Tiger Football

Fall and winter have always been my favorite times of the year. Part of it has to do with the climate (growing up in the South with such awful hot summers made me always appreciate cooler weather) but the bigger part has to do with the fact that many of the things I really enjoy occur at the end of the year, specifically football.

I absolutely love college football. When we moved back to Memphis one of the first things I did was buy season tickets for my family, and they are awesome tickets. We sit about 2/3 of the way up the stadium with a grand view of the complete field and we are right on the 40 yard line. Now Memphis is not known for its football prowess. As a matter of fact, I think we are the team other teams schedule for their homecoming so they can almost be assured of a win. But no matter, I love going to the games. My dad, who admittedly has been through even more crappy football games than I, will often leave when the predictable outcome is no longer in doubt, but my family and I stay to the bitter end.

Coincident with my return to Memphis was the rise of Tiger football, thanks in a large part to a fantastic running back, DeAngelo Williams, now with the Carolina Panthers. He was amazing to watch, with speed and agilty few players possess on their best career performances. And the best part was, Memphis began to win. And win. And win. They went to three consecutive bowl games and won two (I manged to go to the first two but was deployed for the third). Life was grand for the Tigers. Then, DeAngelo graduated.

Last year we were 1-11, although couched as a "rebuilding year" it seemed like the old days were back. This season is little better; we're 2-4. Sure there were the coulda, woulda, shoulda times, the single plays or series that could have turned the tide, but it seems like the Tigers are rarely on the good end of those moments. So, I sit here thousands of miles away, unable to watch the games, and cringing when I look at the scores Sunday morning. There is something even more disheartening having to suffer through the season from a distance, as backwards as that sounds. I love walking to the games, having a sweet tea and BBQ nachos, cheering and clapping for touchdowns, singing the fight song, and even saying on the way home, as we almost always do, "Well, there's always next year."

You can bet, regardless of this season's outcome, I'll be there in my seat next year, cheering the Tigers in person.

"Go Tigers Go, Go On To Victory,
Be A Winner Thru And Thru;
Fight Tigers, Fight Cause We're
Going All The Way --
Fight, Fight
For The Blue And Gray And Say --

Let's Go Tigers Go,
Go On To Victory.
See Our Colors Bright And True;
It's Fight Now Without A Fear,
Fight Now Let's Shout A Cheer,
Shout For Dear Memphis U."

Cheers, Pearl

Happy Birthday!

The U.S. Navy is 232 years old today! I have to admit, I never thought I'd be celebrating the Navy's founding in the company of a bunch of Army folks, but here I am enjoying the Sea Service's birthday in the middle of a desert!

October 13, 1775 is recognized as the day when the Continental Congress authorized two ships to be outfitted to interdict shipping and support General Washington's forces. In fact, Washington had already taken command of three vessels to support his operations so "approving" two more was quite an easy thing to do after the fact. From those humble beginnings and the Navy's mediocre performance during the Revolution, we have grown to claim unchallenged control of the seas today. Pretty awesome to think about it. And we even have time to loan the Army and Marines about 10,000 Sailors directly contributing to the ground war in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm looking forward to the day when I'll see my fellow soldiers onboard a carrier for a deployment in the future, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

"When word of crisis breaks out in Washington, it's no accident the first question that comes to everyone's lips is: Where is the nearest carrier?" President Clinton

Go Navy!

Cheers, Pearl

Fun with Lieutenants

One thing about junior officers is, they are pretty much the same regardless of branch of service. They are usually hard working, industrious, capable, full of themselves, and very often, gullible.

Even here at war there are an abundance of meetings. I'd hoped to get away from at least that aspect of work while here but I think I spend more time in meetings now than back home. At one of the daily meetings I attend, there is a young First Lieutenant Intelligence Officer who is the poster child for the attributes of the opening paragraph. She knows she's the epitome of the first four adjectives; I felt obligated to demonstrate she also fit the fifth: gullible.

She came to Monday's meeting in a brand new uniform. New uniforms are easy to spot because it doesn't take long to get a uniform faded and dusty and her uniform was crisp and clean. As we were leaving the meeting I said, "I think when you put your uniform together, you put your insignia on upside down." She got an embarrassed look on her face and immediately looked to fix the problem. Remember I said she was a First Lieutenant? This is what 1LT insignia looks like:



Bad, mean Commander. He, he, he...

Cheers, Pearl

Church

Our normal priest is away right now and the Australian priest conducted today's service. When it came time to begin, it was only the two of us for worship, but as the Prayer Book says, "When two or three are gathered together in his name..." He'd originally told the American priest he would use the Rite I liturgy as we usually do, but since there were only the two of us, he asked if I minded if we used the liturgy he uses at the Australian compound. I told him that was fine by me and I'm very glad I did. (Two more soldiers joined a few minutes into the service.)

The liturgy he used was more like the Rite II service we use back home, with only a few minor variations. It was comfortable, which is funny since I grew up with Rite I and know it almost by heart, but now Rite II seems normal and today's service put me more in mind of home. He used quite a bit of silence during the prayers, which I enjoy, and is something we do at Holy Communion as well. I hate feeling rushed during prayer and silence seems to me to make that time more interactive with God.

The final part of the service was actually after we'd received our blessing and dismissal. As we were chatting with some "biscuits" he'd brought (he attends every week and always brings some Australian cookies) he asked if we noticed there were questions at the end of the bulletin. I had but hadn't looked closely. He said those were for us to take and think about this week if we wanted. Someone said, "Not only did we have a church service, but we have homework!" We laughed.

But as I was walking back to work, it occured to me, we always have homework following church.

Cheers, Pearl

Phenomenon

A couple of days ago, I saw this:



I wasn't sure what to make of it. Perhaps, something had gone wrong but I thought I'd ask some questions first. Turns out, what I was seeing were these things called "CLOUDS."

Interesting.

Clouds.

I had to look them up on the internet. Apparently, when enough moisture builds up in the air, the moisture condenses into these things. Odd.

But there's more. It seems that these clouds can continue to build up moisture and eventually some of that moisture falls to earth. This is called, "RAIN."

Learn something new every day.

(On a slightly more serious note, no kidding I took a picture because these were the first clouds I'd seen since I left the States. And, according to the weather guessers, late October and early November mark the beginning of the rainy season here. We haven't even had a hint of rain but I understand rain makes a big sandy country into a big muddy country. I can hardly wait.)

Cheers, Pearl