Well at least a part of it, and left all its kit in the Anteroom; got to go somewhere, in fairness, and why not lay down on a Moslem rug? That in mind, what do young soldiers do to pass the time? Many things, not least playing computer games with their pals around the world, in which they slay digital enemies.
So that's all good and, speaking of which, have we just witnessed the shortest ever civil war in Russian history? A 24 hour, ahem, coup, in which Prigozhin gets a dacha in Belarus, WAGNER PMC folds into the Russian Army and 5th columnists and traitors get rounded up and killed while Putin consolidates his power base as rubbish generals are fired?
Possibly, but who knows. perhaps Prigozhin got ferociously drunk, drove most of the way to Moscow with his crew, sobered up, apologized, and made friends. Now he must go to Belarus, because that's so obviously not a potential second front.
I tell you, what a strange 24 hour evolution it's been. Regardless, our plan is this. Worship God in the morning at the Masses and then grill steak. Yes, steak, we can still afford meat here, if only just.
Where is it, that goose stepping machine of Edwardian military precision. In Germany? No, please don't laugh and cough into your drink. England? Don't be silly, the UK doesn't even have an army, despite its bellicose posturing. No, the Kaiser's Army is alive and well in Chile, that'd be South America, check it out:
Zu Befehl,
LSP
PS. why are any of these people wearing medals? Have they fought in some war we're unaware of? Ah, the Great War of life itself. Waged against the Weather? And transphobia?
Cars and strip malls. You can smell it when you park up in front of the credit union, Margeritas To Go, Chipotle, Sonic, Taco Bell and on. There they are, spewing out fast food exhaust as you park in front of the bank. Hey, I'm not judging but it was weird to venture into suburban DFW metrosprawl today.
This, I thought to myself, is how most people live here. Good, bad, indifferent? I don't know, but what I do know is that all it'd take would be one big tornado to strip it all to the ground. Great would be the faux adobe of its fall. But the wind didn't rise, much, and I35 back to the Compound was mercifully clear, result.
Now, food for thought. When everything gets nasty and money, water and food don't work, how are you going to get out of the cities? Will FEMA or the Army help you? Perhaps the apocalypse elves will spring into action and save everyone. Or not.
Here in this rural haven we're cleaning weapons, throwing last year's furniture in the fire, banking crypto and loading mags.
Got a call from the PFC last night and he was full of mission satisfaction, which is great because a happy son is a happy dad. No fooling. To be honest, I think he was excited by the snow in our far flung corner of empire, and who can blame him.
OK, snow is exciting, especially if you live in Texas or the UK, but I know, it does grow old. What does this mean?
Has South Korea paid it's climate tax, and the climate's changed to colder? Or is the reverse true, did they forget to pay the tax, making the climate hotter, and therefore colder. We don't know, the proof isn't open source, but what we do know is this.
The Biden administration's ordered the Pentagon, by Executive Order diktat, to re-posture the Armed Forces to fight our greatest enemy, the Weather. That's right, to fight our Old Enemy, the climate and its changes. What'll that look like?
Perhaps we'll see walls of razor wire around the Capitol along with thousands of troops on hand to beat back rising sea levels and insurgent, dystopian mobs of crazed extremist dirt people, intent on storming the sacred halls of democracy after their crops fail thanks to solar radiation.
Perhaps. Then again, maybe a division of heavily vetted Somalians stationed on Martha's Vineyard will do the trick against furiously rising sea levels. But what do I know? Just a country parson.
Keen-eyed readers of this deep thinking mind blog will know that my eldest son, popularly known as "the Cadet", made the smart decision to join the US Army instead of a Scandinavian death metal band, in Canada.
Don't get me wrong, both are good, but the Army probably makes more sense. So what's the score?
Typical Climate Change
Longish story short. The Cadet bravely ventured forth to a Dallas recruiter, got his packet made up, took a language aptitude test (D-Lab) at the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) downtown and... the Army discovered he had to complete some extra paperwork before he could do his physical.
Annoying but not a huge deal, so we fell back to the Compound and enjoyed the countryside and its storms. Yes, hail storms and the kind of climate change that says tornado, take cover. We took the opportunity to stand on the porch and watch it come down. Exciting, in an Ahab brave the elements kind of way.
Metrosprawl Compound Grill Scene. Note Mary Shrine
Then, papers complete, headed to the Metrosprawl to grill, celebrate a nineteenth birthday, and launch the kid at MEPS again. I dropped him off at the recruiters' this afternoon and they drove him to his date with destiny, but not before we spent all of yesterday getting his ears cleaned.
What?!? You say in that shocked tone of voice. Yes, ears cleaned, that's because the quacks at MEPS turn people away if they have too much wax in their ears.
Have to see all of the ear drum, you see, and if they don't the unfortunately waxy child has to leave MEPS, see an an Army sanctioned ear shaman for a 5 minute ear scrape that could've been done at MEPS, and then return to MEPS, mission complete.
Does that reek to you of low-level, bit part skulduggery? It does to me, and imagine how much money someone's raking in from all those ear wax referrals. It'd soon mount up to a nifty shamanic faux mansion somewhere in Plano.
Regardless, the boy's now in the caring hands of Uncle Sam and, all things equal, should pass his physical tomorrow. If so, in a couple of weeks off to Basic, and I respect that.
Good call, kid, and his plan's simple if not easy. Go Signals, get a degree, get a commission, get a sword, and then set up on some compound, grill, and play Scandinavian death metal.
Good luck with all of that, Cadet, and with MEPS tomorrow. Stay tuned.
