Sunday, November 11, 2007

Holiday Monday

I hereby declare this a holiday even if you have to go to work. We'll take it easy at our corner tables. Newspapers, laptops, coffee, tea. Feet up. Cell phones off. Music on. Ahhh. Now this is the proper way to spend Mondays.

32 comments:

Nancy P said...

Veteran's Day was yesterday, but federal employees and some others are off today. So I raise my cup of Monday coffee in a salute to our peace-loving veterans. If you care to identify yourself and your service, please do.

A peaceful and slackerly Monday to all of the civilians, too.

And now I'm off to bed. It's very confusing around here. :)

Family Man said...

Morning Nancy.

I was 20 years in the Air Force. However, during these years I've been retired, I consider myself more of a space cadet. :)

I agree with everything in your post about the corner table, with the exception of feet up. We might get into another discussion of sweat and stinky feet. :~0

AndiF said...

No shoes, no shirt (still in my pjs), no service.

But not only working but going on the road again later today so I've got a road picture for the Monday picture post:

Yep, that flattish area in the bottom center is a road, an abandoned county road.

GhostFolk.com said...

AH, Andif, I love abanonded roads. Wonder if this was a forestry road or lead to a cabin.

Joke, heard this on the radio: The folks picketing on behalf of the writer's strike carried blank placards.

I think it was a joke.

AndiF said...

Hi Ghost. No, it was an actual public county road. Actually it still is -- they've just stopped maintaining (for about 70 years from what I understand).

You'd have a great time around here. We have lots of abandoned roads to old homesites (lots of places were abandoned during 20s and 30s). And even to the abandoned homes themselves.

Family Man said...

What abandoned home Andi. That looks like my house, only in a little better condition.

Larry Kollar said...

Ho-key, since it's a holiday Monday, I'll go on a motorcycle ride.

To the office. :-P

Well, maybe it won't be too rushed today & I'll be able to pop in to see what everyone else is up to. Although if Little Zook had a fresh tire on the back, I'd like to poke down Andi's abandoned road.

katiebird said...

Hi Nancy, FamilyMan, Andi, Ghost & FAR!

Oh, I JUST this second remembered that today's Staff Day at work.

(mumbling)

Nancy P said...

Space cadet, lol! Hat's off to you, Senior Birdman. :)

Hey, andif, ghost, and far. Let's ALL go on the motorcycle ride with far. I'll borrow my neighbor's purty gold Harley. Uh huh.

Andif, thanks for the slew of beauty. The house-that-looks-like-a-barn gives me a shiver. Possibly because I woke up thinking about the murdered family in In Cold Blood. Viewed from today's perspective, they were tragic even before the killers got there. It was a desperately dysfunctional and unhappy family, at least according to how Capote reported on them, and I'm never sure how much of what he ever wrote was true.

Not that you asked. :) I'm living in Irrelevant City this morning.

Nancy P said...

kb,you mean the library's closed but you still have to go in? Well, damn! I don't approve of that at all. We'll save your seat for you at the table.

katiebird said...

Nancy, it's outrageous -- isn't it? A day off is lurking so near....

Nancy P said...

New note posted to Bulletin Board:

Katiebird's blog is back up.

GhostFolk.com said...

Veteran's day.

At the start of the auction I attended yesterday the auctioneer asked veterans present to raise their hands. Ha ha ha.

I said to the fellow standing next to me that, while in the us army, the only times I raised my hand I ended up 1) cooking a goat; and 2) sleeping with cactus.

He said the only time he raised his hand in the army was to hang onto to the edge of a helicopter while they were trying to push him out. I liked his story better.

The military teaches us, among other things, never to raise one's hand no matter what you think you might have heard.

Nancy P said...

So how'd the goat turn out?

Keeping my hands down at my sides today.

GhostFolk.com said...

Figuring light duty and knowing I would get assigned at least one helper, I raised my hand quickly to volunteer to cook (outdoors). You know, with a campfire and a big iron pot.

They brought me a goat on a leash.

At least I dind't have to kill it. I looked around for someone wearing a ranger patch and he was "volunteered" as my ass't.

My entire assignment was to "cook it somehow they don't know it's goat."

Hmmm. I think the hair on the meat was a dead away though. I still have nightmares about little goats in heaven (or elsewhere) waiting to get ahold of me.

Larry Kollar said...

I've heard much the same thing, Ghost, about not volunteering for anything. It certainly explained why none of the vets at church yesterday would volunteer to stand up and talk about their experiences. :-)

boran2 said...

Good morning all. I'm home for the holiday with the b2 boy. He's giving me his usual (cough, cough) cooperation with his homework. This is going to be a long day.

Anonymous said...

Morning (just), everyone! Hanging with my sis today, chatting live instead of IMing. I used to live in the woods of NE Washington, andi, and loved stumbling across old homesteads and roads, trying to imagine who lived there, and why they left. None of ours were as well-preserved as yours, though! Gorgeous pic, as always.

Hope everyone who IS home is enjoying the day off, and those who aren't, are slacking a wee bit.

Goat, ghost? That's enough to make me a vegetarian again!

Good luck, boran - I understand it's the norm these days. Glad I don't have kids...

Kelly McCullough said...

My cats are firmly in agreement about the holiday thing, I've got two in my lap right now and both are quite offended that I keep trying to type around them.

Just you wait, kitties. Soon I'll be awake enough to switch to high production mode and then you can be offended from the floor. That'll show you!

(evil chuckle, followed by sheepish grin as he looks around and notices the audience)

Um, er, that is...Earl Grayer this morning, yum.

(scampers off to get some work done)

Family Man said...

Good luck with the b2 boy Boran. I remember I used to cringe just before I had to start helping my daughter with her homework. The big problem was she was very vocal about not wanting to do homework.

Conda Douglas said...

Since I'm self-employed no day off...although I am indulging in the holiday teas and often raising my cup to all those wonderful, courageous veterans.

My father was a WWII B-17 bomber Captain and a pilot trainer in the Korean war.

Rick Bylina said...

I volunteered once while stationed in Berlin during the holidays for a 24-hour stint. I ended up working a 72 straight hours at a post that couldn't be left unattended for reasons that will fill a chapter in my memoirs. When relieved, I slept for 18 hours.

I do have a nasty habit of still volunteering. I never learn.

Nancy P said...

Hi, all. I'm back from a bookstore coffee shop where I started my 5th (who *is* this masked writer?!) short story of the last three weeks.

Funny goat story, ghost, except for the goat, of course.

Hi, Beth! We miss you, but it's nice you're having a good Sister Time.

Nancy P said...

Kelly, two cats in your lap? That is some peaceable kingdom. Wait, why am I surprised? Have I forgotten when I used to have a mini dachshund and two cats in my lap?

Conda, your dad was quite a guy to have served in both WWII *and* Korea. I wonder if he talked about it, or if he was one of the silent vets.

Nancy P said...

Rick, Berlin, eh? Have you been back since then?

This is quite the well-traveled group of bloggers.

Nancy P said...

Conda, I asked my question about your dad, and then went to your blog, and look what I found there. . .

He almost never spoke of his experiences in WWII, but the couple of times he did, my father's recollections were redolent with detail. The stories were of times that stood out during horrendous minutes, hours and days. With all the five senses described, the smells, sounds, sensations, sights and even the tastes of the experience.

Anonymous said...

My dad was in the Merchant Marines, Navy and Naval Reserve for over 20 years. Korea and WWII on a destroyer. Learned engineering skills that Exxon paid him quite nicely for after he retired from the military. He told great stories, but died before I had the chance to write them down. I'll always regret that.

GhostFolk.com said...

Conda, do you know your dad's bomber group or squadron?

Glad to hear he was a trainer in Korea. That means he made it through the big one. :-)

Beth most destroyers took fire in WWII. You know his ship's name, by any chance?

History only matters to me when it's personal.

Kelly I dreamed a story about cats Friday night. I am still excited by it. I mean a "short story" not just a tale. I woke up saying "I just dreamed a whole story."

Well, not quite whole. But close enough. And it is so original. Nothing I would have thought on my conscious own. That's for sure. :-)

I'll mention it tomorrow. Don't want to clog the blog.

Nancy, 5th story in three weeks!!!! Wow!

'Night all.

Anonymous said...

Ghost, he was on the CK Bronson. That's the only name that my sis and I can remember. I think there were others, but the info is in the cedar trunk, and I'm too lazy to look it up tonight. Thanks for asking.

GhostFolk.com said...

Beth, Your dad rescued George Bush Sr. when his plane was ditched in the sea during the battle of Guam (1944).

From the web: "Verbal accounts recited by Bush biographer Robert Stinnett suggest that Bush and his crew "didn't even get their feet wet" when they were pulled onto the rescue destroyer, the C K Bronson (74). Bush's plane had been loaded with depth charges, making it heavier than a normal Avenger. Even a normally-loaded Avenger didn't stay afloat more than about two minutes, so it's likely Bush's crew that day would have gotten wet before they were in the raft if they had actually gotten out of that water-landed Avenger."

Anonymous said...

Wow - he never mentioned that! But he only told funny stories, not real "war" ones. At least to my sister and me. He was 40 when I was born, so we didn't know him during his military service. And he died in 1992.

Thanks for the info!

Rick Bylina said...

Nancy...I haven't been back to Berlin because I couldn't get a passport for 25 years based on some work I did for one of those three-lettered agencies.

I'm not a fan of Senator Helms (R-NC), but one of the last things he did before leaving the senate was help me get my passport back.

Now, I'd just rather see more of the U.S., four states left - North Dakota, Oregon, Alaska, and Hawaii, and Canada.