(USS Midway in the Indian Ocean. Steel Beach Picnic. Photo Socotra). The Bad Old Days are starting to look pretty good. I mentioned that I arrived in USS Midway three years almost to the day after Operation Frequent Wind. I was a junior partner (the junior-ist of JOs) in Medium Pursuit Squadron 151 (The World […]

USS Midway (CVB/CVA/CV-41) was the lead ship of her class, and the first to be commissioned after the conclusion of World War II. Active in the Vietnam conflict, the Navy’s Overseas Family Residency Program (OFRP), the Iranian Hostage Crisis, Operation DESERT STORM, she is the only remaining non-Essex class aircraft carrier of the World War […]

07 April 1979   (USS Midway (CV-41) in dry dock at Yokosuka, Japan, 1979, in between Indian Ocean deployments. Photo by young Socotra.)   Yeah, you read the date correctly. And dammit, I am not lazy. I was going to go one way this morning, and then I thought I might as well set the […]

Ah, I feel something lurching toward us, and I do not mean the stupid election, or the stupid Tea Party or the resurgent strain of Marxism that is raising its hoary and discredited head across the pond. I have to click fast to stay ahead of the political ads that intrusively appear as side-bars to […]

(There is a clue here about what this depicts. Check it out. It might not be what you think. Image businessinsider.com) Let’s take a break, shall we? It is hot and muggy and I feel sluggish this morning. Plus, I am the Poster Boy for Cabin Fever. The Better and Better thing continues, blah blah, […]

(Classic, with Boop. Culpeper Car Show 2010. Photo Socotra.)   I listen to NPR streaming on the satellite broadband at Refuge Farm when I am not blasting The Loft on the satellite radio from the antenna that points North East toward the repeater in geosynchronous orbit. I actually listen to the local outlets in the […]

(The Great Hall at Refuge Farm. Respite for a Refugee. Photo Socotra.) I don’t call it Refuge Farm lightly. The little place nestled between the two creeks has pretty much what you would need to get by in a pinch, and a pinch is what we were in. I was horizontal, looking up, skin dewy […]

(Unhappy pick-up truck on George Mason Drive next to Big Pink on Friday night after the Derecho event. Photo Sara-1). It was hot. My back hurt and the leg ached dully. My skin was sticky. I wanted to be in the pool, but there are still raw openings in the incision and you know what […]

  There is a lot to address this morning, and only some of it is appropriate to the morning story.   The news was electrifying. I was mulling it over all morning and into the afternoon. My physical recovery is continuing, and I can hobble around without the crutches when I forget to pick them […]

(As a shut-in, I have been collecting funny pictures of animals. This Super Groundhog is courtesy of the nice people at Polite Dissent, copyright 2006. It is a fine line between a hobby and madness, as Mr. Barry notes.)   I hate snipers, IEDs and fire in about that order. Floods are acts of the […]