous stories I remember from my time there actually involves a girl from my dorm freshman year. I’ll call her Dorm Girl. Dorm Girl was a nice, sweet girl - and more than a little attractive LT. N- but was clearly at A&M pursuing the MRS rather than the BA or BS.

Dorm Girl kept a picture of her grandfather in a silver frame on her desk. He graduated from A&M back when it was still all military and was in his corps uniform in the picture, complete with Aggie Senior Boots. She was more than just a little obsessed with dating guys in the Corps. In other words, she was what people would call a “Corps Whore” or “Quad Queen” (the dorms for the Corps of Cadets were in a “quad” formation). I don’t recall her dating anyone who was not in the Corps during the two semesters we lived in the same dorm.

Anyway, home football games at A&M are a big deal and, for many students, a prime date opportunity. Dorm Girl always had a date for the games. One week I was out in the hallway with a bunch of other girls studying for an upcoming test when Dorm girl burst out of the stairwell into the hallway. She was clearly very excited about something and dying to tell us all.

Before anyone had the chance to even ask what had her so worked up, Dorm Girl looked at us and shrieked “I’VE GOT A DATE WITH BOOTS FOR THE GAME!” No, his name was not boots and it was not a nickname either. This poor soul was a senior in the Corps of Cadets with Senior Boots and Dorm Girl had reached Nirvana because she was finally attending a home football game as the date of a pair of brown leather boots. It still amuses me to remember the scene.

Stay tuned. There will be another post involving Dorm Girl, the Corps of Cadets and (gasp) me coming soon.