Nov 3, 2010

Busy, busy, busy. Between work, Army, school and family, we are also trying to finish the painting of the outside of our house. We made good progress last weekend replacing trim and soffet on the west side. One more end and we'll be done.

This weekend marks the final salute to Vietnam Veterans in our Operation Oklahoma campaign. Governor Henry declared 2010 a salute to these heroes who never received a proper welcome home for their service and sacrifices made during that conflict. To Sarge Charlie and any other veterans who served, I say, "THANK YOU AND WELCOME HOME".

Miss Dub will celebrate her 17th birthday this week. Good grief! What happened to macaroni glued to plates in kindergarten? She's a junior this year in high school and we are starting to look at colleges now. Time moves to swiftly.

I'm doing as well as I can. I would say I was starting to fall apart physically, but that would be lie. I'm just finally getting around to getting myself fixed. I had ear surgery a couple of weeks ago to repair a hole in my eardrum. While the surgeon was there he also did a little reconstruction on the bone chain. I had an MRI done on the left knee and am waiting for a date for surgery to repair it. Hopefully they don't find any surprises when they get in.

Well, I'd better get back to doing homework, something about theories and research utilization, blah blah blah. Really, I think I'm learning something. Only 15 more hours and I can be done with that!

Be safe and have a wonderful day.

20 September 2010
First time visitor to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Luckily I have no idea where the prison is. I'm up here for some Army training. I must say, I never pictured Fort Leavenworth as nice as it is. The girls would love the area around it with the barns and farm homes and even the buildings on post themselves.
It's been a busy summer and going into fall hasn't slowed down yet. Miss Dub is driving herself to school, Mrs. Dub is taking a class too, and I'm taking another six hours towards that far away bachelors degree. It's getting closer though, after this semester only about 9 hours left.
Time for bed unfortunately, we are up earlier tomorrow morning. Be safe and have a great day.

August 1, 2010
Yes, I know it's been a long time. Yesterday I finished my paper for school, still working on that 26 year bachelor's degree, and only 15 hours left. The bad news is that now I have to stop, for now.
With a pending deployment coming up I need to concentrate on getting things around the house done, and there's always a lot to do. Between work, school, guard and family it's been a busy summer so far. Miss Dub goes back to school in two weeks. She's had a busy summer too. Her idea of summer was staying up late into the early morning hours and sleeping in till mid afternoon. However, we didn't let that happen too much. We told her to find a job or she'd spend much of her time volunteering to help others. She's done a good job, spending one week as a youth counselor at the Military Kid's Camp, packing food boxes for families in need and helping out where she could. Kid's Camp was a true experience for her, no air conditioning in the barracks, being outdoors most of the day, and truly helping other kids proved to be both punishing and rewarding for her. (But she's considering doing it again next year).
Mrs. Dub has been good, she's taken over the Family Readiness Group as the leader for my unit and just got a promotion at her job. We now have to refer to her as "the Director".
I've been pushed by the military to get myself back in shape. I hate exercise, but I know I have been out of shape for some time and over the last six weeks, I have lost 10 pounds. Mrs. Dub has been working out with me so she works as my drill sergeant. Our goal is to make the whole family more healthy by exercise and eating better. I miss my chili cheese dogs for breakfast, gotta love Coit's.
Well, we are headed out to church right now, be safe and have a wonderful weekend.

14 May 2010,
Well, I'm into my 5th day of special assignment. Tornadoes came through the city Monday and we have been out here helping the citizens and keeping out the rift raft. It's been a busy year so far. Last week I managed to finally finish both my classes for college. We got our alert notice for deploying to Afghanistan again next year so a lot is happening to get ready for that. This will be trip number 3. I should look at investing in some property this time, 100 acres of mine-free land, yeehaw!
Miss Dub is almost finished with her sophomore year of high school. She hasn't admitted it yet, but I believe it has been harder than she expected. She's in that age where she doesn't want to listen to any advice we have for her. We have told her that she would have to get a job this summer instead of lounging around the house playing on the Internet and phone. She has finally filled out an application for a retail store. I had to lie and say I was 16 to get a job when I was only 15 1/2, I was ready to have my own money.
Mrs Dub is fine. She has taken over the Family Readiness Group for our company and is working to get it up and running. She's been wonderful in the position. She's ready for this week to be over so I will get home at a decent hour. We are only working 12 hours but she's use to 10 hours and having me home in time for a decent hour dinner. I made her watch 2012 Monday before the storms came through. In hindsight that wasn't a good idea, and she let me know. Well, better get back to keeping people safe, you do the same and have a great day.

15 March 2010,
Ah, the last day off before I head back to work for another set of days on. Last Tuesday I experienced for only the second time in my 13 years of law enforcement a traffic stop initiated by the violator. Yes, while traveling on I-44 Interstate I got behind a vehicle that was going a bit faster than the posted speed limit. He noticed me in his rear view mirror and changed lanes. Obviously he was unaware of my intentions to change lanes anyway as I was about to exit off of I-40. As soon as I changed lanes and was again behind him he turned on his flashers and began to pull onto the shoulder. Well, I had the notion of what he was doing and just to make sure he wasn't braking down I pulled off onto the shoulder also and turned on my emergency lights. I walked up to the drivers door and he was already gathering his state driver's license and insurance forms. I asked him if everything was alright and he stated, " I know I was speeding". I said yes he was and since he was aware of it to slow down and then got back in my car. I think I left him a bit puzzled but I insist that regardless to how many tickets I might write, if I can change the driving mentality if just while I'm present I've done my job.
Mrs. Dub was complaining Sunday about Daylight Savings Time, commenting on how much she hates it and hates losing that hour of sleep. I had to remind her that since we stayed in bed till almost 10 am, that I didn't think she lost any of it. I don't think she agrees.
I took both of the girls to the gun range today. Miss Dub has been chomping at the bit to go and shoot. I can even get her to clean my guns with less hassle than feeding the horses. I brought the whole armament of the pistols, shotgun and AR-15's. This was their first time with the rifles and shotguns. We got some practice in on the paper targets and then I turned them loose on the steel targets. Everyone loves these as you get the "tink" sound when you hit the target. Later in the afternoon we went and saw the new "Alice in Wonderland", 3D of course. Johnny Depp has the problem of overacting so I didn't understand some of what he said but I thought the whole movie was great.
Be safe and have a great day.

23 Feb 2010,
I'm ready to be done with college, especially since I've been working at it ever so slowly over the last 26 years. I attempted to take 9 hours this semester but within the first week I realized one class was going to be too much and dropped it. I am managing the two other classes without too much extra work. The goal is to stay on course and I can finally have my bachelor's degree by May of 2011. That will mean at least 6 hours over the summer and 9 hours for each semester next year to reach that mark. We will see.
The family is doing great, Miss Dub is managing high school ok, she played one of the nasty princesses in a school play tonight. Mrs Dub believes she is being typecast as a villain all the time, let's see, there was the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, a witch in Into the Woods, a cranky crazy grandma in The Sweet By and By, do you see any stereotyping?
Not much else to report right now, be safe and have a great day.

31 January, 2010,
I must say I enjoy the winter snow storms much more when I'm at home with the family. For fear of sounding like my last post, I can't remember the last time we had two significant snow storms in the same season. After a 1/2" of ice we received 5" of snow.
The Oklahoma National Guard has announced we are yet again in the window of another deployment. My travel agent has no imagination whatsoever, and I'm looking at going back to my second home, Afghanistan. Now of course, nothing is set in stone and we are simply preparing as if....... ( for those who are easily fooled....)
We are headed into town to have dinner with Mrs. Dub's parents so be safe and have a great day.

01 Jan 2010,

Happy New Year!

Well, I must say the last week of 2009 was certainly interesting. Mrs. Dub thought we should all post our experience on Christmas Eve in the family. At the police department I had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, don't ask why, it's not worth saying. Anyway, as with every other Christmas I wanted a white one. Boy did I get it. Because the weather was suppose to get worse on Christmas Eve I took Mrs. Dub to work that morning. She called me at noon to say they had released everyone for the holiday and the bad weather. By 10 am it had begun snowing sideways with wind gusts up to 60 mph. I picked Mrs. Dub up from work and she rode with me the remainder of my shift. Since it was the holiday we were suppose to be able to come in as soon as the next shift broke out of line up. The snow got so bad that the next shift got snowed in the parking lot at the station and we were told not to come in. This was fine since I my self was stuck in a snow drift in the McDonald's parking lot and had been there for an hour and a half. Over the course of 4 hours in this one drift I managed to move my vehicle in a half circle and finally found myself up against the curb of the drive thru window. I finally found some traction and slowly made my way thru the drive backwards. This was working until I backed into the next snow drift which was much deeper and it was there we stayed until the wrecker finally made it to us. After two pulls through the snow I made it to the main street where we headed for the highway. At least up there the plows should have been working. We got on the highway and drove a half mile before a semi truck and trailer, a pickup, a Toyota corolla and a suv had the entire width of the highway blocked. I parked far enough away to avoid getting stuck again and walked up to the vehicles. I finally managed to get two of the vehicles moved and advised the semi and the pickup that wreckers and sand trucks were on their way. They were only a hundred yards away from gas stations if things got worse and there was no need for me to stay any longer with them. It was already 630 pm and we were going to leave at 4. I made my way around them and drove another half mile when we found the 50-75 car pile up. I didn't get close because I didn't want to get caught in the middle of this. There was no way for me to make my way to the front to determine what was wrong so I turned around on the highway and with lights going drove the wrong way back to the next exit and got off. We finally made our way to the location of two other officers who had abandoned their vehicle and walked almost a mile to a gas station. I picked up one that lived out in the same direction as us and made our way to his house. 20 miles later we dropped him off at his house and we started winding our way out of his neighborhood when we hit our 4th drift of the day and was stuck for another 2 hours while waiting for a wrecker. It was now 10 pm on Christmas Eve and Mrs. Dub and I were in a police car trying to get home. Ms. Dub had been home alone since 7am. We were able to get within 3 miles before it was no longer possible to go any further. With 6'-7' snow drifts covering the last 2 lane highway to our house we weren't going home and Ms. Dub was spending Christmas Eve home alone. We had to turn around and found a friend's house who put us up for the night. Mrs. Dub cried, I was just too exhausted. I got about 3 hours of sleep before I had to start all over again on Christmas Day. Mrs. Dub stayed there while I went to work. I ended up getting stuck in a snow drift again for about an hour that morning. If there had been a dealership open I would have traded in the Ford Crown Victoria for a 4 wheel drive. It was worthless in these weather conditions. Mrs. Dub finally made it home around noon and had a short walk to complete the trip. I made it home after work around 5 pm.

In other news, the Oklahoma National Guard announced once again that we were being considered for another deployment in support of OEF, possibly meaning Afghanistan sometime around May of 2011. Let the games begin.

09 Dec 09,
Well, I survived Boston and ANCOC and made it back home. Being the giving person that I am, I brought home a cold (crud) that I shared with my wife. Today she is still sick. I'm sorry honey, next time I'll bring back a thimble or tee shirt. We were able to have some time off during the course and got to see some of the history of the Revolutionary War. It was amazing. Back in 1989 I visited a friend in the Washington D.C. area and wanted to climb the Washington Monument, however, it was closed at the time. In Boston, we made it to the Bunker Hill and we noticed they had a monument very similar to the one in Washington. I didn't hesitate to start my climb up those 294 steps to the top. About midway, I realized I was much younger in 1989.

I've got one more assignment for school this semester and it's a research paper on any terrorist event and analyzing the Incident Command System. I would much rather turn in the paper I wrote a couple of weeks ago for my military class, it's really close to the same topic, just not enough that I could pass it off. I'm certainly ready to be done with this semester, however, I must trudge on as I will only have 30 more hours to complete to finish that 26 year bachelors degree journey.
Our family gift this year is a Wii. Yep, we bought one for the exercise. Miss Dub has been on it the most, although I'm a close 2nd. I'm sneaking in and trying to beat the high scores to keep her motivated. Speaking of Miss Dub, she went for her driver's license test on Monday and passed with a 97. Some how she has it in her head that she can drive now. Be alert on and around HWY 152.
I suppose I better get back to the paper, be safe and have a great day.

10 Nov 09,
Well, I'm on my 3rd day of being in Devens, Mass. for Army training. I have to complete two weeks of Senior Leaders Course in order to hopefully get my promotion to 1SG. The weather so far has been beautiful with daytime temps in the 60's. This weekend we get to "research" the local area to include Boston and next week we are doing the Freedom Trail. I'm excited to see some of the history that made this country and knowing what sacrifices our founding fathers were ready and did make for us to be able to wake up free. My biggest problem getting adjusted to the Northeast is the fact that it's completely dark before 5 pm. Good grief. But really, if that's my biggest problem I guess things aren't that bad. If I'm close to any of my friends in the blog world, please let me know, I would love to say hi. Of course, it's up to you since I don't know where the heck I am. Be safe and have a great day.

04 November 09,

Well, today was the day. My little baby girl, who used to be cute and adorable turned 16 today. Happy Sweet 16 Miss Dub. As a father, I explained to her many birthdays ago, that it was my responsibility to embarrass her as much as possible, with unconditional love of course.

Last night we took her to our favorite Mexican restaurant where she was serenaded by the employees while standing on a chair wearing a sombrero.

We started her day with attempting to decorate her room this morning while she was sleeping and then woke her up with silly string in bed.

We took her to school and this afternoon when we picked her up we had shoe polished the vehicle and made her drive us home.


While she was at youth church we got the cake ready and at the end of services lit the candles and brought it in. Over all she seemed to have had a good day.

And this last picture is of her and her new "friend". I slipped into the background and decided to call this one "I'm always watching"

Be safe and have a great day.

Oct 26, 2009,
Has it been awhile? Mrs Dub has been on me to get this updated. In my mind, I certainly bit off a lot this fall. I finished the welding class and had fun, even if I'm not great at it, but I do know that with practice I will get better. And with 600 linear feet of fence to put up, I'm gonna get the practice. My online classes for regular school are still going on and it's a chore keeping up with them.
The family is good and we went to a Halloween party this last weekend. Miss Dub turns 16 in just under two weeks, yikes! Mrs. Dub is happy that I finally finished the bathroom, and it's 100% done minus any decor she wants to put up and the crown molding (which was an after thought anyway and shouldn't count against me). It turned out pretty good. As of right now, I'm suppose to head up to Mass. in November for more Army training but this one was only two weeks long and I'll be back before Thanksgiving.
I definitely need to get back in touch with everyone and see how you are doing. I hope all is well. Be safe and have a great day.

10 September 09,
Well, I relinquished my laptop to Best Buy in order to have some much needed repairs made. Of course, it was terrible timing, but then again, whens a good time to loose your computer? I'm just glad I took out the coverage on it.
Internet classes are in full swing, and I'd rather be sitting in a classroom. It's much easier to determine what is expected of you from an instructor standing in front of you. I received two letters last week stating I wasn't participating in the online class. I knew I had done the two assignments and sent my instructor an email and received a confirmation from him on the assignments, what was I missing? A one line sentence posted on the discussion board saying I had read and understood the course curriculum. Well, I got fixed and even had to have a chat with the school advisor about it. Oops.
Mrs. Dub has been home the last two days with a sore shoulder, neck and back. I wish there was something I could do to make it better.
Miss Dub is doing well in her sophomore year of high school so far. Support, support support, that's what she needs.
Well, it's almost time to head home from a part time job. Be safe and have a great day.

31 August 09,
First, Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife, Mrs Dub. Being a gentleman, I won't disclose how old she is now, but she certainly doesn't even come close to looking her age. She made it perfectly clear she didn't want a party, especially for such a monumental occasion. So, for once, I'm going to listen to her and not throw a party. Instead, I've been working to wrap up a some projects around the house.
The weather is absolutely gorgeous today and should be all week. We have had the windows opened since Friday night and I love it.
I have to go paint the ceiling in the bathroom now, then take two on-line tests for class. Be safe and have a great day.

22 August 09, Ah, it's been a busy last couple of weeks. Let's start with the auxiliary bicycle patrol. Last week we were riding along the river front and got to the end of the trail where we crossed over a bridge and was coming back down to continue the trail. We had to cross a pair of railroad tracks and as fate would have it two trains were making their way towards us. In a blink I was transported to the time of my youth, watching Evel Knievel doing death defying feats. I was energized and began racing my bicycle towards the crossing. The trains were only 75 to 100 feet away but I had to try. I crossed over feeling the adrenaline racing through my veins. The guy walking in front of the trains just laughed and waved.
I finally got enrolled in a welding class at one of the local Vo-techs and I also enrolled in 6 hours towards my bachelors. Mrs. Dub is hoping I still make time to get the projects around the house done. I think I should be able to as long as I don't goof off too much.
This will have to do for now, be safe and have a great day.

01 August 2009
A day outside. Today we spent most of the day working on the land. The farrier came this morning and we got all the horses feet trimmed. Miss Dub's horse acted up and I ended up getting hit with a fence panel, luckily I didn't do any damage to the fence panel. We went into town and rented a tractor with a front end loader and a box blade. The City was clearing the ditches a month ago and I got a couple tons of dirt dropped in the yard to level out some spots. I saved almost $200 on buying dirt.
I moved dirt, moved the horse shed, level out the old turn out stall lanes, made a protective barrier around the brush pile, started a fire in the brush pile (this is always fun, fire good). I hope to finish up some more projects tomorrow after church. Mrs. Dub says she took some pictures and we'll get them posted tomorrow.
Be safe and have a great day.

23 Jul 09,
Well, Internet Explorer keeps telling me I have issues and shuts down when I try to open my blog, somehow I got on this time. The 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team is just finishing up our last couple of days at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.
The first week was miserably hot, seeing 105 while wearing all our Army gear. The final week the temperatures dropped down almost 15 degrees and we even saw some rain. But then again, we are the Thunderbirds and we always see rain when we train. I remember the Afghans loved us because they had been in a draught until we arrived, then the rains came.
I'm still the Acting First Sergeant and I'm still awaiting a slot in a school before I can get my promotion.
Miss Dub is at Falls Creek Baptist Assembly this week which has left Mrs. Dub at home all by herself. I'm glad I get back tomorrow. Of course, two weeks is nothing anymore when I've done 6 months, 1 year, 1 1/2 years, but it makes me appreciate what I have and what I'm doing it for.
I hope each and every one of you is doing well.
Be safe and have a great day.

23 June 09, Well, I had intended to update a little more during the vacation, however, once Miss Dub discovered my roaming Internet with my AT&T air card, I have only been able to admire my laptop from a far. I finally have it long enough to try and update ya’ll on where we’ve been.

We left Memphis, Tennessee and drove to and drove to Nashville where we toured the Belle-Meade Plantation. Mrs. Dub loves the old plantation houses, and this one was similar to Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage.

We left Tennessee and went to the Biltmore Estates. A very impressive home except it appears the staff needed 1/2 the house, so I'm not sure why you would need 259 rooms. We then drove to Shelby, North Carolina where we met up with Wade and TC for an early dinner. Our visit was brief as we were trying to get to Charleston, North Carolina that evening. It was good to see them and since they have stopped by Oklahoma twice to see us, we were glad to be able to return the favor.

We arrived in Charleston late and stayed at a very nice hotel that overlooked the Harbor. The hotel overlooked it, not our room, unfortunately.

We walked around the historical part of Charles Towne and then made it across the bridge where we caught a ferry ride to Ft. Sumter. Mrs. Dub is interested in learning and seeing more about the Civil War and we figured, why not start at the beginning.

We then drove that afternoon to Savannah, Georgia. We ate dinner on River Street and took a tour of historic Savannah on a trolley. It’s definitely the way to start and then from there you determine which sites interest you the most. We took our picture here at the Forsyth Park

I better not try for any more photos, be safe and have a great day.

19 June 09,

Day 3 of the vacation. We left Oklahoma on Wednesday and drove to Memphis.

Graceland out front.

The girls having lunch.

On the steps of the Peabody Place in downtown Memphis.

Miss Dub had heard of albums/records, but didn't know what a 45 was.

We spent Thursday in Memphis, going to Graceland first and then headed downtown. Downtown we walked on Beale Street, obviously it's designed for night time attractions rather than early afternoon as it's mostly bars. However, we did enjoy it. From Beale Street we walked over to the Peabody Place mall, had an ice cream and then walked through the Peabody Hotel. Now, this was the first time I had heard of it, but apparently the Peabody Hotel has ducks that swim in the indoor fountain. A Duck Master parades the ducks from their own private suite upstairs down to the fountain at 10 a.m. and then marches them back upstairs at 5 p.m. and this is quite the sight. It was 3 when we went through and nobody felt like hanging around for another 2 hours so we loaded up and got back on I-40 east. We are currently in Nashville where we will hit just a couple of places before trying for North Carolina. We came to Nashville last year and visited Andrew Jackson's Estate, the Hermitage, as well as getting to go to the old Grand Ole Opry. Mrs. Dub would like to see the Belle Meade Plantation and we might stop at the Country Music Hall of Fame today. (Wade, you should get a phone today very soon, hope you're home).

31 May 2009,
IS THE DUB CLAN COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU?

That's right! We are finally going to take that trip we have been putting off for far too long. As of right now, we are looking at going through Memphis, Birmingham, Savannah, and Charlotte with the return trip either going more north or south to cover a different area. Our objective is to visit several Civil War sites with Fort Sumter being the final most eastern point ( I think the ocean comes next, but I'm not for sure).
If you know a site that we need to see or if you just need us to stop by and say hi, give us a shout. No Wade, I haven't blocked any calls and haven't showed any missed calls either.

Ms. Dub feels this would also be an excellent time for her to get some massive drive time, what do you think? 10 hours behind the wheel as a student driver........yeah, me either.

Let's go over my To-Do List for today..

Slide down a pole at a fire station. Check.
Sit in the shade and surf the net. Check.
Break up domestic calls. Check.

Looks like I'm done for the day, do you think my Lieutenant will still make me stay till 5?

Check.

Be safe and have a great day.