Blackout Blues
Widespread Panic
Hope you don’t mind me barging in the door
In the middle of the night
Hope you don’t mind me barging in the door like this
In the middle of the night
Falling in and out of bars on my own
Pick my head up off the ground
Continue reading
I vividly remember my visit to Pusan, South Korea in 1989. It was one of the first foreign ports in my Navy career. The icy cold wind blowing from the mountains seemed the perfect companion to the very real tension in the air. Everywhere I went there was this ominous feeling that even after fifty years of uneasy truce, Korea was still on the front lines.
I’m a little dubious of North Korea’s claim of conducting its first nuke test, but not because I think its not true. I simply don’t think its their first. Back in the early 1990s, a small-scale nuclear test was conducted in China. Though China claimed it was their own, I’ve always wondered if North Korea tested their own device in China to avoid arousing suspicion.
And knowing what I know about international diplomacy, I don’t buy for a moment all the official “condemnations” from various nations. Countries routinely say one thing while doing another. Certainly some of them, perhaps China especially, have benefitted from feeding Kim Jong Il’s obsession with nuclear weapons. North Korea’s need for oil will make it only a matter of time before Iran has their own nukes. Or at least nukes from North Korea.
No one has any easy answers for North Korea. Its a problem left unsolved. Now that nukes are in the mix that problem has just gotten far more difficult.
We had a fun, if abbreviated, weekend. A lot of stuff got done during it, too. I cooked everyone breakfast Saturday morning before heading out to a workday with Hallie’s preschool, Children’s House of Raleigh. There I helped move a bunch of junk from their garage and out to a dumpster. Upon getting back I ventured into our attic to retrieve our Halloween decorations, taking time to vacuum all the dust that got all over stuff when Kelly and I added insulation this summer.
Once the kids were heading for their naps, I cleaned out the garage. Then I returned some things to Lowes and picked up a new fluourescent light fixture and a new faucet for our kitchen. The light went up in 15 minutes and the faucet went on in about 2 hours. Normally I’d have a new faucet on in an hour or less but the one I was removing was cemented on for some crazy reason.
After we enjoyed some time with the kids, we put them to bed and started up our movie, Side Effects. It was decent flick but not worth rushing out to rent.
Sunday we thought of going to the Art Museum [warning: excessive orange!] for some kiddie fun but we had some discipline issues that changed our plans. Then, because I’ve been traveling so much, I made a map of the United States with “Where Is Daddy?” on it so that the kids would know where their father is when he’s not around. The kids loved it and spent lots of time coloring in the states. I thought it would be fun for them to know where I am but looking back on it it seems kind of sad that I have to do that.
We were then off to the nursery to go tree shopping. At first we didn’t think we had time to plant anything, but we opted to walk out with three crepe myrtles anyway. I had them in the ground in a little over an hour, leaving me just enough time to eat lunch, pack my bags, and make my flight out here. So here I am.
Now, its bedtime. So long!
