Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The things that hit you when you least expect it

I was talking with some friends at work and they were amazed that I'm 45 and a smidge. I take solace in the fact that my sister is 46 and a touch this month. Thanks to learning to drink at an early age (thanks 981st MP Co for that education lol) I'm well preserved. Okay part of it has to do with my Irish and Comanche genes.

Most of my friends at work are 25 and under. We discussed the things I've seen in 45 years. Keep in mind that for some of this I was just a wee bairn and don't recall much. And again thanks to that drinking education (ahem 981st, Hooah) I don't recall all of it but here goes the list. Since 1966...man (read human beings) reached space, the moon, (via technogy even further),American Soldiers have died in Vietnam, Greneda, Lebannon, Panama, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, American Soldiers in Bosnia, Macedonia, Hiati, the Mogadishu Mile as run by the 75th Ranger Battalion, "Black Hawk Down",  Bombs in Tripoli in 86 and current, Women were once WAC's, Women are now fighter zoomies, fly attack helicopters, are General's and Upper echelon NCO's, the Berlin wall was built and fell, I've lived through LBJ, Nixon (I still recall the hearings but only cause they interrupted my afternoon cartoons), Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush jr and Obama.

I was a teenager when video games sprang forth. Yes we had an Atari game console. I was a freshman in high school when MTV began and actually played music video's. Racer X was kewl, Superman was king, Mission Impossible was number one in tv ratings. I was a freshman when John Lennon was assasinated. I grew up with the Beatles, Petula Clarke, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, HeeHaw, Freddy Fender (who according to family legend picked onions in my grandfather's onion field as a young man and still sang back then), Dukes of Hazard, Chips, Swat, Cagney and Lacey, Hill Street Blues. Queen hit the airwaves, the second British invasion of music, U2 emerged. Diana married a Prince.

The space shuttle came and exploded twice, oil embargo and lines at the gas station. Cigarettes were .75 cents a pack. Gas was a dollar a gallon. The cold war was at full speed and then the Soviet State imploded. The Irish Rebublican Army survived even as the British closed in, and then took the war to the English land. The Irish Republican Army imprisoned men and women then went on the hunger strike and dared anyone to look away. The Soviet might invaded Afghanistan, the Olympic Miracle on Ice, Punk Rock, Disco, Pop, 80s music, Milli Vanilli, MLK honored, A Stone wall for Vietnam vets created by a woman who was Vietnamese, Cuban refugees. A Woman's Place in the House in Texas (we still miss you Ann Richards),

Oil spill at Prince William Sound. The ERA (equal rights amendment) failed but raised enough awareness that women fought back loudly, Gay rights began at a small hole in the wall in NY, Ford was saved from a bullet by a gay man, Roe v. Wade guaranteed women rights over their own bodies, Harvey Milk and Mayor Masconni (spelling not my strong suit) assassinated, the Twinkie defense emerges, Did I mention this would not be in order? Super sonic jet airlines, DB Cooper, Hijackers killing a navy man, hijackers killing a man in a wheel chair, Mengele's body finally id'd in Buenos Aires, killing fields in Uganda, Cambodia, Loas, fragmentation of the African Continent, Apartied in South Africa fell because of a man named Nelson Mandela, The Aquino's in the Phillipines rallied a nation against its dictators, anyone remember his and her name? I don't.

Noriega learned to hate Gun's and Rose's. Three popes, priests who've abused children and have gotten away with it, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gayce, The Green River killer, Manson and his followers and all their pleas for mercy.

The twin towers in 93, Waco and the Koresh Compound, Oklahoma City, 9/11, anti government malitias, NRA, gun control, concealed weapons in Texas, politics for money or money for politicians take your pick, Geraldine Ferraro, corporations bargaining for tax abatements and being granted those, Nafta (what a jacked up idea that was) the dot com boom, the credit and building craze and fall, Enron (total fail) Ponzi schemes, Sarin gas in Japan. Katrina, Ike now Irene.

And my special favorite two...the Texas Tech women basketball team winning the national championship. Saying in person, goodbye and thank you to Coach Marsha Sharp after 24 years of just plain good fun and classy basketball teams, in victory and defeat she and her girls were all class. After Katrina she opened her own house to the girls and coaches of Tulane University (and Tech the dorms with the rest of the TTU bball girls). It says something as you retire each road team you visit wear t shirts thanking you.

I'm sure there's more I've forgotten, I'm sure I'll remember more. What have you seen in your lifetime on this earth?


Thursday, August 18, 2011

Ahh life is good

Allison is back home. For the first time in ten days I can sleep without reaching across the bed and wake up thinking "where'd she go?"

It occurred to me that I love having my life entwined with another. The woman's a saint, she puts up with me, she encourages me, she makes me laugh (and people think she's the quiet one in the family. Ha.), she helps take care of her family and mine.

I also realized how lucky I am. My in laws are fantastic. I sent my mother in law a get well bunch of flowers and it came with a stuffed bear. I mean who doesn't like teddy bears. So mom called and thanked me for the thought and the gift, I told her that they had to name said bear.

Allison called me the following day with the name update. After much consideration and odd looks my father in law officially named the bear. His name is now Robear. I should point out that Allison and mom and dad call me Ro. I honestly wish I could have seen dad's face when the lightbulb turned on. I do have to say I know where Allison got her quirky sense of humor.