I lost my entry for today in the electronic abyss. Grasshopper No.5 offers the explanation of “I don’t know what happened”? Like that makes it okay. I piddled away an hour crafting masterful dialogue and it now resides in the abyss. That ain’t okay. My time is valuable. Here we go again.
Your Mom and I got to visit with Collin last Sunday. He talked about “boot” camp and Marine Corps experiences. He does talk funny. He spent a great deal of time in “cams”. Huh? That is short for camouflage clothing. It is light green and brown and makes you disappear in to “nothing-ness”. Cams sounds like a part for a car engine. “Blues” are not a sad feeling. They are dress apparel for special ocassions that make the Marine look handsome. He becomes a “chick magnet”. A “rattler” is the snake he jumped over and killed. Apparently they have rattlesnakes in California. Collin is headed for Camp Pendleton in California in 10 days for additional training. That will be followed by more training.
I have the British Open Golf tournament droning in the background and the British announcers also talk funny. The wind is “stiffening” means that a wind in excess of 40 mph is going to stop play. I’m sure it wouldn’t stop a Marine. A front is “coming in” means that the weather front is going to change things dramatically. The wind “freshening” means it will blow harder. It sounds like freshening is going to take away the stink. No wonder English is a hard language.
Grasshopper No.5 is off to do a wedding photo shoot (for money), Grasshopper No.3 is off to Ohio to buy a used car (for money) and I am off to my local restaurant with my favorite person (for money). You can’t say we are not keeping the economy going.
Just a final observation. George Steinbrenner, owner of the Yankees, was a maverick but his goal was to win at all cost. He died on Tuesday at age 80. It turns out that this year, 2010, all estate tax laws are suspended based on a tax package passed 10 years ago. It is a fluke year for estate taxes because next year they revert back to the normal 40-50% tax rates. In a normal year, the Steinbrenner family would not have had enough money to pay 1/2 billion dollars in estate taxes. They would have had to sell the Yankees. This year however, the family is 1/2 billion dollars richer because of the tax law. Damn! Even in death, George wins!
We had over 4 inches of rain Wednesday night. Our neighbor is building an ark.
Love,
Dad