Five months later...

How time does fly. Goodness me. That was good advice from Sara S., but I slid back into posting on other people's blogs and ignored my own Centurion's Servant right here. Maybe ignored is the wrong word. Didn't utilize perhaps is a better way to say it. OK, I'm utilizing now. Have a meeting in a few minutes so I cannot tarry here long.

Got some new boots comin'! They're made by Chippewa. Like my current ones by Red Wing, but taller. Never thought I'd leave Red Wing but they have outsourced their engineer (motorcycle) boots to China and the quality cannot compare to what it was with the USA-made ones. Oh well.

Really looking forward to getting the Chippewas! UPS estimates they should be here Mon. 26 Apr 10. Have always wanted ones like these. My late parents bought them for me. More correctly, part of the tax refund from the closing of their estate was used for the purchase of those boots. Thanks mom and dad. You never ever would have bought me something like that. And now, for the rest of the time I have, however long that may be, I get to do it my way.

<Sinatra filter> Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention </Sinatra filter>

-0-
Meeting's over, and have to admit got weepy, surprisingly, when describing a scene from John Wayne's The Alamo (1960).

Fortunately, the only other person in the meeting understands, or I think he understands. I was describing the scene where Crockett (John Wayne) has a letter written in Spanish read to his men by Flaca (Linda Cristal), to convince them to fight in the Texas war for independence. He's a movie fan, knows me, the admiration I have for John Wayne, so it's all right. Still, surprised me. I don't know why I got weepy about it. I've seen that movie maybe two dozen times, know that scene well. Yes, it gives you a little bit of a knot in the throat, but my eyes actually filled with tears and I had to stop talking and get my breath. Maybe just too much coffee and not enough sleep ( although I got almost 12 hours last night). Maybe too much sleep. I don't know.

Back from the distractions

A friend, Sara S., suggested I might be in the wrong venue when creating very carefully edited replies to other blogs, which seem to either a.) antagonize the other posters, or b.) antagonize me because I'm unhappy with what I wrote, or c.) frustrate me because what I'm writing about seems to other readers like an entry from Mr. Smarty Pants' I Told You So Journal, or just old-fashioned showing off.

She suggested I take the subjects on other blogs which interest me as a spring board and write about them somewhere else. A friendlier audience, or certainly one that is not going to judge an entry because they don't understand it. Or me. OK. Well, what's out there today?

A quick check doesn't locate anything of interest much. Slow everywhere maybe because it's Monday of Thanksgiving Week. But then, why is that a week to give up on everything? Just because the last two days are (in many cases) holidays. Perhaps it's the routine being broken up. I know I rarely check stuff on the 'net between Friday night and Monday morning. So this week being only three business days long (not to slight you all in the hospitality and service industries, I'm talking about business days here), it becomes something of a holding pattern on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Bought the wife a Christmas ornament last night, one for the tree. It's one she wanted but wouldn't have bought herself, so I got it for her. Took Zoe to the mall and nicked in and out of the Disney store right quick. I knew she'd love it, and she did. It's Lady and the Tramp at the Italian restaurant with the checked tablecloth and plate of spaghetti. She really loved it.

Also picked up a decoration of Pluto, wearing a Santa hat, looking at his bowl which has some bones wrapped with ribbons. This will be the annual one, with 2009 on it (me and the Sharpie added that). It reminds me of Bodhi, and is therefore very poignant.

Which is all by way of saying I have returned to the comfortable confines of The Centurion's Servant.

Oh my. Another year.

Heavens to Betsy. Were it not for seeing my nephew's blog last night and remembering The Centurion's Servant whirling noiselessly here in cyberspace, I might have completely forgotten for another year. Thanks, Bill. You're a right good laddie.

So. What up, blood? Well. Uh,--riding Zoe has been such a kick. Almost indescribable. I really love it. Makes me happy.

That's mostly what I've been up to since Nov. '07, when I got her. Zoe, that is. If you're interested, she's a 2007 Honda Shadow Aero 750.

Do I ever remember this...

All those years ago, at the drive-in movie, you were encouraged to go get a snack between features with this literally unforgettable jingle and cartoon.

What I think about on Memorial Day

At the end of "Saving Private Ryan," the main character, Capt. Miller, is mortally wounded. As the carnage of battle roars around them, Capt. Miller breathes his last and mutters to Pvt. Ryan, "Earn this." In the 9 years since I saw that, every time I think of our fighting forces and what they do for us I reaffirm that I must "earn this" life in the United States. By somehow making this a better world into which I was born, by being a good American, by always remembering the sacrifices of our military, I hope to "earn this." Fictional movie or not, "Saving Pvt. Ryan" tells a great truth. It's what I think about on Memorial Day.

Three months later...

Hoo-boy. Am I a bad Centurion. Not a word for---over a year now? Eek.

To what am I dedicated? God? Yes. Living a moral life, according to the laws of Moses, the teachings of Jesus Christ and the canons of the Roman Catholic church? Yes.

So--what's your problem, Decius?

If I knew the answer to that I'd be a lot better off.

What brought me back was the semi-annual purchase of new clothes and shoes to get through the work day and occasions I am called to serve at Mass as a lector. New Navy-blue blazer, gray slacks, a couple of dress shirts and weekday shirts (polo type) and three really nice pair of Geoffrey Beene shorts for weekdays (no, my employer does not have a dress code, thankfully, and yes I know how lucky I am), a very classy looking mostly purple tie in anticipation of lectoring during Holy Week or at the Easter vigil.

And two pair of sandals that look to me like--uh, well, Roman military sandals. Two pair so I can wear different ones every day. Better for your spine and the Lord knows I need to take care of that particular piece of carnality. So--what do Roman military sandals look like? These ones.

At least, these are what a 21st-century American blogger in his mid-50s like me thinks ancient Roman military sandals would look like. Am liking them muchly. Muy comfortable.

They jogged me back on to the blogging path.

Has it been a year?

Oh my. I knew time was fleeting--flit flit flitting like summer insects--but I had no idea it has been a whole year since I posted here.

I feel bad, sort of. What happened? I don't know, and I'm sleepy and want to go home. Forgive me.