The Holidays are over. Thankfully. I'm just plain tired. Between a report that was given to me the Friday before Christmas and wrapping up a database design by the first week of January, I wound up working around 40 hours either at home or the office on these projects over the four day holiday weekend. I stayed up late and pushed hard over the weekend trying to get these two projects done to the point that I knew I could meet my deadlines, but the database proved to be a particular bear. I still had to put in some time Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but I did get it to the point that I didn't have to take anything with me when we left on leave Thursday after Christmas. I would have had it done before now, but I was waiting to see if we got a network drive before putting in all the time to rework the individual stand alone version. I got news the network was up suddenly without much warning and with the new year coming, it was best to get the system up for tracking data for the next calendar year. Lots of work, but now our team will always have an up to date calendar, will know exactly what the status is on each funeral, what all the upcoming assignments are, and our chaplain assistants will no longer have to manually track and compute metrics. I even set it up to do charts for them. It has been fun learning how to put Access to work.
The family and I made it to Christmas Eve candlelight services at a Lutheran church not far from us. This was a special treat. Last year I was deployed and the year before I was conducting the Protestant Christmas Eve service at Andrews. This is the first Lutheran candlelight service I've been too since leaving the parish.
I hope next year to be able to take leave over Christmas itself for a good old fashioned family gather with my family back in Tennessee. But we'll see. I might could have gotten leave this year, but initially I thought I was likely going to be recovering from some surgery so didn't request it. I hoped to have this done in the slow time here at the cemetery to have less impact on the team, but Walter Reed is booked solid right now. Not only do they see all the active duty here in the area, they also treat many of the wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan, and bunches of retirees as well as dependents.
The day after Christmas turned cold and wet on us. I had a fill in from the honor guard. She did a great job and everything went well if we were a bit wet and cold. That evening we visited with friends from my former parish in Illinois whose son lives in the area.
We made it to Tennessee to visit with Mom on the 27th. Traffic down was not bad at all and we made good time.The sunset was incredible on the ride down. It is a beautiful ride all the way once one is out of the DC corridor as you follow the Appalachian Mountains all the way down I-81. For some reason the drastic climate change struck me in a more profound way this time. Not the weather but the conduct of folks in general. People are more courteous and friendly back home and down to earth with good common sense values. I miss that.
I wore a jacket that has Air Force embroidered on it part of the time. Several times I was stopped and asked if I was in the military now, had been to Iraq, what it was really like, and even a couple of times who I thought would be good presidential material. Each time from these good southern mountain folks I sensed a true sense of dedication and support for those who serve and for the mission and job they are doing. It was most heartening to know that my folk back home still believe in what we are doing and still expect that we are going to win. (The picture of PALS is of a restaurant near my Mom's. They started out with two smaller more conventional restaurants and expanded with other like the drive in here. They have become an icon of Kingsport.)
I took the family to Dollywood for the Festival of Lights. My oldest daughter talked me into riding the Tennessee Tornado (a mid-size single rail roller coaster with several upside down loops) - something she regretted doing. (Not that I was the most eager beaver myself). Scared her to death. I'm not talking blood curdling scream kind of scared. I'm talking the white faced, eyes wide, deathly silent, how could you do this to me look after it was over kind of scared. It took me a roll of cinnamon bread from the mill house, hot apple cider, and an hour for her to calm down.
I could have used that cinnamon bread trying to get into Sevierville. 2 hours to go the last six miles. I think everyone and their cousin was aiming for the festival of lights down there. There were a couple of points where I thought about ordering a pizza and having it sent to the car. But the park wasn't too crowded and we got into most everything my family wanted to see. My youngest was very impressed with the train ride. My most refreshing moment was listing to a quartet of bluegrass musicians singing old Christmas carols of the hills. I was encouraged when one gentleman shared that with the blessing of Dollywood they wished us a Merry Christmas with the stress on the Christ in Christmas and then proceeded to give a clear statement of faith in the Gospel of Christ. In Dollywood back in the hills of Tennessee Christ is still the heartbeat of the Christmas season. I spoke with one of the musicians and found that he grew up not far from where I live and that his father pastored a church about five miles south of here. Small worlds.
I spent some time doing odds and ends around Mom's house. Her health is in serious decline. She hasn't been telling me everything. I wish I was in a position to keep a closer eye on her. I did take an afternoon for what is one of my favorite past times in the hills of Tennessee. I picked one of the trails that weaves its way through the hills and countryside and spent the afternoon running. I was sore the next few days, but my spirit was refreshed. My Mom even taught my wife how to make a country pot of soup beans. First time in years that I've enjoyed a bowl of brown beans and homemade cornbread. That was some good eatin!
Our drive back took a bit more time. Traffic was thicker, but I figure everyone was heading home from their holiday trek. The weather had threatened snow, but after a couple of hours the sky cleared and we had a beautiful day. But I'm still just plain tired. Of six days on leave we spent 2 of them on the road and 1/2 of the third one and all of them we were on the go. I feel like I need a vacation from my "vacation". I would like to have taken a bit more time, but that was all that was open and I had to have my oldest back for school.
A lot of military families flex their schedule by homeschooling, but I prefer my kids have the challenge and socialization of a public school, as long as it meets certain standards. Though I will admit if we had stayed where we were, I would probably have home schooled my oldest before sending her to middle school there with the problems the school district had.
Our team has a bit of a slower pace the next few days. Several are taking a day off tomorrow as they have nothing scheduled. I'm going over to Bolling AFB for training for a special duty assignment that will be my primary focus next week. (It's shaping up to look like a lot of fun too!) The chaplain I share an office with doesn't have anything on Friday either and I only have one service at the moment. I plan to use the slower time to get the database installed and work out an outline for marriage seminar that I have a week from Saturday over at Bolling AFB. Look like the next 12 days or so are going to be busy too with this temporary assignment and getting ready for the seminar. I think after next weekend I'm going to try to find a day where I can just kick back and rest a bit.
The Air Force's Singing Sergeants were out in force. They were amazing. I loved the expression they put into their music. My music background is instrumental, but I have to say these folks needed no instrumental accompaniment. 
See Video of the F-22 from this spring's airshow at Andrews. Here are some photos that I took of the bird.
I recommend reading this OP from the New York Times. I've heard the buzz around that the nature of war is changing and air power is not as necessary as it once was. But here are some straight facts and some excellent assessment on that.
The Holidays are over. Thankfully. I'm just plain tired. Between a report that was given to me the Friday before Christmas and wrapping up a database design by the first week of January, I wound up working around 40 hours either at home or the office on these projects over the four day holiday weekend. I stayed up late and pushed hard over the weekend trying to get these two projects done to the point that I knew I could meet my deadlines, but the database proved to be a particular bear. I still had to put in some time Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but I did get it to the point that I didn't have to take anything with me when we left on leave Thursday after Christmas. I would have had it done before now, but I was waiting to see if we got a network drive before putting in all the time to rework the individual stand alone version. I got news the network was up suddenly without much warning and with the new year coming, it was best to get the system up for tracking data for the next calendar year. Lots of work, but now our team will always have an up to date calendar, will know exactly what the status is on each funeral, what all the upcoming assignments are, and our chaplain assistants will no longer have to manually track and compute metrics. I even set it up to do charts for them. It has been fun learning how to put Access to work.
The day after Christmas turned cold and wet on us. I had a fill in from the honor guard. She did a great job and everything went well if we were a bit wet and cold. That evening we visited with friends from my former parish in Illinois whose son lives in the area.
I wore a jacket that has Air Force embroidered on it part of the time. Several times I was stopped and asked if I was in the military now, had been to Iraq, what it was really like, and even a couple of times who I thought would be good presidential material. Each time from these good southern mountain folks I sensed a true sense of dedication and support for those who serve and for the mission and job they are doing. It was most heartening to know that my folk back home still believe in what we are doing and still expect that we are going to win. (The picture of PALS is of a restaurant near my Mom's. They started out with two smaller more conventional restaurants and expanded with other like the drive in here. They have become an icon of Kingsport.)
I could have used that cinnamon bread trying to get into Sevierville. 2 hours to go the last six miles. I think everyone and their cousin was aiming for the festival of lights down there. There were a couple of points where I thought about ordering a pizza and having it sent to the car. But the park wasn't too crowded and we got into most everything my family wanted to see. My youngest was very impressed with the train ride. My most refreshing moment was listing to a quartet of bluegrass musicians singing old Christmas carols of the hills. I was encouraged when one gentleman shared that with the blessing of Dollywood they wished us a Merry Christmas with the stress on the Christ in Christmas and then proceeded to give a clear statement of faith in the Gospel of Christ. In Dollywood back in the hills of Tennessee Christ is still the heartbeat of the Christmas season. I spoke with one of the musicians and found that he grew up not far from where I live and that his father pastored a church about five miles south of here. Small worlds.
I spent some time doing odds and ends around Mom's house. Her health is in serious decline. She hasn't been telling me everything. I wish I was in a position to keep a closer eye on her. I did take an afternoon for what is one of my favorite past times in the hills of Tennessee. I picked one of the trails that weaves its way through the hills and countryside and spent the afternoon running. I was sore the next few days, but my spirit was refreshed. My Mom even taught my wife how to make a country pot of soup beans. First time in years that I've enjoyed a bowl of brown beans and homemade cornbread. That was some good eatin!
This week I and several of my military team were invited to the White House to tour the Christmas decorations. (Picture to the left is from 2004, no cameras allowed.) Yes, we were there when the fire broke out next door in the Executive Office building. We thought something might be going on from the scramble we saw with some of the Secret Service. The fire did not disrupt events in the White House though. Outside though, it was evident that big doings were going on as firetrucks screamed through the area.
Thursday was a surprising day. The Air Force is doing a major re-engineering of some of my old dental work and I looked forward to a day of having the whole left side of my head numb. (Wasn't dissapointed there.) We had a last minute training evolution dropped on us too. I was lucky though, I got out of my appointment in time to make the session and find a parking place (a huge challenge at Bolling AFB). My teammate drove over and could not find parking near the location so he wound up not taking the training. You don't dare park creatively (illegally) as the DC police dept will kindly serve as your conscience. I've gotten used to parking at the BX and just walking the mile or mile and a half to get to where I am going. But sometimes you don't have the time.
Speaking of time, I wish I had a few more days before Christmas. This will be my third year away from home for the holidays. I hope to take some leave right after Christmas but it will depend on whether I get a few things done. I had some things fall onto my desk this week that I didn't anticipate. I've been tapped for a short term special duty escorting flag officers which has moved up some suspenses of projects I am working on. Looks like during the long weekend that most civilian federal employees are enjoying I'll be working on finishing up two major projects and starting a third. (The gym I use has been closing at 2:30pm already for the holidays and starting tomorrow is completely closed - yes it's a military gym, but not Air Force.) One is very labor intensive as it involves finalizing a design for a database for our Air Force team at Arlington to help us better track and manage our funeral services. The other is not as intensive, but requires precision or as it is called "attention to detail". That one is due the 26th. I hope to knock out most of that tomorrow if I can get into my office which can be a challenge. The military does not control the building my office is in. I've found that my access to my office tends to be restricted to normal business hours, when the civilians are in. Last time I tried to get in on a Saturday, the computer access would not recognize me. Well that is not exactly the case. It knew who I was, it just wouldn't allow me in. I've been told that has been corrected so tomorrow I plan to test it. (Me & computers haven't been getting along lately. Blew the mother board out on my main system at home and my keyboard at the office likes to type on its own sometimes.) If I can't get in to my office over the weekend then I'll go in during the day on Christmas Eve when the computer locks will allow me access during normal business hours. I just wish life came at you in normal business hours. At least the building will be quiet. (Hope the heat is on. Hmmm.... didn't think about that.)
I'm reminded every day practically that our service members don't really have regular office hours when I see the security forces personnel manning our gates at one of the local bases. A local radio station is asking for people to pray for those overseas and away from family. But I wonder if folks realize that even military people right here at home are pulling duty away from family. This is a job that takes the vast majority of our folks away from home. Not many can take leave, because we always have the job to do and we must always be prepared for contingencies. Our cops are standing security in the cold. Our communications and command and control folks are in their work centers. Our hospitals are staffed. There will be a lot of our young men and women working Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
It was quite cold as my oldest daughter, her friend, and myself met with our IMA Chaplain and one of our chaplain assistants and his girlfriend to join in the annual wreath laying at Arlington. This year the number of wreathes was doubled to 10,000. There was a huge crowd of folks. I would guess there were 3 to 5 thousand people here. We took a wreath a piece and found gravesites to lay the wreath. The girls laid their wreaths on soldiers who fought in the Spanish American war. I laid my wreath on the grave of a sailor who fought in World War I.
I am especially moved by those services where the families share my hope in resurrection through what Christ accomplished for us at the cross. Each family grieves the loss of their loved ones, but St. Paul is so right when he says that those who have faith do not grieve as others do. You can see the hope in their eyes when the traditional passages of Scripture promise are read. Christmas is especially moving as it is very much in remembrance that the Savior came to this world to defeat sin and death. Even as the holiday season expands due to various cultural and social influences to include non-Christian traditions, it will always be the birth of Jesus that is the source for why their is a Christmas celebration. And death, the biggest problem of them all still finds its only solution in the promised salvation and resurrection that is God's gift to us through faith in Jesus Christ. My favorite services are those where I not only honor the memory and sacrifice of military service made by the deceased, but where I also proclaim and celebrate with the family our shared hope in Jesus.