Global Warming Update #2

In the spirit of my January 24th entry I give you this . . .

Damn you global warming!!!

Separation

Yesterday I had the opportunity to separate church and state. I did not.

I was asked to give a 30 minute talk to about 75 first graders about what Christmas is like in Ukraine (where I lived for 2 years). Did you get that? What Christmas is like in Ukraine.

I began by teaching them how to greet people in Ukrainian at Christmastime. Translated in English it goes like this:

Me: "Boys and girls, Christ is born!"

They respond: "Glorify Him!"

Nice.

I made sure they knew the holy Christmas dinner began after the first star was seen to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem. Straw is spread around and on the table to remember Christ was born in a stable. And, an extra plate is placed on the table for Christ to partake should He come.

With all of the "Up on the rooftops . . . " and " I saw mommy kissing Santa Clauses" and "Frosty the Snowmans" that there should be some "Boh Prednivechnys" (God Eternal).

Vospetye Yevo! (Glorify Him!)

O Holy Crap!

I stole that title from Steve at the Sneeze.com [language warning] for this entry.

There is a version of O Holy Night out there that gives me the willies and makes me smile at the same time. You can download an mp3 of it here, or listen to it streaming at thesneeze.com.

I can't say anything better than Steve did about this rendition, so I'll close with these words from him, "What I love about it is just when you think it couldn't possibly get any worse, it does. By a lot. And it does this more than once, building to the most glorious mess I've ever heard. I smile every time I hear it."

What he means by that is this: listen to the whole thing. When you think you absolutely must turn it off, don't. Keep listening.

Happy Birthday Mom

On the 8th was Kathleen Linnea Eriksson Ashton's 65th birthday. I kept it a low key celebration--mostly to myself with a few mentions of it to my wife and son. She passed away on February 15th, 1996 at age 53. I love you mom. Happy Birthday.

Front Sight Update

The handgun course was great . . . amazing. Anyone with a gun should go and get training like this.

As a quick update, I did not shoot myself, but someone else did while I was there. He is a sheriff's deputy from California and was cheating his way through a safety proceedure. He ended up shooting himself in the leg. Dummy.

Solace

66 years ago today maked the attack on Pearl Harbor. While I was looking at pictures of that day of infamy, I ran across this one in color of the USS Arizona's forward magazines exploding.

I wondered about the picture and where it came from. It turns out it is a still from a color motion picture taken from the USS Solace who was also there in Pearl Harbor, anchored just astern of the Nevada.

I had never heard of this ship before and was interested in how it could be filming this while everyone was scrambling.

It turns out the Solace was a hospital ship used as far back as the Spanish American War that took on the most dangerously injured sailors. As a hospital ship it didn't make any offensive action against the Japanese attackers, but immediately went after those in the water needing rescue.

Here is a personal account of Bob Addobati who was on the Solace during the attack. Here is the official report on the attack and the Solace's actions that day. Today, let's remember all the heroes of that day whether on the Arizona, Utah, Oklahoma, or little-known ships such as the Solace.

Sinterklaas

Some time between last night and this morning our family was visited by Sinterklaas. That's the beauty of having family from recent decent from different lands. You get all of those family traditions that make for fun (and extended) holiday seasons.

My son Turner made sure to leave a carrot, apple, and some celery in his shoes by the door for Americo, Sinterklaas' white horse. He knows the drill . . . leave a treat for the horse, get a treat in return.

He knows the night of Sinterklaas and Black Pete's visit even better than my wife does. She called me at work and asked for the date. When I told her, Turner said, "I told you so." To be a kid at Christmas again . . .