Tater Said:
First off Tater... so glad you came back by! And I am SOOO jealous you live on the Gulf... another trip another time! lolWow, I'll have to ask my wife if she's heard of Frankenmuth. She's a Christmas junkie, has bought tons of Christmas ornaments everywhere we've been stationed. No not in the ME right now, but have spent so much time there I feel like I'm from there! Thanks for all the nice words though. Like your taste in tunes as well, read the list of the ones you took on the road with you. Don't think I've ever met a lady truck driver before, I find that interesting. I can fly airplanes, and I drove an M-1A tank once, but never got behind the wheel of a tractor-trailer rig before-that's a lot of truck! Enjoy your blog, will stop by often. Cheers
PS. I live on the Gulf of Mexico!
Here's a mini-map of Frankenmuth MI... as well as a link to the Chamber of Commerce you can give your wife. I am a Christmas Santa collector (47 of them so far - it's the largest display in my house) 
and have ceramic, wooden, fabric and ornaments. My tree is always done up in white lights with lots of crystal, gold/brass and all the stuff the kids made when they were little. It is, hands down, the BEST looking tree ever! :) We pull out the holiday glassware, cookie plates, throw rugs, pillows, my Timmy the Talking Snowman which says happy things everytime someone walks by and which the kids BEG me not to get out. They HAVE hidden it from me and removed the batteries. LOL!!! We still (ok I) put out cookies for Santa and I can entertain myself for long moments staring at the lights on my tree. A taffy machine has NOTHING on it! ;)
http://members.frankenmuth.org/membership.asp?id=9
So, explore, have fun and I'm sure she can find something online up there at Bronners - they are HUGE! One fall, I'm going to take a long weekend up there (Or maybe during the week). People book many months ahead up there...
All words were from the heart and richly deserved. Can't do what I do without you folks doin' what you do. We wouldn't last a week without a military to protect our great country. Period.
I love driving a big truck, it's very freeing. (When you get past the idiots lol) I'm very serious when I say I'm more comfortable driving a big truck through a city than a four wheeler. I don't get to drive as much as I used to, so I jump at every chance I get! I guess it would be a similar feeling as having control of an F-16, only not nearly as maneuverable! That would be a kick! And a tank... again, totally jealous! (I was the girl in high school who hung out with the guys, rode dirt bikes, snowmobiles, drag raced, changed my own oil/tires and still looked "bomb", as my oldest daughter's dad told me just a few years back.) Couldn't help it, was way more fun than slumber parties talking about all the other girls! ;)
Anyhow... come back again... and bring me PICTURES of cool things like planes, tanks and other Hero stuff. I'd love to see them! Pretty please!
Oh, and thank your wife for me while you're at it... takes a great person to support the military lifestyle. Would love to have you both share your military experiences. Seriously. Love you folks!
*hugs*
Miss B
4 comments:
Wow, a post just for me! Thanks! You really didn’t have to go to all that effort, but I’m flattered. Yes I do live on, well near, the Gulf. Can walk to my boat/marina from my house, like to go fishing in the Gulf as well. I’ve always like the ocean and knew I’d live in Florida one day. Have been stationed in Florida three times, once in Homestead (south of Miami), once in Tampa, and now I’m up in the panhandle near Pensacola.
Think you’ve got my wife beat when it comes to Christmas! She holds her own though, and although I joke about “Enduring” Christmas vs celebrating it, I have to admit I enjoy our tree once it’s finally up. Nearly each ornament reminds us of somewhere we lived/visited during our marriage, so it’s kinda like a memory lane thing. One thing we both like about our life in the military is that we’ve seen a lot of places (to include your entire list except for Frankenmuth!). Of course there’s been a few places (like the Gulf War) that wasn’t so fun! Good with the bad type of thing.
Never been much of a shutterbug, and just bought my first digital camera this year, so don’t have a lot of digital photos. But here’s a video of what I do for a living. Some fun stuff of things getting blown up. I’m a weapons evaluator, and several times a year we have different squadrons come in and shoot/drop all kinds of weapons for us, just to see how well they’re working. Some weapons are right out of the factory, others we pull out of bomb dumps where they’ve been stored for years. Allows the powers that be to know if things are working properly or not, and gives us real-time reliability numbers. Plus it’s cool just to watch things go bang! The jets are F-16s from the 111 FS in Texas, a unit I used to be assigned to. I’ve actually flown ever jet in the video! Most of the bombs are inert (just made out of concrete, no explosives) but some are live, you can see the difference. At the end of each evaluation we make up a video with all the cool drops the unit does and give it to them. Someone in their unit loaded it up on Youtube.
Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbQoinWy6SA
Tater
Incredible!!! I wanna blow something up!!! (Ok, Feds, not really, but kinda sorta!) ;)
Cool show, I like the ones best that follow the path of the projectile... and that last one where it just blows the ground away... too cool!
Inasmuch as I love watching things go "boom" (and I do - in a totally "hey that's cool and I don't wanna really blow anything up *wink wink* kinda way") I know that on the other side, there's Heroes out there who are hurt every day by this kind of stuff... that struck me in the middle of this video. Makes me resolve to do as much as I can for them.
But, hehe, I want more!!!
Thanks Tater... and maybe I'll just take your wife up to Frankenmuth and show her how it's done!!! LOL
*hugs* buddy...
The ones that "follow the path of the projectile" are AGM(Air to Ground Missile)-65H Mavericks. You're seeing the TV camera image located in the nose of the missile. Designed to kill armor (tanks). The pilot sees the same picture you're seeing until he fires the missile. Then his cockpit mounted TV goes blank. My unit places a telemetry relay unit in the missile that sends out a TV signal all the way till impact, we just record the signal and that way can review the shot. Sometimes the missile misses and we want to know why. We have remote control tanks that drive around to shoot at.
The last bomb that makes the big hole is a GBU(Guided Bomb Unit)-31 JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition). It's a 2000lb bomb that is GPS guided while in flight. Made a 30' deep & 60' diameter crater--lotta boom!
Thanks for helping out the troops, it really makes a difference.
Cheers
*swoon* wow... technical Hero talk and lotsa acronyms... cool! ;)
*wiping drool off face* more more more! lol... thanks man... i absolutely love hearing about all that... that would just be frickin' awesome to be a part of... I'll try to not be greedy! :)
Tater... we (as in every red-blooded American with a lick of sense) think the world of you folks. I don't always like what you guys (in a general sense-ladies as well) have to do; I HATE that there are many who have died, and more that will follow (and by all means, includes all Fallen Heroes from wars before who brought us to and kept us in Freedom). I wish with all my heart I could "adopt" every one of them (when I win the Super Lotto-project number 1 after house for parents and college for kids) and that I could make my living blogging and sending out care packages to them. So no thanks necessary... I'm just doin' what I do so ya'll can do what you do so I can do what I want. (Drive a truck, educate myself, go where I please, say what I like, not bow down to anyone but my God, and not have to live in fear of persecution for my beliefs) That's a lot of freedom. *Star Spangled Banner playing, Flag waving, hand over heart* I LOVE this country!
*steps down off soapbox* No hon, Thank YOU.
*hugs*
Miss B
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