Personal Narrative – Page 74

The Great Flood of ’08

June 10, 2008June 10, 2008 by Dan from Madison

Click any photo to enlarge.

Water, water everywhere.

After smashing the record for snowfall due to Gorebal Warming, we have had record rains this Spring due to Gorebal Warming. Many of you may have seen the footage by now of a couple of houses floating down the Wisconsin River. I even saw that footage on Fox News last night; it is on an endless loop on our local media.

To create that footage, Lake Delton overflowed its banks, took out a road and incredibly created its own new river. The ENTIRE lake drained out into the Wisconsin River. It was a spectacular sight.

Six hundred million gallons of water came out of the lake and into the river forty feet below in TWO HOURS, claiming the homes. If you had plans on catching the famous Tommy Bartlett show in the near future, you may consider changing your itinerary as it is pretty difficult to water ski on a lake bottom.

Mounting Up with Wings as Smitten Eagle: Ethos

May 18, 2008May 17, 2008 by Smitten Eagle

This is the first post in an occasional series on learning to how to fly as a Marine.

I am a Marine pilot, and this is the journey I took after I earned my gold bars as a Second Lieutenant of Marines to become a Marine aviator.

Random Act of Patriotism

May 17, 2008May 16, 2008 by Dan from Madison

I left work a bit early today to shop for the troops. I have sent care packages to many people over the years since the Iraq War begun. I am approaching one hundred care packages now, most of them going to people I have never met.

As of late people I know have been deployed and I have concentrated my efforts on them.

Today in my grocery basket was two large bags of Jolly Ranchers, a dozen Hersheys bars with almonds, and a container each of Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and onion powder. The sauces and onion powder will be combined with other ingredients to make homemade beef jerky, always a favorite with the troops. The Jolly Ranchers and chocolate bars were going to be sent as is.

The woman behind me in the checkout line said that I was a sweettooth, just like her. I said that the chocolate wasn’t for me. She asked me “then who is it for?” I usually in these cases just say “for a friend”, but today for whatever reason said, truthfully “these bars and Jolly Ranchers are what a friend of mine who is now serving on an aircraft carrier said he wanted. So I am going to pack them up with some homemade beef jerky and send him a care package”. The woman said that I was a great person for doing that and I assured her that the truly great people are the ones on the carrier.

Just before I went to checkout the woman in front of me turned to me and said that she overheard my conversation with the woman behind me and insisted that I have her change – all $6.23 of it. “This is to help you ship that stuff to your buddy. Tell him he is appreciated.” Before I could refuse it she was gone and I was left standing there with $6.23 in my hand, which I really was quite unsure what to do with. The cashier said “Well put it in your wallet! And tell that guy that we are praying for him and love him and are so proud of what he is doing for us”.

What great people. It gets tiring at times being a conservative living in Madison with all of the hatred of the right that goes on here, but today was special…special indeed.

The Tornados of Texas

May 15, 2008May 14, 2008 by Shannon Love

The hook, the curled trailing edge of thunderstorms that can spiral up to form a tornado, passed right over our house. My son and I stood in our front yard watching lightning lit clouds on the south side of the sky going east while those on the north went west. In the center, a clear tube ran up into the darkness of the sky. It was very quiet and still with only the low rumble of nearly continuous distant thunder. The immense energy of the storm felt palpable, like that part in a sci-fi movie where the giant space ship moves slowly over head.

It’s that time of year.

Trying to Act Professionally

May 13, 2008 by Dan from Madison

I always try to act professionally at my job – I really do. It is never good to burn your bridges with anyone as you never know where you will end up – or where they will end up. On occasion the bridge must be burned, however. I think that is a normal part of doing business in a competitive marketplace. In other words, you can’t let someone stomp on you forever, or have endless meetings with you with the illusion that they are going to buy goods or services from you.