Saturday, 15 November 2008

• Okay NOW

  ...we are in a recession.  The new numbers have come out and it looks like the whole world is in for it.  I am curious to see what changes will take place as a result of this craziness.

  We'll be okay, though.  Today I take comfort in believing that there is something bigger than I, and I don't mean the Talton's dairy cow! (Although the cow IS MUCH bigger than I.) God is not a lucky rabbit's foot, but one does get to take comfort in knowing that no matter how bad it gets, we eventually get to go to our rest.  I just reread some Job for the Bible study I am now in.  He was a truly interesting person.  I am not sure if Paul had it worse than Job as Job was not always being put into prison or in some mortal danger.  Job saw his family and fortunes wiped off the earth.  I think that might be harder than someone  just trying  to hurt me and not my family. 

  In our group we have started to pray for our country's citizens to keep a clear sense of right and wrong--where there can be a clear sense.  People are very quick to accept lying, fraud and theft as means to further their end. 

  Chris is off in the Sandbox and won't be back for a few weeks.  We have it easy with his job.  He goes once a year for a few months.  One of my friends is an Army wife and she shipped her husband off one week before mine.  He will be gone thirteen months.  I have noticed that my children need their father's eagle eye for discipline.  They keep trying to run me over.  It is very annoying.  Again, I try to listen to my still small voice to keep me calm and on top of things.  My storming loud voice is the one that usually wants to get out.  Chris has it much easier over there these days.  When the war started they were in big tents with very little in the way of amenities.  Stateside, one of the wives called up Frito-Lay down the road, and they agreed to send over a pallet or two of free chips and snacks.  I contacted Seattle's Best Coffee and they were so very nice.  They immediately got back to me and had a couple of pallets of coffee sent over.  I think they knew the seriousness of the situation--Americans without coffee--true deprivation. 

  He'll be back in time for Christmas.  The kids miss him.  We get to talk once a week for 15 minutes on the military lines.  He can buy phone cards and talk longer.  We usually talk once or twice a week.  We email when ever we want.  There is also a cumbersome instant massaging program we can use.  Contrast that with the year he was in Korea.  They denied our request for the job that would have allowed us to come with him.  Rats.  Two years in Korea would have been fun.  Chris was stationed in Ouijongbu --I am not even going to look up the spelling--it is phonetic here.  It is up next to the DMZ which makes it volatile for Americans.  H was 9 months old and we would not have had military support in case of any evacuation or medical emergency.  If it had been only me, I would have gone over and just lived in the city.  What a hoot that would have been.  

  I got to visit in January for two weeks.  Mom got to come take care of Hunter while I was gone.  It was freezing there and I had my heaviest Florida wardrobe.  Hah!  I was a rawboned American so it was hard to find a warmer jacket in my size.  We walked through the marketplaces and saw cauldrons of bubbling bugs.  They looked a lot like refuse, but were silkworms.  I never did try one.  I ate one of the rice balls.  They boil those too, I think.  Chris recommended them, I thought they were fishy tasting.  Yuck.  Around town they had different food vendors.  Many places had barrels rigged up to roast sweet potatoes.  We were warned not to eat them, though.  It seems Koreans use raw sewage for fertilization and it makes it difficult for tourists to eat without contracting intestinal disorders. My favorites were little 2" pastries shaped like fish.  They weren't too sweet and had some kind of custard in the middle.

  For the rest of the year, I was in Panama City, FL.  Not really wanting to be too hard on the place, after all, I was the one who moved in, the place was full of hillbillies.  Lots of them were just done living by the time they hit 25.  Very high illiteracy rates then.  High divorce and depression rates as well.  We lived very near the Gulf of MExico and it still took 45 minutes to get to a beach.  The water was wonderful.  Like a warm bathtub, and just West up the coast was the most stunning emerald green water you could imagine.  Seaside had beautiful beaches and ocean scenery.

  To say that I never adjusted to living there would be about accurate.  I did make wonderful military friends whom I continue to see over the years.  When I found out we were moving, I was ecstatic.  When I found out where we were going, my emotion more resembled resignation.  MOre of the South.  This time in a gritty little burg called Warner Robins.  We had been through there over the past five years to visit friends we had in Macon.  We had seen some of the growth there already.  Christopher was born here.  We stayed three years and moved to Virginia.  As close to the beltway without being inside as possible.  We lived twenty minutes from the Smithsonian and  other wonderful sites on the Capitol Mall.  We had several of my cousin's families up there. 

  Again, we have returned to Georgia.  So many of my friends tell of their wonderful adventures in Germany, Italy or Japan.  England was nice, to, I hear.  I get to talk about the USA below the Mason Dixon line.  Being from the Great Pacific Northwest, I don't see this as a paradise.  It is much like Oregon in the agricultural and rural feel.  The humidity is brutal.  We have met some really great people here.  In that sense it will be hard to leave.  The racism is thick here.  Mostly the blacks are racist toward the whites.  This was hard for me to adjust to.   Some of the whites in my church are still racist.  It is sad to see. I am used to having clients from every background.  Here, you need to be sure you are talking to a more modern person.  The intersection about two miles down the road has a Subway sandwich shop.  Where it stands used to be a place the Klan rallied.  I guess they last rallied there in 1987.  No one talks much about this history. 

  Our three year time slot here is almost up.  Plans were to retire to Colorado Springs with job availability there very high.  Now, with the congress talking about cutting the military budget by 25% and having a major economic challenge in the country, we figure this may not be the best time to retire.  We are staying in for another four.  We expect to be here until the summer of 2010 which will give the credit market time to open up and we can sell our house and buy another one more easily.  We'll have our next assignment take us to Colorado Springs.  We can decide then what plans to make.  You know that old saying, "Man plans, God Laughs."  We take comfort in knowing that He is laughing with us, not at us.  At least we include Him  in the planning!  We do want the kids to get out of here before too long.  I want them to have a home town.  They also need to get at least a standard education.  They are not being challenged here.

  I am kind of surprised by how many of my military friends are christians.  It is a higher representation in the people I know than in my corporate experience.  Very few of them are the kind who use the Word as a weapon.  Most of them are truly seeking His face.  Maybe we find people who are like us and that is the only reason.  I know there are some really lost military members here as well. 

  My children are getting restless. I must go not beat them .

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