Friday Film Fun

Tis nice to have a little fun on Friday. In the basement we watch movies. PG stuff so that guests aren't offended or frightened away. In our lobby here in the basement. I starting doing that about a month or six weeks ago. Makes the day go much quicker. You see the government doesn't work on Fridays.

We have alternate work schedules, and so a significant portion of the work force is off every other Friday and Monday. On the other Monday or Friday a lot of folks burn a leave day (and some how never run out of them) or telework - which means they've gone fishing.

Congress doesn't even bother pretending to work 5 days a week, they only work Tues-Thurs. I wish I had a three day work week, seems that would be the right balance. I can do as much as I do in 5 days in 3 or 2 really since there is significant down time - spent awaiting replies from folks who don't work everyday like I do.

Friday's are quiet here in the basement so movies were the perfect thing. We can't all agree on music here or which news radio station to stream on the computers, so movies and film which I talk about a bit in TO&S that are family friendly-ish, we all agree on. Today we got a little crazy and watched the ultra violent Independence Day special edition and Jurassic Park III which features a kid in more peril than in the previous two, the tween/pre-teen is nearly eaten at one point - it's quite terrible but thankfully he gets out alive faring better than half the humans in the cast.

ID is harmless fun, violent explosions but otherwise ridiculous. The aliens aren't terribly interesting and the jokes aren't great but even bad movies are fun and can bring the team together for a laugh or two. Next is Over the Hedge, without a doubt, Bruce Willis's best work. Then I go home to give gramma her gifts for watching the monsters so the wife and I can go out, she deserves and I've tried to keep at least one day a week - usually Friday, kitchen cooking and clean up free at night. We can't always go out anymore like we could before inflation destroyed our financial picture but tonight we're gonna try.

Last night we took the little ones out to Wells Family Bakery which is excellent (try the cheese cake) for their fun night out this week. The bakery is keeping later hours now, just so locals can have another desert option - Merican's need more desert options and the wife and I might pop in there tonight for some hot apple cider after we try the (questionable) sushi selection at the place she wants to try but has mixed reviews and so will go unnamed here.

But the Bakery is awesome - go there, just a few doors down if you're in town is the best pub too the Gary Owen, the benburburger (the lamb one) is awesome and they make their chips in house too. great beers on tap and a strong bottle selection. Just don't take my table please. Thank you I don't get to take the wife out much and I'd hate to find a 45 minute wait again when we only have the sitter for 2 hours.

Christmas Shopping

This is going to be tough this year. I haven't monetized this blog and most of my traffic is my sister and some folks in Russia. If you Russian guys are tuning in today I'd like one of those "Professional Russian" hoodies with the backwards 'R' that guy is always wearing when he blows stuff up on youtube. He's funny, and yes I'm sure he's not at the peak of his popularity but his kind of mildly subversive fun is timelessly and harmlessly funny. Except to the items he destroys and perhaps some of his friends who may or may not be missing fingers.

Yes it's not even Halloween yet, but after that favorite holiday everything moves really quickly with 2 birthdays and thanksgiving which I've you know my love of turkey and gravy, you understand the planning and work that goes into making that right.

And friends are important (more so than bacon or gravy but about equal to the two combined). Their importance of course is inversely proportional to the number of friends you have. I have very few and like heroes they're wonderfully imperfect people, like me they're a little bit different but they're all family men, and men of Honor and all very hard to shop for!

My lovely wife is hard to shop for too, she doesn't think so I'd imagine but she is. It's not because she's high maintenance or has expensive taste, not at all nor is she a demanding bully or anything like that. She's happy with attention and time spent away from the daily grind of diapers and schlepping kids to the day care, grocery store and grasshopper (Panda's word for gas station). And of course with my wonderful gift for gifting I've set the bar too high too early in the relationship in my all out hell bent for leather bid to woo her.

Mission accomplished.

Still friends are hard to find gifts for. Especially when they're all cast far and wide across the world. I wish I knew how Vinny was doing with his exotic aggressive cancer diagnosis. I'd sure like to see him again, and the rest of the Brick Flight too. Good buncha troopers. I got friends nearby I get to see some time or at least talk to regularly I'd sure like to see them away from the daily grind maybe with the wives too so we can all have a laugh and buy those guys a beer.

The First Class Mess break up was most unfortunate. We couldn't talk Kris out of separating. I can't blame him for not re-enlisting under the circumstances he felt his time was wasted there though I hope he didn't mean with the Mess. I talked to Jeff the other day we talked about catching the NY / WAS game when the G-men come to town. It probably won't happen FedEx field isn't a cheap ticket but I'd like to do that and call that a Xmas gift for all in attendance.

That would be great for some of us but some friends, like Vinny have serious problems and are in a dark place. A football game or a pint isn't going to be enough to lift them, and they could probably use a bit more help with whatever troubles them. For my part I'd like to help but I find myself awkwardly unable to find simple words of comfort even. One of my friends is having the classic marital problems for example, he tells me that its tough for him and though I've been through similar but simpler problems I can't find any thing more to say than "I'm here if you need me" I hope that friend knows I mean it, he was there for me when I needed him and I owe him nothing less.

Those are the kind of bonds you can only form under fire, be it from the enemy or an angry Colonel who wants this or that metric, spreadsheet or report you don't have ready access to. Sometimes I tell folks I've never been prouder of what I did in the Army, but I think it's less what I did than who I was with that I'm proud of. Those great friendships the 28th Infantry, USS Enterprise and 1st Class Mess I realize are what kept me going back despite all of the personal challenges, disappointments and sacrifices required to be a part of that. Yes, I've read and heard all of the stories of veterans saying precisely this and didn't always understand it. Seems I'm a very slow learner. Thanks guys, while I no longer stands the watch this year I might only be able to gift you my gratitude and a salute.

And to you professional russians, nothing to see here everything is just fine. Yes I saw recently in Pravda that you guys have put long range missiles back into Cuba right under our noses - how rascally! But Pravda is only marginally more credible than the Onion, though Iran hasn't got that memo, please inform them when you send them your annual christmas letter and box of hickory farms.

Happy Halloween Folks!

Sigrunn's Saga III

Before the sun rose she halted, relieved the bleeding had stopped. She rubbed some dirt and spit together in her gloved hands to make fresh mud to cover the wound.  She avoided contact with any one she saw from the scrub as she headed north towards the mountain. The next afternoon she noticed a man was following her, he looked like one of her people and she suspected he was tracking her for the Jarl who surely wanted her as dead as she wished him to be. She did her best to avoid him but he was quickly overtaking her. He seemed to know where she was going and so she decided to make a stand.

She set a trap to injure him and laid in ambush. Soon he was close and she recognized him as the hunter Harard. Though she was over six feet tall, he was more than twice her bulk, heavily muscled and unarmored able to move quickly. She didn’t know where the quiet Harard’s allegiance was; with the Jarl and the new god or with her and the old way. She thought she could beat him as he had no shield or mail but worried who else would be sent and she coulnd't help but feel slighted to learn only one tracker had been sent to bring her down.

For his part Harard had no trouble tracking the heavily encumbered, wounded and fatigued princess, unaccustomed to long marches in the wilderness. She had taken pains to avoid detection meaning she had to take still more time moving through concealment blazing her own trail. This left an obvious path for any hunter could follow from more easily traveled ground. He had spotted her ambush from beyond bow shot but could not see her. He guessed where she was hiding and headed for the trap to lure her out. He reached the snare and called out “princess I am Harard, I come as an ally, show yourself!”

She readied her axe “go home while you still can hunter tell the Jarl I’ll be back for him in my own time.”

“Princess I serve you and Vatun. After you cut down the missionary the Jarl sent a party out to kill you but they ran into the dwarfs seeking the one who had killed two of their own near our village.”

She gave a look around to see if he had others with him. “Where is your hunting party Harard? Your sons?”

“I am alone but they are coming if the dwarfs did not clash with the Jarl's men, they’ll be following you too, following me and I have no sons.”

“Why are you here then?” she quizzed him.

“The dream, the wooden castle was a prison. The witch a servant of his foes - a warden! You saw his prison; I was with you trapped there too. I quit the hunting party when I had the dream, there are others in the village who would rally to your banner and kill the heretic Cuthbert men and make slaves of the dwarves.”

Sigrunn’s belly rumbled hungrily “You seek then to join me? To answer his call if that’s what this vision is?”

“Yes, if you seek to steal into his prison to free him I swear my life is yours to command, my steel shall not fail you!”

Arrogantly she asserted her rank “you seek only to enter my bed, and you will not no matter how cold the night! And we shall see how true your brave words are soon I sense…”

Harard sensing their shouted conversation has attracted attention steps closer to her hiding place, sidestepping the snare prompting her to show herself “Princess, you are beautiful and I will live to see you eat your words on both counts.” He raises his yew bow and notches an arrow turning away from her shifting his attention and aim towards something approaching. She looks past him squinting to see what approaches from out of the sun – it’s a pair of the Jarl's men. They hurl a spear over her head as a sacrifice to the god and advance drawing their heavy broad swords from their sides, one of the warriors speaks “good job Harard, now step aside.”

“I’m not done with her yet you’ll have to wait for your turn.”

Sigrunn wastes no time on talk she leaps to the attack finding her strength suddenly renewed she lands to the side of her foe, swinging wildly feigning incompetence and madness, bait the warrior takes. He lazily steps aside to strike her down, his foot falling into her snare and he howls as he hears his ankle snap, pierced by the spikes placed inside the concealed knee deep hole. He drops to his side dropping his blade as Harard draws fires point blank into the other man’s eye. The arrows haft punches out the back of his skull, knocking the helmet from his head. He falls in a crumpled heap. The screams of the wounded man becomes a pleading for mercy as Sigrunn kicks his sword away and knocks his helmet off with her axe. Raising her weapon over her head she turns to Harard “how many more?”

“There were eight of us princess” Harard answers sullenly – suddenly consumed with sorrow for the loss of the men – friends of his until now. 

The wounded man cries out “the others are with the dwarfs, as prisoners – they might be killed if we do bring you to them in three days’ time!”

 “Then they will die, traitors to god as shall you…”

“NO!” he cries his last as she brings her axe down across his throat cutting deeply into his chest. He falls over sideways, his head dangling backwards, partly severed from his body propped up by his armor, shield and her trap holding his broken leg in place.

Sigrunn warns Harard to “take their mail, if more come we’ll need it. Leave their bodies for the crows they deserve no peace in the other world. They die cowards without a name, forget them” she hacks away the dead men’s faces with quick strokes of her axe and helps Harard to strip them. Once their work is done Harard asks “why are we heading to the mountain princess, what do we seek there?”

“God knows, I do not. Before we go, do you have any food?”

He pulls a wrapped cake from his pack saying “the dead man’s wife made these for us” as he hands it to her.

Sigrunn unwrapped the tiny soft cake and stuffed it whole into her mouth, her eyes lit up happily “mmm…” she chewed and swallowed it and without a hint of remorse then declared “that’s good cake” tucking her axe away in its sheath. The pair started into a jog and made their camp with a mixed group of miners; men and dwarves that night. They had no knowledge of Sigrunn’s outlaw status and welcomed the pair. Though Sigrunn was uncomfortable with the dwarves she supped with them and the men who she thought smelled slightly less offensively.

Unable to eat the last cake, Harard trades it for wine at the miner’s camp. He gave that to the princess when he had his fill and she greedily chugged it, thanking him but reminding him again of his place saying “not tonight hunter, not so easily."

Sigrunn's Saga II

She moves quickly back behind the ridge line and off the trail to avoid further confrontation. Sigrunn moves with deliberate speed across the rough sloping ground until dusk. She stops to rest at a creek, not knowing the source she chances a drink then scouts out a hide where she can rest for the night. She makes a fire and prays for guidance and with her belly empty she drifts off to sleep beside smoldering embers under a starlit sky.

She dreams of a great wooden castle full of riches and dwarfs and a horrible fat witch with arms that reach four fathoms, ending in heavy square hands with fingers thick and hard as ram ’s horns. The witch chases her about the castle and Sigrunn struggled to escape with a companion whose face she could not see, a man she did not know.

Chains would appear from the darkness at the witches command and snake toward Sigrunn and her friend trying to ensnare them. The witch spat curses at Sigrunn and threatened to "devour her living guts as she watched her die". She could not deter the witch with any brave call or command, and desperate from fatigue she invoked the gods’ names and the witch though bothered continued to hound her. Sigrunn felt a thick chain catch her by her neck and awoke abruptly.

Cricket song filled the warm summer night’s air. Bats soared above silhouetted by the moons soft glow. She sat up and noticed she was bleeding again; the wound, just under her jaw was bleeding scratched open again in her disturbed sleep. She stood thinking it near enough to dawn to get moving again. She lit a torch and put her hand against the wound to staunch the flow. She hung her shield over opposite shoulder which caused her right arm to tire as she trudged on.