Yesterday or so, I received a FB invitation to join the group “Petition To Remove Group ‘Soldiers Are Not Heroes’".  As much as I would love to sign such a petition and am in complete sympathy with those who are disgusted by the group that inspired this, I can not join.

The sacrifice of our military heroes throughout our history purchased, among other things, freedom for the American people.  That includes freedom to be a clueless jackass.  So there is the irony.  The very thing the “Soldiers are not” group is speaking out against is what provided the liberty to speak in the first place.

Thomas Jefferson had it right:  “"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."  Our nation decided this even before it was a nation, and has re-affirmed throughout the centuries since.  I believe this is true, and I believe it is important.

So, I can’t set that aside because I’m suddenly faced with an issue about which I feel personally.  As important as freedom is each person having a code of beliefs that they hold to and act on consistently.

All of that said, the other side of this coin is that those who disagree are also free to speak out with passion.  So, I hope everyone flames the crap out of the “Solders are not” group.

Wow. Got slammed at the end of last week and kind of lost track of online stuff. I’m back.

#SPOLT … meh. Didn’t get 100 lame tweets out as was my goal. But I’m pretty proud of what I did do. As I guessed, all these lame, no value added tweets just blended right in on Twitter. Problem was, I was annoying myself. Seriously. I don’t like to do things that I would find obnoxious. But, I’m keeping the #SPOLT brand and reserve the right to renew my smartassery at any time.

Well, this has been a weekend for taking advantage of the good weather while we still have it. Another playtime today, and Dixie and Shelby were interacting with each other much more … for better or worse. I also updated the album.

On the downside, we have drifted back into the weather zone where my allergies go crazy, so I’ve been battling that since we got back. No complaints though. We are in the midst of a really great stretch of weather. Occasional drugs and drowziness are a small price to pay for this. The leaves are turning now and who knows how soon we’ll be missing these days when we can enjoy long spells outside?

With our increased workload for the audit, it has been a couple weeks since I’ve taken the girls out for a good play session. Fortunately this turned out to be a gorgeous autumn day so we went out to our favorite field and let loose. Also we were please to discover that the road by our place has been connected to the road by the field making out trip over there much shorter. In the past we either had to crawl under the fence or take a lengthy walk around the outskirts of the premises. Check out the new pics

There is a new Diplomacy site out:  PlayDiplomacy.com

A few weeks ago I got into my first game there and I’m really liking it.  The interface is a little more friendly than the old Judge systems, while still allowing for making “mistakes” when giving orders.

The current game is going well.  I’m playing Turkey, my favorite country in the standard Diplomacy game.  We’ve just completed the first year so the alliances haven’t surfaced yet.  Austria has to be the worst country unless you can lock into an ironclad alliance right from the start.  In this case Austria went hunting for supply centers and builds and totally left his home centers exposed.  Italy and I blocked his fall expansion and Russia moved in to Budapest.  The two best things about Diplomacy:  1.  There is absolutely no luck involved.  It’s all … Diplomacy.  This is, by the way, Henry Kissinger’s favorite game.  2. You can’t succeed alone.  You must ally with someone.  This is especially true in the case of Austria.  His bad for trying to go it alone.

I’m on the road for work for a couple of days.  Today I stopped at our youth center in London, KY and had a great visit.  I was happy for the opportunity because that site has always been the “one of these things is not like the others” in our community-based programs.  This was a good opportunity to learn more about what they are doing in London.

I know I’ve discussed this before, but Kentucky’s State Parks ROCK!  Tonight I’m at Jenny Wiley State Park, about as far east as you can go and still be in the Bluegrass State.  And believe me, it’s not just distance.  I drove through mining country and am in the West Virginia posing as Kentucky part of the state.  But, it’s beautiful and interesting here.  This is the fourth State Park that I’ve stayed at and they’ve all been equally awesome.  $53 with AAA card and, unless you’re someone who must have a 5-star hotel, this is as good as any other accommodations you’ll find.  Better IMO as you get to be in the middle of Kentucky’s beauty.  As with Lake Barkley, I step out on my patio and am right on the edge of a river flowing between a series of hills.  I took a picture, but unfortunately after that I discovered that I left my phone charger at home so my phone must stay in power-conservation mode (i.e. off).

Anyway, enough about the park.  Tomorrow I visit our Eastern Region Foster Care office (Sunrise’s largest foster care region) in the morning and then I’m up to our Residential facility in Morehead – the only one of our residential programs that I’ve never visited.

Meanwhile Dixie and Shelby are enjoying getting re-acquainted with their friends at Bluegrass Kennels.  We can’t really figure out how that place has managed to function so long without regular visits from those two!  And what they don’t know is that before I pick them up on Friday we’ll be getting our furniture delivered to the new apartment.  They’ll be very excited to have access to their couch and bed again.

OK, in the last three months I’ve started a new job, moved, participated in a work move (again!), and spent a month and a half on the road, one week at a time.  All good developments, mind you, but exhausting none-the-less.

For a while there, in the thick of the craziness, I considered giving up blogging.  Not much to blog about when you can barely find a moment to think.  But now that things have settled down I once again find my guns loaded at least once each day.

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