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\n(Sugarland Mail Order Moonshine, office chair and Dragonfire Tree)
\nIt was a surprise for the Boomers who trickled in that morning. Based on the messaging streams they were attempting to manage, there was already vigorous discussion about how to finish out the week.<\/p>\n
Splash was seated languorously at the end of the Conference Table, in the better of the FlexiSport C5 office chairs Miles had reserved for himself. It had more ergonomic padding.<\/p>\n
When Rocket, Melissa, Vic, Holly, and Keith had assembled with suitable hot mugs of Flat Yanks, picked from the juice selection, and instructed young Dierdre to retrieve the egg muffins when the microwave bell rang in the Galley, the meeting could begin. She is careful to be useful in gatherings of the older folk and gathers inside scoop to take back to George Mason when she remembers to attend class.<\/p>\n
Splash waved both hands for order.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiles had a bad bout of sleep apnea last night. At least that\u2019s what he claims. He asked me to get the Daily organized so he can release it after breakfast. What did we have on the table yesterday?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/021926-2-e1771536440652.jpg\")
\nHe looked down the line for clues. He had been watching the Women\u2019s Hockey quarterfinals at the Milan Winter Games. Like everything else, it had felt historic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll have to do the hockey story tomorrow since the finals are at noon, Central Time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone checked watches and set reminders.<\/p>\n
Melissa smiled. \u201cWe\u2019re ignoring something important. There\u2019s talk the USS Ford, the world\u2019s largest floating steel airport, has arrived near potential launch points in the North Arabian Sea.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be near Great Socotra Island,\u201d Vic said. \u201cI\u2019d like to see it again. I thought it had potential as a vacation destination\u2014with a short snort of Sugarlands Moonshine under one of the Dragonfire Trees.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTalk about dragons and fire,\u201d Rocket said, glancing up from his phone. \u201cThere\u2019s plenty of it out there. TLAMs can carry a thousand-pound warhead a thousand miles and detonate within thirty feet of the intended target.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOr loiter overhead,\u201d Keith added, \u201cand deliver that weight in cluster munitions. When it starts, it could look like the Desert Storm show we were part of. When Ford arrives on station with her escort cruisers, there\u2019ll be over 600 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles on hand. Imagine what you could do with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vic nodded. \u201cOne of the smart guys at the bar last night was keeping track. Fifteen guided-missile destroyers and an SSGN, two carrier groups capable of launching alpha strike packages all day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou might want to hold off on the war story until tomorrow or Saturday morning,\u201d Splash said. \u201cI think we\u2019ll do it with Israeli help. Some regional allies have hinted at token participation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo ensure continued U.S. aid in the rebuilding,\u201d Melissa said. \u201cThere are going to be opportunities. And drinks under a Dragonfire tree sound better than reconstruction contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rocket leaned back. \u201cHavana might get there first. It\u2019s only ninety miles from Key West. Garbage piling up, gasoline running out. Sometimes gasoline is what gets rid of the old regime. Maybe the grand hotels come back to the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOr someone considers a pleasant retirement on a distant island,\u201d Splash said, folding his phone. \u201cNow what the hell are we supposed to generate so Miles doesn\u2019t get cranky?\u201d<\/p>\n
There was mild consternation.<\/p>\n
Keith raised his iPhone 17, dictation icon glowing. \u201cWe could just run the meeting notes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holly and Dierdre exchanged looks. \u201cDoes that mean if we link our phones to ChatGPT it will just format everything automatically and send it out?\u201d
\nSplash grinned and reached for the phone. \u201cMaybe we should have these meetings under a nice tree somewhere. And not worry too much about punctuation.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was another round of coffee. The last muffin was divided fairly.<\/p>\n
And then they began thinking about lunch.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 Vic Socotra<\/p>\n
www.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Sugarland Mail Order Moonshine, office chair and Dragonfire Tree) It was a surprise for the Boomers who trickled in that morning. Based on the messaging streams they were attempting to manage, there was already vigorous discussion about how to finish out the week. Splash was seated languorously at the end of the Conference Table, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32498"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32502,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32498\/revisions\/32502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}