Author: vicSocotra

Arrias: Arras & Independence Day Muse

Arrias: “Got home about an hour ago, have now unpacked, and fed the puppy! Yesterday was a wake and funeral for CDR Effie Petrie, in Marietta, Ga. Drove home this morning, crossed the Saluda just west of Colombia - just before it turns and runs right into Columbia… Early morning, thick mist rising of the [...]

Arrias and the Cicadas

A heavy chorus of cicadas as I walked Rosey – it was almost as if they were singing two parts – scores would click away for perhaps a second or two – must have been hundreds of them, a slight pause, then another section of the choir with a different pitch for a second or […]

The Status of Forces

The Status of Forces

Korea has always had a tug on my spirit. Maybe it goes back to my fourteen-month assignment in what had, originally, been the steam bath for Japanese Forces assigned to occupy the ancient capital of a unified nation. We looked at the frontier a couple dozen miles to the North, and the irksome antics of […]

Local Story

Local Story

That picture is the way part of the Jewish Museum in Washington used to look. It was fifteen minutes across town, and is about the way it looked the last time we saw it in person. The majority of it, in fact, before Lillian and Albert Small made a commitment to move the original synagogue […]

The Newest Socotra Book! Dick Ranger, Third Eye!

This is the all-new special edition of the book that started it all back in 1980 or so. I will quote Roger Hull in the below introduction he wrote at the time, not realizing the next 46 years would have many a drop and tittle in them. With war with Iran looming again, we thought […]

Target Three

Target Three

I had to take a wave off on Target Two yesterday, and though I regret it, the decision was correct and pulling the ejection handle was the right thing to do. Target Three was accomplished this morning with a modicum of effort, since I only had to roll full left and nearly full right for […]

SITUATION REPORT: “Lift Here”

A tizzy of a day here that was part of life’s treasure. Got word Grace has found a line on suitable lodgings for herself and we may be able to pull the handle on the unit at Big Pink as the summer real estate market comes on and there is real optimism on getting us […]

Situation Report 23 April 2025

Sorry, Folks. Got caught in charging hell and some details went down with devices dead as door-nails. Sequentially. The Apple laptop got hung up on something, iPhone cord got snapped in the hospital bed moving parts. Then the phone died and had to be dispatched to the nursing station in the next Zip Code. The […]

Situation Report 21 April 2025

HOLY SMOKES! LUNCH WAS SO GOOD AND SO PLENTIFUL that I COULDN’T FINISH IT! It reminded me I havn’t had a decent meal in nearly three months! Maybe I should back up up a little and get us on generally the same sheert of music. Today was scheduled to be a luncheon tour of the […]

Situation Report 20 April 2025

Afternoon, Gentle Friends and Family! I have had a busy day attempting to organize a modest week of activity that in more ordinary times could- oops, BP: 110/66- normally be accomplished with a couple calls or texts before breakfast. Some of the stuff is differentiated by proximity and chronology. Some is legitimate “old news” masquerading […]