I sit here wandering how to write this post! It appears that we have been held captive by the cell phone companies. We are at their mercy and are forced to live in the world that they create for us. Many years ago we saw in color and 4D images. Now we see in pixels and 4G's! The other day as we had dinner out with friends, we all quietly pulled out our phones and joked on Facebook. Yes we are addicted. We are hungry for our quick fix. So that is why they decided to create the contract. The contract was created by a woman who had successfully been married for many years. She knew how to suck the life out of any man. She knew in order to have someone at your mercy you have to have something that they want more than anything. At first you let them have unlimited use and then once they have to have it; you cut them down to a limited number every month. You are faced with many options. If you pick the shiniest one with all the big gadgets then you are prolly gonna pay more. There are other ones that don’t have all the gadgets and they seem to cost a little less. However you never know how one is going to hold up until you get it and have signed the contract. Yep women figured out once that contract is signed they are not only in control, they will get paid if you decided to quit the contract early! That is when you pay the high price to buy out of the uh contract! Don't think that they didn't also use the kid factor for phones too. That is commonly called the add extra lines clause. You add an extra line but you will pay extra for it each month too and if you quit the contract you have to pay a fee for each line that you have! My gosh they are mad geniuses. They have the world at their fingertips and know it! So be very careful the next phone you pick out. Treat it kindly and it will last you many years. Always stay in your contract and never ask to text too much!! LMBO I may be cut off from texting after my wife reads this but it sure was funny!

Massacre at Barbie Hill

I can remember it like it was this morning. I was crouched in the hallway rocking back and forth as Tesa entered the room. She was saying something, but I couldn’t quite understand the words coming out of her mouth. I wanted to answer her, I tried to answer her, but nothing was happening. My mind was whirling from the images that will forever haunt me. The smell…The stench still clung to my nostrils as I gasped and tried to free my lungs of the atrocities that had filled it. Then either the lights flickered or I had lost consciousness. Maybe I should back up a few years. This story must be told from the beginning. There are two separate and defining events that sparked this disaster. The first happened on September 18th in the year of 2007 and then again on April 7th two years later. Two fireballs of deception where born unto my wife. One was black headed and skinny as a rail while the other was blond and skinny as three rails. Together they ruled their small kingdom located at the end of the hall. They were constantly on edge and kept their palace booby trapped. No one, I mean no one dared enter. I remember sending Ethan in once but after several hours and nothing, I had to send in Tesa to rescue the young lad. He was lucky. We were all lucky. Well I knew the time had come for me to straighten up this mess and on September 13, 2012 the year of our lord, I went into the darkness. Being the proud warrior that I was I carried only the bare necessities. I was armed with a laundry bag, a black trash bag, and I brought the vacuum just in case things took a turn for the worse. First things first I crossed the sea of swarming clothes. Then as I entered closer to the liar, I was astounded by the moat of shoes that guarded the box of toys. This was gonna be my greatest triumph. I started filling the trash bags with snacks past and filled the laundry bag with clothes that I’m pretty sure didn’t even belong to my children. The underwear! Where in the world did they manage to get that many pairs of underwear? When I grew up I had two pair. One for around the house and one for going to town. I promptly changed them out once a month whether I need to or not! Ok maybe not that extreme, but if there is ever a nuclear blast and the world is short on underwear come to my house cause we have stock piles. It was then that I saw it. At the bottom of the floor they were all layed out as they had fallen. I like to call it the Barbie Massacre. Yes it was horrible! I have never heard of this happening before. I’m sure Wikipedia has never even heard of what I saw there before me. It was apparent that while I slept comfortably in my bed sound asleep, a wild group of Vietnamese Communists broke into my home. We were saved by a rag tag group of barbies! And possible one G I Joe that I found taped to the TV. In one corner was the decapitation zone. This was where they took their prisoners and took off their heads one by one. Then in another corner was the red zone. This was where all the bloody or red nail polished dolls were cast aside. In the middle was where the major action took place. I remember seeing the arms and legs scattered everywhere and I will never forget the two headed Barbie. She must have been killed because she was different! I wondered how they had fought. And I also wandered why they had fought naked cause their clothes where nowhere to be found. I guess some things will never be answered and history has one more secret that will forever evade us. I believe the cat had decided that their room was a close twin of his arch enemy the litter box and he took his aggression and number two’s out on the closet. I’m sure gonna miss that cat…… I finished up my duties and stumbled into the hall and fell to my knees. It’s always afterward that the constant stress finally builds up and exits your body. I can remember it like it was this morning. I was crouched in the hallway rocking back and forth as Tesa entered the room. She was saying something, but I couldn’t quite understand the words coming out of her mouth. I wanted to answer her, I tried to answer her, but nothing was happening. My mind was whirling from the images that will forever haunt me. The smell…The stench still clung to my nostrils as I gasped and tried to free my lungs of the atrocities that had filled it. Then either the lights flickered or I had lost consciousness.

Highways

Life is full of up and downs. I have found that it most resembles a highway and the roughness of it all depends on you. You can take the smooth straight road and be safer, but there is very little excitement or scenery. There is an interstate you can take, but in doing so you will bypass parts of life. I prefer to drive on those curvy bumpy hilly two lane roads where the action is. This journey will take you through the best places and the worst. There may even be times when you have to get out and push or even drive backwards, but it is not about the destination but the journey. I have no idea where my destination will be and I’m really not sure how I’m going to get there. I remember one time a friend had a bright idea of taking the old route 66 to Las Vegas. During the trip there were many mishaps including a short layover in Albuquerque, NM. Looking back I had a blast on that trip and have more pictures of that trip than anywhere else we have been. I once swam with the sharks in the Bahamas while I was sick to my stomach and trying not to hurl which one chum the water. I bought a motorcycle one night while drinking some cold drinks. It took several days before I worked up the nerve to ride it and I will never forget the day I missed the road and collided with a stop sign on that thing. I could go on and on but my point should be clear by now. Years later you will not remember those good days when everything went perfect. Those days when nothing really happened. You will only remember those horrible days when you cussed and threw a fit because it was unexpected. If fact you will treasure those memories for the rest of your life.

Black Bandits

For those who know me, they know that four years ago I was fortunate enough to get to go to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I wasn’t going for the sights, or the entertainment. I went to meet some of the best people that I will ever know. I met a group of people that set the standard on what it is like to be an American. I left there knowing that these men had sacrificed everything to have everything. They were soldiers!
Every year in September a Wiley group of helicopter pilots, their crew chiefs, and their accomplices meet up to celebrate a time in their life when they were fighting for each other’s lives. They didn’t fight for themselves, they fought for the guy standing next to them. They flew into places that nowadays would be considered suicide. No wasn’t an option for them and turning back was unheard of. They were simply soldiers doing what needed to be done.
I am proud to call one of these fine pilots my father and I am proud to meet the men that served with him. I am proud to know the men that flew beside him to protect him and all the men on the ground. They didn’t brag one bit when I met them, instead they took the time to brag on the person that stood next to them. I believe my older brother and I were delighted that we could be sight see’ers for this awesome spectacle. They were everything that we hoped to be.
As Rick and I left there we both knew we wanted to come back. We knew we were destined to tell the stories we heard. My one hope was that my young son could be able to meet these men and understand what they stood for and what they did for their country. This year we planned our family vacation to coincide with their reunion. Even though my son is only 10, I hope that when he is old enough to understand that he was part of something great. That he was able to be part of something that forever will be in the hearts and minds of my father and his comrades. So one day he can say that out of all the great things and great places he has been that in September of 2012 he met Black Bandits!
God bless you Lt. Colonel Larry Charles Hall, the Black Bandits, and every person that fought beside or with these great men!