As the year of the rabbit comes to an end, the year of the Dragon quickly approaches. 2011 was a good year, filled with many ups and downs, good times and bad times. 2011 seemed to last about as long as a decade. My medical board started around January and lasted until the end of October. So much has happened in this year, I’m not ready to write about it all now.  As I adjust to retired life and prepare for my 2nd career, I find myself missing the camaraderie of my military brother and sisters.  Although I'm glad I have moved on, especially when I think about the deployments and time away from family.

Anyway, enough about that.  The kids had a good Christmas.  Money is tight, but we're surviving.  We are together as a family and safe.  We have much to be thankful for!

My thought are with our troops that are overseas!  May you come home safe and sound!

2012 WILL BE A BETTER YEAR!  And that's that!

With only 7 days and counting until Christmas 2011,  I must admit, this is among the worst Christmases ever.  Although being deployed during Christmas was certainly not fun, Christmas without money is almost equally no fun.  Retirement from the Air Force wasn’t what I expected.  Getting my money is apparently not a priority of the Military.

I am, however, grateful that my family and I are all together and healthy.  Yesterday, early in the morning a real close friend of mine died.  The cause of the death is unknown; does not really matter.  She was too young to die.  Why does this happen?  Who knows?  Our families were supposed to spend time together this holiday.  No family should ever have to go through this… This has been on my mind since I found out yesterday.

As the cursor blinks, the words seem to have frozen.  Enough for now… ciao!

You know, being on convalescent leave is not too bad.  I mean, I get paid to lay around the house and get better.  In fact, I got 18 days off for free.  These days don’t count  against my 30 days annual paid vacation, which is a good thing. 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all good… I did run out of my drugs yesterday, and my knee hurts.  The swelling persists, today is day number 8, since surgery.  Walking still is a task, assisted by crutches you’ll see me hobbling around.

I think the worst thing, other than the pain, is not being able to take a shower.  I am addicted to hot showers, and not being able to take a shower is driving me crazy.  What I do, is stick half my body in the shower, with my bad leg out with the knee wrapped so it will not get wet, and shower that way.  Hopefully, next week after my follow up I will be able to take a shower.  It gets boring laying around the house. 

Finally the blistering summer heat is behind us (hopefully).  Fall is only 1 week away;  Bringing cooler weather and some of the best holidays of the year.  The kids are finally in school this month, and are doing well thus far.  GOOD TIMES…

Another labor day is upon us.  Cooler weather is here, but not as cool as last year.  It has been a sweltering hot summer as we’re looking forward to some cooler weather.

We were planning a camping this weekend, but the hurricane (or lack there of) and Audrey’s reaction to mosquito bites caused us to change our plans. 

We are looking forward to the upcoming holidays and of course my birthday too (October 18th). 

Greetings all...

Since I haven't replaced any computers in quite a while now, I figured it was time get the family a new computer or two. Picked the kids up an Compaq from Best buy. Ordered myself a barebones kit from Tiger direct and also my wife and I both got a netbook.

We're all running Windows 7 and love it. I'm turning my old Compaq into a file server. Currently threw linux on it and I'm serving some movies from a 1 Terabyte drive with some movies on it.

We moved to Virginia.  From Japan, we got here on July 4th.  Finally  moved in our house, finally got CABLE & Internet.  More later... I almost forgot I even had a blog.

Greetings fellow reader(s):

I hope all everyone has  had a wonderful Christmas, regardless of what religious background you claim.  I had a great Christmas with my Family this year.  Of course, any Christmas one spends with thier family would certainly be a great Christmas.  Eventhough this Christmas didn't have the living room floor covered in presents like it did in past years.  The economy hits home here in Japan, perhaps not as hard as it has hit in the Untied States, but we certainly feel it as well.

Other than being with Family, another highlight would be the Wii the kids got for Christmas.  When the kids opened it, I couldn't wait to play it.  Of course, I was the first one playing on it.

Yet another year has passed.  The Year 2009 will certainly be a memorable year for Americans and the world.  A new President who I hope restores the way the world views the Americans.  Someone who loves to travel the world, I don't really want to be viewed as a "Bully," which is how many countries of the world views us.  When I visit certain countries, I actually tell people I'm Canadian.

Enough for now, HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!  Stay safe and take care of yourself and your Family.

Another Day down, and that much closer to the baby's surgery. Audrey is scheduled for surgery on the 9^th of July. Audrey and I fly into Hawaii on the 6^th, and our appointments start the next day. Not only do I have the surgery to worry about, but I'm also concerned with the financial aspects as well. I can't really afford to send Cathy, John, Matthew & Jaymie there to be with Audrey. If the duration of stay was 1 week or less I would consider letting the kids stay here in Misawa with friends, but that is out of the question, due to the fact that we will probably be there for atleast one month. Additionally, I'm trying to buy my Dad tickets to fly from Atlanta to Hawaii so he can spend some time with the kids. He hasn't seen them in 2 years. Even though I have not promised the kids that he will be there, some reason they seem to be expecting him to be there. I keep telling them I will try, and attempted to explain to them that this is going to cost a lot of money and we have to be carefull not to spend too much.

This weekend we are planning another offroad trip to the mountains. This time there will be some new people attending. We are meeting up at the BX parking lot at 6:50 am and departing for the mountains at 7:am and meeting up with our Japanese Counterparts at 8:am at redbridge camping area. Can't wait for this, looks like it's going to be a good turnout, so we should have lots of fun.

Another thing to add... It is awesome that I don't have any school work to deal with after work! I'm taking a summer break. Depending on work, probably a fall break. I'm thinking of starting back to shool in late October.

Happy Veterans Day!!!

Happy Veterans Day all! It's a bit rainy here in Northern Japan... don't think it has stopped in 3 or 4 days.

Still working on CSS, tweaking my main site here and there, & trying to learn what I can. Not much to say, it's about lunch time and I'm going to go downtown and get something in the Japanese Grocery Store. Speaking of those stores, I put some video here & some pics here of a grocery store & a Wal-Mart/Home-Depot style store. Let me know what you think & post a comment...