posted @ 11:15...

Got an email last night from Mom, revealing a little more about the family's genealogical history. Turns out, one of my great-grandmothers is from Albany, less than three hours' drive from where I live now. Then I got to thinking about it, and realized just how geographically spread out my family history is. It doesn't just hover around Montana and Indiana, as I once assumed. On Mom's side, ancestors came from Virginia & North Carolina. It's even rumored that one relative is Dolley Payne Madison, who was a First Lady. Before Virginia, they came from England. On Dad's side, there was a great-grandfather who moved to Pennsylvania from Scotland as a child, and survived the Johnstown flood. He married a girl from Albany, NY and they settled out west, where he had established a career as a cowboy a few years earlier. Apparently, he also attended West Point, but I've so far been unable to find out whether he graduated or what year(s) he was there. There's also a great-grandfather who supposedly ran away from home (somewhere in Missouri), took his step-father's name, and went to Montana & Wyoming to become a cowboy. There's a story shrouded in mystery, and it's bothered me ever since I first heard it as a teenager. Why did he run away from home? What was his original surname? (Some rumors indicate it was Dorothy, Doherty, or Dougherty.) Unfortunately, this secret went with my grandparents to their graves... which makes me wonder if there was some sort of scandal. Did he kill somone? Get a girl pregnant? Steal a horse? What!? The real story is probably very boring, but it's fun to dream.

So, all this being spread out is interesting to me now that I live in a part of the country where most people don't move much. For the most part, people that live in this part of New York stay here and die here, generation after generation. My family (including myself, immediate family, and direct ancestors) have lived in (at least) the following states: New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana, Missouri, Texas, Colorado, Georgia, Wyoming, Montana. That's pretty crazy, and doesn't even include cousins in California.

posted @ 11:39...

Sentence I never dreamed I'd say: "I need to find out the exact date that the soldier drank all the cough syrup and peed on his roomate's bed."

posted @ 12:05...

It is 185 days, 4 hours, 25 minutes and 48 seconds until I turn 30.

As you (the non-existent reader) may have read in earlier posts, I'm going to be a father. I saw my child's heart beat yesterday, and it changed my life in some ways. One of those ways is that I'm making a serious effort to abstain from foul language. I know I have the intellect to find alternate vocabulary. (I'm not a @#$%&! NCO). Seriously though, I'm really trying not to cuss, but it's very difficult when you're surrounded by it all day long.

We had our first big snow of the season yesterday. Around Ft. Drum, newcomers are asked the following question:
"You ever spent a winter here?" ... or they're simply told, "It gets really cold here." I've been subjected to this by nearly everyone I've met, (which is quite a few people).

Therefore: okay Ft. Drum, I get it. It gets cold here. It didn't take feeling the icy wind (slapping my face repeatedly) this morning on the way to the bus stop to get the point across. No matter how cold it gets, folks always say, "Aw, this is nothin'. A few years ago there was snow up to here, and it was 30 below..." I figure when it gets to 30 below this year, they'll still be saying "Aw, this is nothin. A few years ago it was 40 below..."

People tend to want to out-do each other. Well, not all people. Mostly just guys. There are plenty of people who, no matter what the topic of conversation, have experienced it bigger, better, colder, hotter, crazier... Or at least they know a guy whose brother's best friend was involved in something horifically more intense than whatever it is you have to say. This is not a new phenomenon. People need to feel validated. That's why guys with small penises buy very large trucks. That's why women with self-esteem issues get boob-jobs.

posted @ 20:15...

I just finished putting together a discussion for our church small group. It has to do with Romans 12:12 & 1st Corinthians 12. The essence of all this is: we're all different people with different gifts, strengths, weaknesses... but all these different parts work together.

I'm not used to doing stuff like this. I consider myself anything but a preacher or teacher. But I have a lot of biblical head knowledge from a lifetime in church. Biblical knowledge is useful, but more important though, is what's going on in your heart. And that's where I've usually been a failure. I can't imagine that someone thinks I'm responsible enough to lead a small group discussion. They did before too, which is weird. My pastor at our church in Texas asked me to lead one last year. I felt incredibly unworthy. And it was wild to think that a completely different pastor at a completely different church, in a completely different part of the country would ask me to do the very same thing. I think of the reasons why I would suck at this: I'm shy and don't like to be the center of attention. I stutter a little when I'm nervous. I tend to say inappropriate things. Since I'm surrounded by soldiers all day long, I need to watch my mouth all the time. But then there's those two words: Moh Zess. Well, one word, actually (Moses). He was "slow of speech," and wondered out loud why God would want to use him for anything. God used him to coordinate and lead the entire nation of Israel.

In other news, I'm being promoted at work on Friday. Apparently, my First Sgt. somehow got the idea that I've been doing a good job, so I'm going to become a PFC (E3). I didn't even get the E2 rank sewn on my class A's, and here I am getting promoted again! The coolest thing is, it's not just an automatic promotion. It'll feel more like I actually earned it, as opposed to the "stay out of trouble for six months" that got me to E2. Pretty crazy either way.

posted @ 05:06...

You know what's dumb? We can't see the University of Texas vs. Nebraska game. Everyone from Montana to Texas can see it on ABC... but because we live in the Northeast, we're stuck with Michigan @ Michigan State. There was even one Texas game a few weeks ago, but it was on pay-per-view for about 30 bucks. Sorry, but football -- even UT football -- isn't that important to us. We'll check the score online, thank you.