Room with a view

This is the view right now from my work desk.

What I want to know is how do I get any work at all done?

 

Gratitude Monday: autumn spectacular

We hit peak autumn here in the District They Call Columbia last week. And I am supremely grateful to be here to experience Nature dressing up for us. Today’s post is pretty much just that—it’s hard for me to choose one representative photo, so here are 20, both close and wide.

Also, it’s not just the colors. I went out one afternoon to experience a shower of leaves floating around me. Just spectacular.

How can you not overflow with gratitude when this is right outside your door?

 

 

Good God, y'all

As a military historian, I honor the men and women who suit up to do jobs that range from brain-numbingly mundane to mind-bogglingly terrifying, in the service of their nation’s policies. This does not mean that I agree with all the conflicts to which they are sent; there have been several in my own lifetime that were utterly despicable.

So today’s earworm is Edwin Starr’s anthem from my youth, “War”.

Crank up the volume.

 

Comrades

Today is Veterans Day in the United States, a day set aside for honoring the men and women who serve or have served in the uniformed services in defense of the nation.

The holiday dates back to the end of the 1914-1918 war; 11 November 1918 was the day the Armistice went into effect in Europe, silencing the guns of what was called the Great War. (More than 20 years later, we realized we’d have to start numbering these conflicts and renamed it World War I.) And this year marks the centenary of the establishment of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, as the remains of an unidentified American soldier were interred at that beautiful spot overlooking the nexus of national government.

Since then, he’s been joined by comrades from World War II, Korea and Vietnam. I think we’ve improved our identification technology such that no one killed in the service of his or her country is now “unknown”. An advancement, I suppose.

The focus of today is meant to be on the living; we have Memorial Day for those who gave all, but there is crossover. There’ll be a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown with the President, and other commemorations around the country and the world.

My company has a good percentage of veterans in it, and I like that we honor them pretty much every day. There was tremendous company and individual outreach to people after the pullout from Afghanistan in August. More recently, one of my colleagues put out a call to help resettle a former interpreter and his family, who’d been turfed out of his home and country by the Taliban, and we rallied to the cause. No flag-waving or chest-thumping; just step up and get ‘er done.

That, to me, is the epitome of honoring those who serve. And I’m here for it.

 

 

 

Winter storage

Temps were in the 60s yesterday as I went out on my afternoon break-from-the-screen walk. Those walks are important, because I’ve found that I spend more time glued to the monitor while WFH than I did in the office. The result is a clenched back and tired eyes.

Besides—I have to take my nearly-four-pound camera out every day to get used to schlepping it.

Anyway, yesterday, I came across this little guy, who looks like he maybe had a tussle with someone who took a patch of his fur. He also looks like he’s stocking up on nuts for the winter.

 

Reed and tree

The past couple of times I’ve swung through the corporate HQ behind my house, I’ve run across Mr. You-Can’t-See-Me-I’m-a-Reed. He hasn’t been in his “usual” pond (there are four), and it may be because the fishing is better in this one. Because that seems to be his activity.

Viz:

(He couldn’t see me because I was pretending to be a tree.)