Falling Awake

I urge you to read the whole article. 

An excerpt:

American and Iraqi forces are driving Al-Qaeda in Iraq out of its last redoubt in the north of the country in the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror.

After being forced from its strongholds in the west and centre of Iraq in the past two years, Al-Qaeda’s dwindling band of fighters has made a defiant “last stand” in the northern city of Mosul.

A huge operation to crush the 1,200 fighters who remained from a terrorist force once estimated at more than 12,000 began on May 10.

Operation Lion’s Roar, in which the Iraqi army combined forces with the Americans’ 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, has already resulted in the death of Abu Khalaf, the Al-Qaeda leader, and the capture of more than 1,000 suspects.

I hope the suspects will be held by the Iraqis.

It’s tricky for me to scale these down to display here properly.  Check out the full-size photos on Snopes (where they’ve been pronounced genuine).

 Sled dog encounters a wild polar bear:

This bear could kill this dog in a second!

What’s going on here?

They’re friends now!

 Don’t try this with your neighborhood polar bear.

I haven’t posted in a long time.  My attention has been tied up in surviving day-to-day.  It’s very hard when your boss hates you.  It’s harder when he hates you more when you do a good job.  For the last two months, I’ve been battling him, and I was never prepared for this kind of combat.

I get home, I eat, and I go to bed.  The next day, same thing.  Over and over.  That’s been my life the last month or so.

I think things will be better in two weeks.

———————

UPDATED 5/6/07

I just wanted to tack on an addendum to this post, as it looks very bleak the way it stands.  I’ve been getting more page views on this than anything I’ve posted in the last month, and I don’t want to leave anyone with the impression that I’m still in that stituation.

In a nutshell, I’m good.  I am enjoying my job more than I have in years.  I’m proud of the fact that I was able to continue to do a good job for no other reason than my own work ethic, but I have to say I’m ridiculously pleased at getting a pat on the back now and then.

Anyway, that’s it for now:  I’m good.

I think the reason I’ve been thinking so much about money is because my future has been so uncertain.  My store is closing, and I’ve been offered the same position for the same money in another location one town over.  Translation: slight pay cut (no more walking to work!)

Before I go any further, I want to reassure my father that when I’m talking about money, I’m talking about income versus outflow, not my savings.  I have a nest egg!  I’ve been agonizing about the possibility that instead of adding to it little by little every month, the money will be–equally slowly–going the other way.

 So, here were my options:

1. Work until my store closes, take the two months’ severance pay, and find another job.  I could get a job that pays a dollar or two more an hour very easily.
2. Take the position at the other store.  Forego the severance, and take a little money out of my savings every month.  On the other hand, keep my very good benefits.

So, I’ve been thinking about income and the lack of it.  And my thoughts went to the men I pass on the street every day with their hands out.  (Because I’m so darn cheerful.)  And I decided to take the severance. Read the rest of this entry »

Sorry I haven’t posted anything in a while, but then I haven’t done much of anything this past week except work, eat and sleep (poorly).

My friends and family have been great.  Thanks for the e-mails, phone calls and cards–they helped.

I buried Grumble last week at my sister’s place.  There was no ceremony, because I have no idea what faith he was.  I suspect he was a Buddhist, and that he hopes he’ll come back as a housecat.

Afterwards, my other sister came over and we had an “Irish wake.”  Or I did.  But with scotch.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to play darts last Tuesday, but I decided it would be better for me to go out and see my friends, and I had a good time, even though I left right after the match.  I think I had my best match of the year, actually.  If we make it to the playoffs, my loved ones had better watch out.  My team thinks grief sharpens my game…

He showed up one day over thirteen years ago, sitting on the back stairs of my apartment building.  He meowed at me as I went in, and I felt sorry for him, but I wasn’t allowed to keep a pet, and I was sure someone else would take him in.  He was there again the next day, and the day after that, getting skinnier and skinnier.  I smuggled him in until I could find him a good home.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sorry I haven’t been posting more often.

 Working in retail during December is rough, and–as usual–I’m sick, too.  Please bear with me.

I’ll be back after Christmas, and I’ll knock your socks off!  Or your money back!

One of the neat things about blogging is being able to see what search terms people used to reach your site.

Look at this:

Search Engine Terms

These are terms people used to find your blog:

Today:

None

Yesterday:

How do babies receive eucharist

There is no way for me to respond to this person.  I don’t know why she (it seems like a she) searched on this topic, but I’d like to answer her.

Read the rest of this entry »

From now on, you’ll notice that you may have to click “read the rest of this entry” at the bottom of each post.

I’m doing this so that I can tell which posts are most popular.  If you don’t click on the post, I don’t know if you’ve read it.  If I can see what you like to read, I can write more of that kind of thing.  Fear not!  I will not custom tailor my musings to please the least common denominator.  It’s just that I often have several things I’m interested in talking about, and I can’t write about everything.

If you click on one of my posts, at least I’ll know you were interested enough to read the rest of it.  That will give me a clue about what kinds of things I should write about.

So, I’m sorry that it’s an inconvience, but it will help me serve my vast (dozens strong!) audience better.

Thanks.

UPDATE: Just so you know, you won’t have to click through to read posts that are mainly written by other people.  (I categorize those as “clippings”.)  Also, I won’t break up posts that are only a few lines long.