We heated with wood in our first home in 1978, then returned to woodstove heat with our current Colorado home in 1992. Most winter mornings find me at 4:00 AM stoking coals, dumping ashes and putting in a new log. Many afternoons I am splitting, stacking or moving wood. We watch weather with purpose too. Moving extra wood in at times, keeps me from digging through snow for it. I like high country winters. I am one who feels every moment should count. If I stop at a café when traveling, I take my laptop in and work while I’m eating. There is a time every winter morning however, when I sit mesmerized by a small ember, watching it become a roaring fire. It’s intriguing how something so small, ignites things much bigger. Occasionally it just doesn’t take. Then I need to add kindling or re-arrange the coals and log….
2019 November
A crime has lessons learned for others, regardless of where it occurred. Such was the case with the recent Saugus High School murders in Santa Clarita, CA. A process consistent with school mass casualty events is reunification. When all unharmed students have been evacuated from the crime scene, they are taken somewhere for reuniting with family. An area church is often that somewhere. A good reunification process follows proven methods. Ideally, unharmed children are listed and placed in a secure area of the reunification facility. As parents rush in to get their child, they are instantly taken to them. If their children are on the safe list, they are taken to their child, retrieve their child(ren) and leave. If their child is not on the safe list, they are taken another route, then told of the situation privately, by experienced professionals; not in front of other anxious parents. Other anxious…
In 2015 there were 1,000,000 surviving American WW II veterans. Now there are less than 400,000. In four more years, 300,000 of them will be gone. A lot has been written on those men, on WWII service women and women who worked in jobs related to the military effort. There is little said however about the WW II era girls who were driving tractors, bagging groceries and teaching school as they waited for their boyfriends and husbands to come home. How many of them are we losing each day? The worst day of Dad’s life was October 24th, 1944 when the ship he was on (USS Princeton, CVL-23) was bombed and sank. Many died that day, including his best friend. On November 12th, 1944, another ship with survivors, limped back into Pearl Harbor. Dad mailed a letter that day to 21-year-old Mary Goldsberry, waiting for him back home. Among parts…