Some 20 years ago, I wrote Sandra a poem on the 2nd anniversary of our temple sealing. It still says everything I feel for and about her, so here it is:

Two Years On

Two steps towards eternity
Widdershins about the sun,
A dance of light in time and space
That leads beyond.

Threads of glory wind around
And bind us into unity,
Pulled by love’s accretion to
celestial singularlity.

Natural as gravity –
As others note with but a glance –
Our lives collide and coalesce.
But oh! the fire in the dance!

Happy Valentine’s Day, sweetheart.  ..bruce w..

From our home to yours — God bless us every one!  ..bruce w..

Up in the mountains for a picnic

After four years of living in Colorado, Sandra and I decided it was time to do some local sightseeing.  So we packed up some soda left over from our large BBQ, stopped by Safeway to pick up some picnic foods (cold fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, and a few other things), and headed out with our two youngest MinPins — Winnie (Wingnut) and Marti (Moonbat) — in tow.

We drove up to Estes Park, where Sandra and her family used to go camping almost every week for one summer when she was ten (her family lived in Boulder for a few months). Having made it to Estes Park, we then headed into the Rocky Mountain National Park, to the picnic grounds at Upper Beaver Meadows. Sandra took the dogs on a long walk while I laid everything out on the picnic bench; we then stuck the dogs back in the car while we ate.

My sweetheart.

It’s mostly quiet up here, except for the wind in the pine trees and the guy at a nearby table who carried on a loud cell phone converstation for about 15 minutes.  Sandra just got back from walking the dogs again; I’m going to take them for a while.

We’ll have to do this more often.  ..bruce w..

P.S. We actually had a much better time than it appears from the photos above. I was mostly squinting to see my laptop’s screen in the outdoor light, and Sandra, well, Sandra never likes having her picture taken.

• Friday, 6 am to 2 pm: smoked 4 briskets, which I then double-wrapped in foil and put into a 180-degree oven (until Saturday afternoon).
• Friday, 2 pm to 9 pm: smoked 2 briskets and three elk roasts (ditto foil and oven).
• Friday, 10 pm to Saturday 5 am: smoked two legs of lamb, a (small) pork tenderloin, and one more elk roast (ditto foil and oven).
• Saturday, 5 am to 2 pm: smoked three bone-in turkey breasts, which I then put into roasting bags and put into a 120-degree oven to keep warm.

I carved up the brisket, elk, and port starting around 2 pm, put them into foil pans covered foil, and stuck them in a 120-degree oven. I held off carving the legs of lamb and the turkey until just before 4 pm.  Everything turned out well except the lamb — it was (IMHO) overcooked.

At 4:15, nobody had shown up yet (4 pm was the announced starting time), the sky was getting increasingly overcast with rain clearly to the west, and I was worried if anyone would show up. Then people started showing up, and pretty soon we were packed. I’m not sure what the final count was, but I suspect it was over 120; we ran out of name tags (150) and large serving plates (150).

It actually started raining around 5 pm, so I had to move the grill and smoker (which I had set up to use as a second grill) under the deck canopy. But the rain didn’t seem to hurt attendance, and it cooled the temperature down quite a bit. The rain itself was sporadic, coming and going through the evening, though it was pretty steady (and a bit heavy) when everyone started leaving.

Almost all the smoked meat got eaten (I set aside some brisket and turkey for Sandra and me), and I grilled up about 60 hamburgers and the same number of hot dogs before demand began to slacken (there were only a few of each left over). Everyone seemed to have a great time; the kids especially loved all the various bottled sodas.

In all, a success. ..bruce w..

Spic and span

I’ve just spent an hour or two cleaning both the smoker (which I haven’t used since last October) and the grill (which I haven’t used in since at least April). I now feel quite virtuous, probably unduly so.

I’ve had six (6) briskets, each weighing about 7 lbs, marinading since yesterday, along with 3 elk roasts (probably 3 lbs each). I’ve got two bone-in turkey breasts thawed and in the fridge; I’ll probably start them marinading tonight. I took two pork tenderloins out of the garage freezer to thaw yesterday and forgot about them until this afternoon; they were probably OK, but I don’t want to take any chances, so I tossed them. Sigh. I’ll probably find something else to smoke or grill.

Here’s my current cooking schedule:

• F-1 (very early Friday morning): light charcoal in the smoker’s firebox. Build up the fire.
• F-0: put four (4) briskets on to smoke. Rotate positions through the day.
• F+8 or so: take the four briskets out; put on the remaining two briskets, plus the three elks roasts. Double-wrap the four briskets in heavy aluminum foil and stick in the oven at 180 degrees.
• F+16 or so: take out the remaining briskets and elk roasts, wrap them, stick them in the oven (fortunately, we have double ovens). Pour a lot of charcoal into the firebox to keep the smoker warm (and preferably hot) through the night.
• S-0 (very early Saturday morning): clean out ashes and build up the fire in the firebox again. Put the turkey breasts in to cook (I will probably pick up a third on Friday).
• S+6: Take the turkey breasts out. Pull the first four briskets out of their oven and use that oven to finish the turkey breasts, if necessary. Put the leg(s) of lamb and anything else I’m going to smoke on the smoker. Slice up the four briskets into foil serving pans and put them on top of the smoker to keep them warm.
• S+10 (about 4 pm on Saturday): Slice up the remaining briskets and the elk roasts, as well as the turkey breasts. Pull the lamb and so on out of the smoker once they’re done. Slice them up. Put everything back into the oven to stay warm. Pull the drip pans out of the smoker and put charcoal into the main body (I’m going to use the smoker as a second grill). Light it. Likewise, put charcoal into the grill and light it.
• S+11 (about 5 pm on Saturday): Start grilling hamburgers, hot dogs, and veggies.

Alternately, I may actually start smoking the turkey breasts on Friday evening and stay up late (or get up through the night) smoking them. The turkey breasts are the most difficult; I’ve got to run the smoker at a hotter temperature in order to cook the meat through without leaving the breasts in there so long that they dry out.

I’m starting to stage the stuff (charcoals and woods, soda, plates, cups, plasticware) that’s been collecting in the garage for the last week or so into the house and/or onto the back deck.  Should be a busy 48 hours or so. ..bruce w..

Somewhere before dawn this morning, I started a long, low-key dream in which I was composing a blog post about one of my favorite books: The CRC Handbook of Astronautics. The book was about the same size as the old classic CRC math tables handbooks (as opposed to one of the massive CRC chemistry & physics volumes), but contained a mixture of history, little-known facts, and mathematical details and calculations about the start of manned (and womanned) space flight.

In my dream, I was actually thumbing through the book itself, rediscovering historical items about the early space race between the US and the USSR (including the Russians sneaking onto a US aircraft carrier and recovering a long-stolen historical artifact). I remember hitting the 10-page discussion of calculus around page 162 — a digression to better explain orbital mechanics — and mentally composing a passage about how I almost wept the first time I saw that out of admiration for the authors’ and editors’ willingness to tackle the hard stuff required to understand astronautics rather than dumb the book down. As I went on through the book, I kept expecting it to end post-Apollo, pre-Shuttle, but found that the book kept going on. When it started discussing the US space program under Pres. Clinton, I became puzzled — surely the book was older than that. I checked the copyright date up at the front of the book and saw it was 2006. I thought, “That can’t be right; I’ve had this book for decades.”

At which point I woke up and thought, “Wait — I don’t own the CRC handbook of astronautics; in fact, I’m not ever sure such a book exists.”

As it turns out, it appears there was a CRC Handbook of Space Technology (1985), though I’m sure I never owned a copy. But the Astronautics volume I dreamed about had some great stories, and I wish I could remember them better.   ..bruce w..

Cruisin for burgers

I’m sitting in a 2010 Mustang Convertible being driven by a gorgeous blonde, heading into LA for dinner somewhere around Hollywood.

Life is good.  ..bruce w..

UPDATE [6/1/09] Corrected a few typos; between the vibrations in the car itself and the frequent dropping of the AT&T signal as we zoomed along, the message was a bit choppy. The blogging itself was done on an Asus Aspire One netbook with a built-in AT&T 3G modem.

Dad said that the San Francisco’s guns had been dismantled for cleaning and repairs, and so the sailors on board were reduced to using rifles and sidearms to shoot at the Japanese planes.

It was my visit to the USS Arizona memorial in 1975 that led me to realize how many hundreds and hundreds of young men like my father died in those few hours — and how easily our own family could never have been.

Randy Barnett over at the Volokh Conspiracy has a wonderful and extensive remembrance of Pearl Harbor, including quite a few photos and video clips.  ..bruce w..

November 10th is a special day for Marines, it’s the day we celebrate the birthday of our beloved Corps. The Marines are a tough, no-nonsense force focused always and forever on the mission.

On this 233rd, I would like to give a salute to all the Marines I served with, including

Sean Church aka “HenderChurch”
Tim Maroe aka “Le Midget”
Jim Sanchez
Matt Keske aka “Poopsan”
John Winkleman
Jerry Bogen
Mark Corlew
Tim Peters
Matt Johnson
Staff Sergeant Oliver
Gunny Roleson
Pat Muritore
Michael Tan
Staff Sergeant Zorman
Staff Sergeant Figueroa
John Pollock
John Lear
Eric Covington
Rick Piva
Harry Roads
Smitty
Jade Chavis
Sam Bennet aka Sammy Love

and all the others that I can’t rattle out of my head right now. And a special salute to Phil Berry who talked me into signing up. One of the best decisions ever.

Bruce as a tiny jarhead, days before graduating boot camp in April of 1984.

Black Five has a nice write up as well…

Update – the Commandant has posted his birthday message on You Tube. The opening includes the orders to have Marines head to Lebanon. I vividly recall this event, which figured prominently in my decision to join.

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August 22, 2008

Mom, Dad..

I wanted to write y’all a quick letter while I’ve got some downtime here at the IP Station. It’s now Day 50 of our deployment and so far things have been going relatively smooth. There’s only been one incident where I’ve had to bring my M4 up and take it off safe; each time never escalated any further than that.

No encounters with any IEDs, either, which is outstanding. But, even with that said, we’re rolling with a couple MRAPs (basically a 40,000-pound up-armored ice cream truck) when we drive to/from Rutbah & our outpost, so we’re good to go!

The main challenge is working with the Iraqi police. The majority of them are so apathetic to what’s going on or what’s expected of them that it’s almost impossible to get them to do something as simple as wearing their uniform properly, if at all. These guys are the laziest bunch of grown men I’ve ever worked with and they make over twice as much money as the doctors out here when half of them can’t even read or write. Not only that, but this entire town in tainted with corruption. The IP Chief, the mayor, the city council and the sheiks…it’s ridiculous, but it’s perfectly common out here.

I wish you guys could see this place…But, then again, I don’t. This town is trashed. Not just figuratively; I mean there’s literally human waste and garbage everywhere…dead goats, sheep, cats, and dogs outside people’s houses, in the alleyways, in the streets…It goes without saying, but it friggin’ stinks out here. The structures these people live in are in pretty bad shape, plus most of these families have no electricity. It’s sad to say, but ti’s just like what you might see on TV, only much more surreal when you’re out on patrol walking right through the thick of it. I’ve gotta hand it to ‘em for surviving the way they do with what little they have. It makes me that much more grateful for the things I have today and for everything you guys did to provide for all 40 of us kids as we were raised up.

Anyways…so everything’s fine out here. I hope the two of you are okay. I’ll leave my address below; if it changes I’ll be sure to let y’all know. There’s been rumor about us possibly moving to a different outpost around the end of the year, but it’s nothing official, so…we’ll see.

Anyways, we’re gearing up and getting ready to roll soon so I’ve gotta go. I miss and love you both. Hope to hear from you soon.

Your son, Jon

LCPL Jon A. Webster
PTT 21 (AO Rutbah)
Unit 42741
FPO-AP96426-2741

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I couldn’t be more proud of him.  ..bruce w..