Remembering ...

Essayons to Army Engineers who are now serving and to all who have served. Veteran's Day 2009.

Hot Dog Stand

According to the sign on this hot dog stand in Reidsville, NC, it serves the best hot dogs in Rockingham County. I couldn't confirm that advertisement because the day I passed by (Sunday) it was closed. The painted colors on the building were really bright, so I wanted to mess with my photo in Photoshop to make it look, well, sort of cartoon-ish.

Is this the best you got for a Blog today, you ask? Yup, that's it.

Fall Ritual

I like this time of year (generally) and look forward to cool temps gradually taking us to Winter. But, there is one thing about the Fall season I do not like—LEAVES, LEAVES, LEAVES.

I no longer rake them, I simply mow them into the grass using my trusty JD Green lawn tractor. My experience is that this makes a nice mulch over the winter to fertilize naturally. One thing I do not do is burn them. Unfortunately for my nose, my neighbors do—profusely, day after day. They do it when it's dry and when it wet. The latter causing so much smoke the neighborhood resembles a WWII battlefield.

But, soon this will be over and then I'll only have to deal with cold and often freezing rain, and maybe snow, which looks great at first but ultimately causes work for me just like my enemy "the leaves".

Senseless

That's all I can say about the tragic event yesterday at Fort Hood.

Wall Mural

Today I took the afternoon away from working on the next Army Engineer magazine, in order to go shoot some pictures with a smaller, hand-size camera I just bought (Canon Powershot G11) which I plan to use to supplement my larger Nikon DSLR. Always nice to have more than one camera, or as many as one can afford.

Anyway, I went to Uptown Martinsville (that's what it's called here, not "downtown" as is the usual terminology elsewhere). I was surprised when I saw a new and very large hand painted brick wall mural that spanned almost one block. The theme was an old circus parade that used to come to town back in the early 20th Century. I got just one of several elephants in a long line.

Thought I'd post one image here. Camera did a great job for me by the way.

Lets call it what it is

Fat. And apparently that often ill-used word describes a large percentage of American youth today. For example, Army Times article included this: "According to the latest Pentagon figures, a full 35 percent, or more than one-third, of the roughly 31.2 million Americans aged 17 to 24 are unqualified for military service because of physical and medical issues. And, said Curt Gilroy, the Pentagon’s director of accessions, “the major component of this is obesity. We have an obesity crisis in the country. There’s no question about it.”

I can attest to this at least where we live, because as I look around town I see an awful lot of people, especially young people, who look, well, fat. Sorry to have to use that word, but it is what it is.

Same Combat Uniform for All?

Read an article today at Army Times online that briefly addressed past moves by Congress to have all services wear the same combat uniform, citing a need to reduce the possibility of friendly fire incidents. According to the article lawmakers have dropped that idea, suggesting services need to "coordinate" better when fielding combat uniforms. Messy prospect in my view.

I agree with Congress thinking in part, however, when the Air Force and Navy come up with combat uniforms that seem to me to be way off mark in relation to what Soldiers and Marines wear, that some sort of mandated standards might be a good idea.

Fall Colors

Not wanting to be one of those few who (assuming they have cameras that work) have not shown off some "fall color" photos. Here's my contribution and it sort of has an engineering relationship, noting the old Civil War era stone bridge pier at Harpers Ferry, WV.