I Had To Post This

I received this from a friend via email & decided to include it here. The formatting doesn't quite work, but the story deserves the space - properly formatted or not.

It's called - Will you give this to my Daddy?

As a Company, Southwest Airlines is going to support 'Red Fridays.'

Last week I was in Atlanta, Georgia attending a conference. While I was in the
airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen.

Moving thru the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camos. As they began heading to their gate, everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering.

When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for, it hit me I'm not alone. I'm not theonly red-blooded American who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families.

Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who
are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work and home without fear or reprisal.

Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of ourservice men and women, a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers. He kneeled down and said 'hi.'

The little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her.

The young soldier, who didn't look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her daddy. Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and thenkissed him on the cheek.

The mother of the little girl, who said her daughter's name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As themom was explaining how much her daughter Courtney missed her father, the
young soldier began to tear up.

When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military-looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it.

After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney,
bent down and said this to her, 'I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you. He thenhugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Hefinished by saying 'your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more thananything and he is coming home very soon.'

The mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet, he saluted Courtney and her mom. I was standing no more than 6feet away from this entire event.

As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of selflessness, turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.

We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank
God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it's good to be an American.

'Just Do It'

I like to take advantage of certain TV nights (American Idol? gimme a break!) & write or edit. I started the night with the best of intentions but allowed myself to be drawn into visiting some of my favorite blog sites. Now it's almost 10PM & I've accomplished nothing. The whole day was one of those kind of blah, torturously long, boring days - nothin' much goin' on. To start with, I overslept. Only a handful of guys showed up at the job, no visitors, felt lousy this afternoon. I was stressed out for absolutely no reason & kinda crashed when I got home (OK I DID read for an hour). Maybe I'm just getting lazy (or old). My book (the title keeps changing - another source of annoyance) is soooooo damn close to being 110% but I can't seem to make that last push to wrap up my part of the editing. It's been like that for 2 weeks.

Guess I'll have to lock myself away for 2 days &, as Mr Nike would say, 'Just Do It'.

When Schedules Get Screwy

My real job requires me to be a scheduling freak. Sequence - order - deadlines. Lots of parts & pieces to move around the board all to be used to assemble a finished product - in my case buildings. I get to SEE the progress each day as the project takes shape, so there's a certain amount of instant gratification. When we hit bumps, such as weather, equipment delays, AWOL workers, etc, everything gets reworked, tightened up & jockeyed around. The end dates never change. I've been doing this long enough that this doesn't really phase me. (Never let 'em see ya sweat!) I'm finishing a project now. Made lots of money. Done in plenty of time. Happy client. A cakewalk. Friday was going to be a cruise control kind of day.

AND THEN THURSDAY AFTERNOON HAPPENED.... Tomorrow's schedule - is all screwed up. How did this happen? Somehow I now have 3 meetings in the morning - 2 at the same time (in different places, no less), 1 is with the owner of the company that I work for - just him n' me. Guess which meeting I won't be missing. The architect emailed me TONIGHT that he & his team will be on my project tomorrow AM. I won't be there. The building inspector will be on site for 2 inspections. Requested him for afternoon - he's taking 1/2 a day off tomorrow so he'll be there in the AM. I won't be there. Busted my butt preparing a presentation (a few days in advance so I wouldn't work on the weekend), finished it this afternoon - 20 minutes before a notice by email that that meeting has now been postponed. Tomorrow I will have to fit 2 days into 1.

Friday Cruise Control - set at 95 mph.

MR MOM? YEAH RIGHT!

I think I was a pretty good dad. My 2 boys received plenty of love, attention, assistance (& so called loans - HA!), guidance, practical training, job help &, when they needed it, discipline. That being said, I rarely changed a diaper (maybe 6 times in my life?) or spoon fed them their meals (how tedious is that?). On a few occasions I may have helped get them into their little snowsuits, but mostly because we were inside a warm house while this was being done & the first one dressed would always get hot & start getting cranky waiting for Bro' to be ready. (Sweating toddlers in January!) So, I wasn't a good Mr Mom. Sue me. Now I will add, in my who cares what you think anyway defense, that my wonderful wife did not work outside of the home going way back to, uhmm, before we were married. I suspect that I would have changed more diapers than I did had this not been the case, but I still woulda hated it. What I DID enjoy, other than reaching in to blast them with cold water from the shower as they got their baths, was telling stories at bedtime. The game was on when The Big Dog Daddy said "GO". The little guys would give me a topic (usually something off the wall) & I had 30 seconds to make up a tale that would last 10 or 15 minutes. Somehow, even though the stories were totally made up in my head, one of the little smart a$$e$ would tell me I left a part out - leaving me no choice but to tickle them into submission - or until Mommy had to get them dry PJs.

Bloody Beach Tags

Crazy Weekend! Great Weather! The Bud Shootout yesterday in Daytona - go Junior! Spent this morning working in the mulch beds (that sucked) & then ran around town (which was cool). We hung out at Anastasia Island State Park where Deb took some great photos, & then bought our beach tags for my truck & her Durango. We met (I tried to get away) a couple who knew all of "the best spots" in town - all based on happy hour prices. "2 Sapphire martinis for $6 @ such n' such".... There's nothing like a pair of overtanned shriveled lushes. I don't like martinis anyway.

One of our favorite things is hanging out at the beach. Here we're allowed to drive on the beach. We buy passes (beach tags) for the season for $30 per vehicle. No season pass? - it's $5 per visit, so we save about ..... $500. Probably. Best 60 bucks spent every year. Besides the obvious convenience, we're able to haul whatever we want & set up in minutes. No lugging. This means we have lots of cookouts AND I can bring my DC adapter. I set up a table & run an extension cord from the vehicle power outlet to my laptop & I can write or edit on that pure white sand.

On today's down side - I've been wanting to stop & check out a place called the Matanzas Innlet Restaurant (yes - double n). Deb's been saying nah for 2 years, but today she reluctantly agreed. I thought it would be relaxing to sit waterside & enjoy a Bloody Mary. Sheesh. What a waste. 12 Bucks for a cheap mixer on ice, the vodka obviously forgotten. Our waitress never checked back with us so I had to take the empty glasses to the bar to pay my tab (& escape). The Owner, a real gem with an attytood, took my cash. I wanted to ask how much the drinks would be if booze was included but decided it best to get outta that grungy hole. On the plus side, I didn't order food. The experience, on the whole, sucked more than weeding mulch beds.

Tick Tock

I've been hit with a barrage of reminders these last couple of days about my advancing age (51 BTW). My company will turn 25 in early March so they want everyone to submit something about ourselves describing where we were & what we were doing 25 years ago. Hmmm... I was crisscrossing the country in commercial airliners as a 27 year old running 7 construction projects spread between New Mexico & Virginia, while living in Kansas City with my wife (age deleted) & 2 kids (then 3 & 7) & a Collie puppy named Casey (now deceased). Whew - Holy Run ON Sentence Batman! I spoke with a former co-worker today, never asked how he got my number. He was a wet behind the ears kid way back when & now he's 40 with 2 kids in HS. Then there's the kids I coached in baseball & football that are now in their mid 30's with kids, mortgages and, in some cases, their own businesses. I got a few emails from my niece Ryane today - seems like she was a baby just yesterday. She was with us a lot while growing up & knows "stuff" about us crazies (good "stuff" - I think). Now she's finished with college & living on the opposite coast of Florida with her boyfriend - similarly named minus the 'e'. (That name thing's got to be a challenge - but it beats Otto, his Dad's first choice.) Thinking back, & I guess that's what old folks do, there have been so many adventures - so many people -so many stories & lots of hard work. Highs & Lows - but mostly highs. Great marriage, great kids. We've been blessed. Geez - A lot has been crammed into this life so far. That's pretty cool. It's never been dull. Hey - maybe I'll be asked to submit something for the 50th anniversary "Where Were You" question! (Duh! The answer will be the same if I can remember!) On 2nd thought - that'll mean I'm still working at 76 - fugghettaboudit.

The Perfect Rainy Day

Today was a chilly 58 degrees with on & off rain. Not a beach forecast but great for writing. After a noon visit to my favorite local 'joint' The South Beach Grill where my favorite bartender Eddie, hooked me up with one of his superior Bloody Marys while I ordered lunch 'to go' (Blackened shrimp tacos & a Breakers Salad with Mahi), I finally settled in to do some serious work. I edited some later chapters of my 'completed' MS (it's always possible to find something to tweak) & then cranked out almost 2 chapters of my 2nd MS (1st draft) - another YA adventure. I have a general idea where book 2 will go but I've not written an outline. Many writers like to outline their story before starting on the first draft & try to stick with the plot & character plan. Maybe that works, I dunno. My preference is to let the story flow & work itself out as I go with a special emphasis on building the characters & scenes. It may require more severe edits & rewrites from the initial draft but I don't mind re-working. Comparing copies of draft files with the more polished versions is pretty cool since you get to see how the work improves from one draft to another. Time to call it a day (past midnight despite the blog clock). Kinda hopin' it rains again tomorrow - & Eddie's Bloody Marys are $2 off on Sunday.