Winter and Discontent

I seem to be doing hit-and-miss posting recently!  Haven't even gotten to make my blog-rounds, but life seems to be calming down a bit now.  The last snowed-out houseguests left yesterday and made it safely home to Arkansas.  I'm slowly putting the house back together -- 9+ loads of linens over the last week! -- and I have now decided that while running a Bed & Breakfast may be good exercise, like aging, it ain't for sissies.

We've also had some uncharacteristically cold weather around these parts -- below freezing!  This is what greeted me this morning while forcing the 16 year-old shih tzu to go outdoors:

The Naughty Children Fountain may be icy on the surface, but they know how to keep the water flowing!

I'm not sure New Orleans birds know how to ice skate!  And check out the gardenias buds hanging out over the frozen water.  That poor bush is really confused.

At least the pipes have stayed intact.  KNOCK WOOD THREE TIMES!!!

I'm still trying to keep myself from throwing up over that wretched display of "look at me!" and "you should dial back the rhetoric" last night presented by the Young President (perhaps we should call him the Great Healer now that he brought Congresswoman Giffords back to consciousness with his very presence), so I won't even go there.  And here I thought he did a pretty poor memorial performance at Ft. Hood.  Egad.  At least he didn't distribute tee shirts to the mourners in uniform at Hood.  (Funny, until I googled "tee shirts at Tucson memorial" I wasn't aware that so many people were just as appalled as I was by the souvenirs of a Day with the Obamas.  There must be many great minds out there.)

I do find the blame-slinging in the Tucson slaughter intriguing.  We certainly couldn't hold Islam responsible for the slaughters at Ft. Hood or at the Recruiter's office in Little Rock, but we certainly could blame everyone on the right from Sarah Palin to bloggers for setting off that fruitcake in Tucson.

I guess I went there, huh.

Oh well, maybe I'm back!

Fort Hood, Remembered and Held in Honor

The roll call goes unanswered.

Rest In Peace, valiant fallen of Fort Hood, and may God's peace comfort your loved ones.

May the wounded have a full and swift recovery.

And may we -- all of those left behind -- never take a single member of our uniformed services, nor a moment in time, for granted.



If I hear one more television commentator refer to First "Calvary" or an Army "Base" I may have to scream.

Fort Hood's Fallen: Please Accord Them Dignity and Honor

Oh no.

The slaughter on Ft. Hood is tragic; it's too hard to think about and I can't really express all the conflicting, raw emotions I'm feeling, or even wrap my mind around the circumstances.

But, after replaying in my head the White House's reaction to June's slaughter of an Army Private in Little Rock, a worse thought has just hit me smack between the eyes.

The Young President and Michelle, after his inexcusable gaffe that passed for a press statement yesterday, will most certainly show up at the services intended to confer military honors to the fallen. Then, the somber ceremonies will become nothing more than "The Obama Circus Show."

I may have to throw up.

UPDATE: Although W was not my most favorite CinC of all times, he -- and especially Laura -- understood what it meant to wear the uniform and/or love someone who does. Class will tell every time, and it did yesterday when the Bushes went to visit the wounded and families at Ft. Hood, without fanfare.