Christmas Eve in Kandahar / HOW THE GRINCH STOLE THE SEABEES GRAVEL

Christmas Eve in Kandahar, Afghanistan - When I took on this gig, I had planned that I would be here for the holidays.

It may still be December 23rd back home, but here, it is already December 24th.

I posted this a while back and it bears posting again. It was the first time I was away from home on Christmas.  Enjoy and Merry Christmas Eve !!

HOW THE GRINCH STOLE THE SEABEES GRAVEL...A Seabee Christmas story from Iraq in 2004

 8 years ago, I was in Iraq with the Seabees - It was Christmas and we were doing the job we were assigned -
Helping rebuild Iraq.

One of the things we needed more than anything else was GRAVEL - It was needed to firm up the muddy areas and allow construction to occur -

No Gravel - No ability to build - A big problem -

On Christmas Eve, I sent this to all my fellow Seabees -

It was my way of getting them to see that Christmas was a time for us to be thankful for all we have and to allow the season to make our hearts light...Being away from home and staioned in Iraq was a tough assignment, but we could make sure that Christmas was still the day that we celebrate the birth of our Savior...

I share this with you in that same spirit - I have much to be thankful for -

I have my wife, who is the best part of my life. I have good family, good friends and a faith that we have been blessed by the LORD.

I hope that all of you enjoy Christmas, Hanukkah and the Holidays and take stock of what we have been given.....We have all been blessed.

Middleboro Jones

HOW THE GRINCH STOLE THE SEABEES GRAVEL
by Dr Seuss (with help from Middleboro Jones)
Every Seabee
Down in Seabee-ville
Liked Gravel a lot...

But the Grinch,
Who lived just North of Seabee-ville,
Did NOT!

The Grinch hated Gravel!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be that his head wasn't screwed on quite right.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.

But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

But,
Whatever the reason,
His heart or his shoes,
He stood there on Christmas Eve, hating the Seabees,

Staring down from his cave with a sour, Grinchy frown
At the warm lighted windows below in their town.
For he knew every Seabee down in Seabee-ville beneath
Was busy now, working on their CESE.

"And they're waiting on a convoy!" he snarled with a sneer.
"Tomorrow they’ll expect more gravel ! It's practically here!"

Then he growled, with his grinch fingers nervously drumming,
"I MUST find a way to keep Gravel from coming!"

For, tomorrow, he knew...

...All the Seabees
Would wake up bright and early.
And then! Oh, the noise! Oh, the noise! Noise! Noise! Noise!
That's one thing he hated! The NOISE! NOISE! NOISE! NOISE!

Then the Seabeess, young and old, would sit down to a feast.
And they'd feast! And they'd feast!
And they'd FEAST! FEAST! FEAST! FEAST!
They would start on Seabee-pudding, and rare Seabee-roast-beast
Which was something the Grinch couldn't stand in the least!

And the more the Grinch thought of the Seabee gravel coming
The more the Grinch thought, "I must stop this whole thing!
"Why for many years I've put up with it now!
I MUST stop Gravel from coming!
...But HOW?"

Then he got an idea!
An awful idea!
THE GRINCH
GOT A WONDERFUL, AWFUL IDEA!

"I know just what to do!" The Grinch Laughed in his throat.
And he made a quick Santy Claus hat and a coat.
And he chuckled, and clucked, "What a great Grinchy trick!
"With this coat and this hat, I'll look just like Saint Nick!"

"All I need is a reindeer..."
The Grinch looked around.
But since reindeer are scarce, there was none to be found.
Did that stop the old Grinch...?
No! The Grinch simply said,
"If I can't find a reindeer, I'll make one instead!"

So he called his dog Max. Then he took some red thread
And he tied a big horn on top of his head.

THEN
He loaded some bags
And some old empty sacks
On a ramshakle sleigh
And he hitched up old Max.

Then the Grinch said, "Giddyap!"

And the sleigh started down
Toward the hooches where the Seabees
Lay a-snooze in their hooches.

All their windows were dark. Quiet snow filled the air.
All the Seabees were all dreaming sweet gravel dreams without care

When he came to the first house in the square.
"This is stop number one," The old Grinchy Claus hissed

Then he slunk to the icebox. He took the Seabeess' feast!
He took the Seabee-pudding! He took the roast beast!
He cleaned out that icebox as quick as a flash.
Why, that Grinch even took their last can of Seabee-hash!

Then he stuffed all the food up the chimney with glee.
"And NOW!" grinned the Grinch, "I will make sure no gravel arrives…

And the Grinch grabbed the DSN line, and started to call

When he heard a small sound like the coo of a dove.
He turned around fast, and he saw a small Seabee!
Little Seabee Burke, who was not more than 22.

The Grinch had been caught by this little Seabee daughter
Who'd got out of bed for a cup of cold water.
She stared at the Grinch and said, "Santy Claus, why,
"Why are you taking our Gravel? WHY?"

But, you know, that old Grinch was so smart and so slick
He thought up a lie, and he thought it up quick!

"Why, my sweet little Seabee," the fake Santy Claus lied,
"There's a stone in this gravel, that’s sharp on one side.
"So I'm taking it home to my workshop, my dear.
"I'll fix it up there. Then I'll bring gravel back here."

And his fib fooled the Seabee. Then he patted her head
And he got her a drink and he sent her to bed.
And when Seabee Burke went to bed with her cup,
He went to DSN line and called the gravel convoy off!

Then the last thing he took
Was the log for their fire.
Then he went up the chimney himself, the old liar.
On their walls he left nothing but hooks, and some wire.

And the one speck of food
That he left in the house
Was a crumb that was even too small for a mouse.

Then
He did the same thing
To the other Seabees

Leaving crumbs
Much too small
For the other Seabees' mouses!

It was quarter past dawn...
All the Seabees, still a-bed
All the Seabees, still a-snooze
When he packed up his sled,
Packed it up with their gravel!

"Pooh-pooh to the Seabees!" he was grinch-ish-ly humming.
"They're finding out now that no gravel coming!
"They're just waking up! I know just what they'll do!
"Their mouths will hang open a minute or two
"The all the Seabeess down in Seabee-ville will all cry BOO-HOO!"

"That's a noise," grinned the Grinch,
"That I simply must hear!"
So he paused. And the Grinch put a hand to his ear.
And he did hear a sound rising over the snow.
It started in low. Then it started to grow...

But the sound wasn't sad!
Why, this sound sounded merry!
It couldn't be so!
But it WAS merry! VERY!

He stared down at Seabee-ville!
The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook!
What he saw was a shocking surprise!

Every Seabee down in Seabee-ville, the tall and the small,
Was working! Without any gravel at all!
He HADN'T stopped gravel from coming!
IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?
It came from the country of Jordan, not local at all,

Those damn Seabees didn’t have to go that far after all!

And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe gravel," he thought, "doesn't come from a Marshalling area.
"Maybe gravel...perhaps...means a little bit more!"

And what happened then...?
Well...in Seabee-ville they say
That the Grinch's small heart
Grew three sizes that day!

And the minute his heart didn't feel quite so tight,
He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light
And he brought back the gravel! And the food for the feast!
And he...

...HE HIMSELF...!
The Grinch carved the roast beast!

God Bless us, everyone

Some words never are out of sync with what all should focus on this time of year and all year.... A moment of relection on what is important at Christmas


“And how did little Tim behave?” asked Mrs Cratchit, when she had rallied Bob on his credulity and Bob had hugged his daughter to his heart’s content.

“As good as gold,” said Bob, “and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.”

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!”  - Ebeneezer Scrooge

" God Bless us, everyone !!" - Tiny Tim

― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

and I liked this picture I found on the web......cooooool

Blogger.com is having issues / Christmas is coming

For some reason, my blog pages have been displayed oddly over the last few days - It comes up like normal on my IPAD but looks like CRAP on my work PC.  I tried a few fixes but so far " no joy" has been called.

In the meantime, I am getting ready for Christmas, as much as we can have Christmas here in the shitewilds of Afghanistan......Listening to Christmas music while here makes me feel special and thankful for all my blessings.

I found this pic online the other day and it gave me a big smile.....I sooooo want to decorate my bus like this someday ( when she is up and running - and of course, when I am home to dirve it at Christmas time)

For today, I can share it with you and hope it makes you smile too

The Reason for the Season

A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL...May you find what you need in family, friends and all the best gifts each of us have been given.

Where Are You Christmas

This is a great cover of Faith Hill's " Where Are You Christmas ?". I tried to find the original version to imbed but was unsuccessful. This song is one of the newer Christmas songs that I enjoy as it speaks to those who may having difficulty at this time of year. I was overseas for Christmas in 2004 & 2009 and this song makes me think about those years where I was away and having trouble getting into the Spirit of the Season.

Merry Christmas to all who are away from home and especially to those who are serving in our military as we appreciate all you do all year long.

Holidays come early for RED SOX fans

Valentine's Day came early for Boston Red Sox fans....Training camp will be opening in about 75 days or so....Like most years, 2012 will be an interesting year for the faithful fans of Fenway. Red Sox baseball can wait a few months as the team needs to do some rebuilding with the fans...Like any other season, high hopes are on the horizon.

For now, let's cheer on the New England Patriots and the Boston Bruins...They deserve their time in the sun, and Baseball will be back in Spring.

And the hits just keep on coming....2 million lose jobless benefits as holidays arrive

While there is no "good" time for this to happen, the timing of this is tough to take...I can't imagine what it must be like to be out on benefits for 99 weeks and then see it run out....No one would want to be in these shoes.

I was laid off in 2009 for 5 months and it was hell....Work in Afghanistan was the answer for me....not the ideal answer mind you but it did "right my ship" and allow me to get back on the right fiscal track....

I tell others that I had a choice between unemployment & Afghanistan and I took the AFGHN answer.....tough decisions for tough times....UGH....when will it get back to what we used to call " normal "?



2 million lose jobless benefits as holidays arrive
By TOM BREEN, Associated Press

Tom Breen, Associated Press – 12/01/10

Extended unemployment benefits for nearly 2 million Americans begin to run out Wednesday, cutting off a steady stream of income and guaranteeing a dismal holiday season for people already struggling with bills they cannot pay.

Unless Congress changes its mind, benefits that had been extended up to 99 weeks will end this month.

That means Christmas is out of the question for Wayne Pittman, 46, of Lawrenceville, Ga., and his wife and 9-year-old son. The carpenter was working up to 80 hours a week at the beginning of the decade, but saw that gradually drop to 15 hours before it dried up completely. His last $297 check will go to necessities, not presents.

"I have a little boy, and that's kind of hard to explain to him," Pittman said.

The average weekly unemployment benefit in the U.S. is $302.90, though it varies widely depending on how states calculate the payment. Because of supplemental state programs and other factors, it's hard to know for sure who will lose their benefits at any given time. But the Labor Department estimates that, without a Congress-approved extension, about 2 million people will be cut off by Christmas.

Congressional opponents of extending the benefits beyond this month say fiscal responsibility should come first. Republicans in the House and Senate, along with a handful of conservative Democrats, say they're open to extending benefits, but not if it means adding to the $13.8 trillion national debt.

Even if Congress does lengthen benefits, cash assistance is at best a stopgap measure, said Carol Hardison, executive director of Crisis Assistance Ministry in Charlotte, N.C., which has seen 20,000 new clients since the Great Recession started in December 2007.

"We're going to have to have a new conversation with the people who are still suffering, about the potentially drastic changes they're going to have to make to stay out of the homeless shelter," she said.

Forget Christmas presents. What the so-called "99ers" want most of all is what remains elusive in the worst economy in generations: a job.

"I am not searching for a job, I am begging for one," said Felicia Robbins, 30, as she prepared to move out of a homeless shelter in Pensacola, Fla., where she and her five children have been living. She is using the last of her cash reserves, about $500, to move into a small, unfurnished rental home.

Robbins lost her job as a juvenile justice worker in 2009 and her last $235 unemployment check will arrive Dec. 13. Her 10-year-old car isn't running, and she walks each day to the local unemployment office to look for work.

Jeanne Reinman, 61, of Greenville, S.C., still has her house, but even that comes with a downside.

After losing her computer design job a year and a half ago, Reinman scraped by with her savings and a weekly $351 unemployment check. When her nest egg vanished in July, she started using her unemployment to pay off her mortgage and stopped paying her credit card bills. She recently informed a creditor she couldn't make payments on a loan because her benefits were ending.

"I'm more concerned about trying to hang onto my house than paying you," she told the creditor.

Ninety-nine weeks may seem like a long time to find a job. But even as the economy grows, jobs that vanished in the Great Recession have not returned. The private sector added about 159,000 jobs in October — half as many as needed to reduce the unemployment rate of 9.6 percent, which the Federal Reserve expects will hover around 9 percent for all of next year.

"I apply for at least two jobs a day," said Silvia Lewis, of Nashville, Tenn., who's also drained her 401(k) and most of her other savings. "The constant thing that I hear, and a lot of my friends are in the same boat, is that you're overqualified."

JoAnn Sampson of Charlotte hears the same thing. A former cart driver at U.S. Airways, she and her husband are both facing the end of unemployment benefits, and she can't get so much as an entry-level job.

"When you try to apply for retail or fast food, they say 'You're overqualified,' they say 'We don't pay that much money,' they say, 'You don't want this job,'" she said.

Sampson counts her blessings: At least her two children, a teenager and a college student, are too old to expect much from Christmas this year.

Shawn Slonsky's three children aren't expecting much either. The 44-year-old union electrician in northeast Ohio won't be able to afford presents or even a Christmas tree.

His sons and daughter haven't bothered to send him holiday wish lists with the latest gizmos and gadgets.

Things used to be different. Before work dried up, Slonsky earned about $100,000 a year and he and his wife lived in a three-bedroom house where deer meandered through the backyard. For Christmas, he bought his aspiring doctor daughter medical books, a guitar, a unicycle.

Then he and his wife lost their jobs. Their house went into foreclosure and they had to move in with his 73-year-old father.

Now, Slonsky is dreading the holidays as he tries to stretch his last unemployment check to cover child support, gas, groceries and utilities.

"You don't even get in the frame of mind for Christmas when things are bad," he said. "It's hard to be in a jovial mood all the time when you've got this storm cloud hanging over your head."

___

This report includes contributions from Associated Press writers Meg Kinnard, in Columbia, S.C.; Ray Henry, in Atlanta; Melissa Nelson, in Pensacola, Fla.; Lucas L. Johnson II in Nashville, Tenn.; and Jeannie Nuss in Columbus, Ohio

Holiday Season in full swing along with Drunk Drivers....at the scene of an arrest for DWI just down the street from my house last night

No lack of action in my neck of the woods...last night about 22:30 hours, a knucklehead drunk driver came down the road and managed to run off the road. In doing so he plowed into a space between a telephone pole and a wire stanchion, hooking the bumper of his truck on the wires...

The initial crash awakened me as I was just dozing off and then the sound of the guy trying to work his truck off the wires got me outta bed and outside just as a Police Car showed up on the scene....The guy was still trying to extricate his truck off the pole when the cop got out of his cruiser and ordered the guy out of his truck with his weapon drawn. The guy obeyed the cop and got out....He was placed under arrest but asked to be taken to the hospital....what an idjit.

Enclosed are pics from the scene....a local developer wants to stack 70 units of housing into an old factory site across the street in the next year which would overcrowd the area....Last night's stupidity is a good example of the reason why until the town fixes the issues on my street,(speeding, bad road surface, lack of traffic plan) adding many more units of housing here would be a disaster.

Also, just a general reminder - Take it slow out there and for God's sake, and for the sake of your fellow man, if you have a drink, DON'T DRIVE.

The life you save might be your own or more importantly, that of an innocent person who happens to get in your line-of-fire....There is no justification for this type of stupidity.