All wrapped up

KG and I managed to take care of 90% of our Santa shopping in one fell swoop. Hopefully everything is lead free.

Tonight I'm wrapping presents and finally cleaning up all my music files. Stupid iTunes went all shitty on me. The plus side is it finally got me to organize everything and clean up some excess files. A chore I'd been putting off for some time.

I'm tired. Really fucking tired. I should go to bed. But I won't.

Tis the season

I'm not sure what exactly is behind it, but I seem to have a bit of the Christmas spirit this year.

I'm no Grinch to begin with, but it's rare for me to feel festive.

Perhaps it'll pass.

I wish turkey only cost a nickle

Happy turkey day, y'all. Hope everyone has a pleasant holiday.

And remember to thankful, dammit.

Gimme some loving

Is that asking too much? Eh?

48%

Looking for payday loans?

Where my fingernails live

Kids say and do weird things, without a doubt.

TKJr. came walking into the living room after having gone to bed tonight. He wanted me to come in his room so he could show me something. The following conversation occurred:

"What did you want to show me, honey?"
"I want to show you where my fingernails live."
"Umm, OK. Where do they live?"
"You tell me."
"I don't know, I thought you wanted to tell me."
"You tell me."
"On your fingers?"
"No, the ones I peel off."
"I don't know. Where do they live?"
"Under my pillow!"

He then proceeded to show me a little collection of 4 or 5 fingernail ends he had peeled off and stashed under his pillow.

Weird kid.

What is wrong with these kids?

Yesterday I was pulled out of work by a call from TKJr's preschool. Seems he puked, so I had to bring him home.

Of course, once we got home, he was all about playing and not resting.

In the wee hours of this morning, he was coughing in his sleep, and Izzy (in bed with us) woke up shivering, puking and crying. She had a fever of almost 103. So, both KG and I stayed home so we could take these two to the doctor.

Junior gets diagnosed with a sinus infection, Izzy probably the same thing. We get them home, and after a mini nap, they spend the rest of the night running around, being general pains in the ass.

I'm exhausted, stressed, my back is killing me, and I doubt I'll get a good night's sleep. Little girl is already in bed with KG while I sit down here tugging on a beer. To boot, my nose is starting to drip.

I actually would have preferred to be at work today.

You got my vote, brother

RIP Paul Tibbets

Brigadier General Paul Tibbets (USAF, Ret) died today at the age of 92. Godspeed to you, good sir.

I grew up in the shadow of nuclear annihilation. During the late 70's and through the 80's, the threat of global thermonuclear war seemed very real and very frightening. Being a morbid child by nature, I was slightly obsessed with nuclear war.

Until recently, I was revolted by the fact that America had dropped atomic bombs on the citizens of Japan. The thought that 100,000 people could die in an instant is a horror nearly impossible to comprehend. Innocent civilians, children, vaporized. Hundreds of thousands more suffering and dying for generations after.

Then I learned about the Japanese and their quest to conquer the world. I learned about their mindset, their culture. The lengths they went to in fighting their war. The lengths they were prepared to go to to avoid surrender.

Suddenly the Little Boy and Fat Man made a lot of sense.

All Things Considered did a piece on him this afternoon. When countering the charge that the dropping of the atomic bomb was immoral, Tibbets made a remark that really moved me. He said somrthing to the effect that "first you have to consider that there is no morality in war. War itself is immoral."

That it is.

When all is said in done, no nuclear device has ever been used in conflict since the surrender of Japan. For that, we should all be thankful.

Paul Tibbets lived with the burden of ushering in the nuclear age. He appeared to accept it.