Thursday, February 26, 2004
Who wants some Catch Up?
I started to write this yesterday, but was having a bad case of 'Monday on Wednesday', and accidentally lost the whole thing. Some actual real work was by then SHOUTING my name (and using the full proper legal version, which as a mom I know means YOU BETTER LISTEN UP!) so I back-burnered it until now.
Recent spammer names too good to just delete: Apportions M Semaphores, Acupuncturist E. Extremity
Let's see, where was I? Oh, yes....
More about the concert: An LJ friend of mine said to me, "I didn't even know the Air Force Academy had touring musical groups. ^_^ "
I didn't either! But they do, TEN of them! They really cover the waterfront (or should that be air space?) in genres, from jazz and rock to various forms of basically classical type ensembles. Plus of course the marching band.
This is Wild Blue Country, the band we heard. I was impressed by the quality of musical ability--there's no doubt any of these guys could get at LEAST back-up work in Nashville any time they wanted--and maybe an actual contract. You can judge for yourself if you click on the Multi Media tab to the right--free downloads! (Your tax dollars at work....) I recommend "Air Force Blue(grass), and not just because I like the name.
You may be wondering WHY the AFA has all these musical ensembles. One reason is recruitment--they do concerts at schools a lot, looks like. I guess another reason might be public morale building, pep up people's patriotism and all that. Which I'm okay with, actually, so long as they are singing things like "I Am An American Soldier" and not "God Bless Good Ol' Dubya" or some such.
It seems to me patriotism and Christianity have something in common. They take a terrible beating in general public goodwill because of the behavior and attitude of the extremists who insist that ONLY their extreme version of these beliefs is the right one.
Which brings me around to something that happened Tuesday. I got a call from a lady who identified herself as D's grandmother. D (initialized for privacy purposes) is a classmate of Mike's. He's been mentioned here before--the instigator of the little food fight last Friday at the school cafeteria. He's the class clown type, often in minor trouble, but a nice kid, and he quite likes Mike, which makes him aces with me.
He hadn't been able to come to Mike's party, but he'd gotten him a present anyway, The grandmother and I worked out logistics, and so Mike and I drove to their house while I was in town running my errands. As we approached, I gasped, because people were hanging yellow plastic tape at the address we were looking for, and for a second I thought it was yellow crime scene tape.
But no, when we got out I saw it was just yellow plastic ribbon going on around the trees. D gave Mike his present and we chatted a bit. Thrashing around for a good general conversation topic with the grandmother, I said, "I like your ribbons."
Her lip started to tremble. "I just found out my solider-boy is coming home," she said, and started to tear up as she added, "I haven't seen him in over a year."
If you know me at all, you know I am sappier than Vermont in early spring, so you won't be surprised this made ME get all teary-eyed. So I gave this woman I never even met a big long hug, and babbled something that probably made no sense. Then I drove away, thinking some very complicated thoughts as I tried to give Mike a simple explanation about it all....
Recent spammer names too good to just delete: Apportions M Semaphores, Acupuncturist E. Extremity
Let's see, where was I? Oh, yes....
More about the concert: An LJ friend of mine said to me, "I didn't even know the Air Force Academy had touring musical groups. ^_^ "
I didn't either! But they do, TEN of them! They really cover the waterfront (or should that be air space?) in genres, from jazz and rock to various forms of basically classical type ensembles. Plus of course the marching band.
This is Wild Blue Country, the band we heard. I was impressed by the quality of musical ability--there's no doubt any of these guys could get at LEAST back-up work in Nashville any time they wanted--and maybe an actual contract. You can judge for yourself if you click on the Multi Media tab to the right--free downloads! (Your tax dollars at work....) I recommend "Air Force Blue(grass), and not just because I like the name.
You may be wondering WHY the AFA has all these musical ensembles. One reason is recruitment--they do concerts at schools a lot, looks like. I guess another reason might be public morale building, pep up people's patriotism and all that. Which I'm okay with, actually, so long as they are singing things like "I Am An American Soldier" and not "God Bless Good Ol' Dubya" or some such.
It seems to me patriotism and Christianity have something in common. They take a terrible beating in general public goodwill because of the behavior and attitude of the extremists who insist that ONLY their extreme version of these beliefs is the right one.
Which brings me around to something that happened Tuesday. I got a call from a lady who identified herself as D's grandmother. D (initialized for privacy purposes) is a classmate of Mike's. He's been mentioned here before--the instigator of the little food fight last Friday at the school cafeteria. He's the class clown type, often in minor trouble, but a nice kid, and he quite likes Mike, which makes him aces with me.
He hadn't been able to come to Mike's party, but he'd gotten him a present anyway, The grandmother and I worked out logistics, and so Mike and I drove to their house while I was in town running my errands. As we approached, I gasped, because people were hanging yellow plastic tape at the address we were looking for, and for a second I thought it was yellow crime scene tape.
But no, when we got out I saw it was just yellow plastic ribbon going on around the trees. D gave Mike his present and we chatted a bit. Thrashing around for a good general conversation topic with the grandmother, I said, "I like your ribbons."
Her lip started to tremble. "I just found out my solider-boy is coming home," she said, and started to tear up as she added, "I haven't seen him in over a year."
If you know me at all, you know I am sappier than Vermont in early spring, so you won't be surprised this made ME get all teary-eyed. So I gave this woman I never even met a big long hug, and babbled something that probably made no sense. Then I drove away, thinking some very complicated thoughts as I tried to give Mike a simple explanation about it all....
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