Back in the saddle after a rather abnormal week of funerary responsibilities.

It was…interesting…to have to get somewhat large quantities of snow out of the way before proceeding with other necessary preparations at the cemetary, but with heavy ag equipment, wonders were done, and the rest became more or less routine.

Working ouside in the cold  reminds the Chief of one of Clausewitz’ observations on war:  “Everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult.”

Ditto for outside work in zero-ish temperatures with wind!

Blogging has been slow lately…have been shifting over to Windows 7…which has caused a few issues that needed to be resolved. This was right after some config issues with my blog host site…nothing wrong with THEM…just some changes that requred configuration that was…ah…beyond my experience? You get the picture!

Anyway…things are expeditious again, so it’s back to normal, or at least what passes for it.

Tuesday Events

Meanwhile…tomorrow is a big political day.

The Chief will be attendign a luncheon meeting with SD Attorney General Jackley who will be speaking on issues affecting the state with regards to the current decrepit state of Federalism. More to follow after the event.

Oh yeah, there is also the Massachusetts Senate special election, which one supposes that some will be following with some degree of interest.

However it turns out, there will be a lot of grist for the discussion mills…this has become a big deal…the Chief admits he will be one of those watching for the results on this.

Although Boston and the Bay State are a “fur piece” from the northern plains, the political reach of this one can have significant effects, even out here.

B.O. making fun of pickuop truck drivers in his effort to contribute to the Donkey Party cause has, IMHO a lack of situational awareness and again demonstrates an attitude of elitist contempt for life in the real world.

One could also point out that there is some inconsistancy in criticizing Brown for driving his truck – which is a GMC. Ooops! So much for supporting General Motors!

Back off the marathon 19 day bus trip to and from points east…phew!

It’s a long way from the sidewalks of NY…nice to visit, better to live in SD IMHO.

Travel to Springfield, IL,  Cincinnati, OH,  Richmond, VA, and currently in the belly of the beast:  D.C., has wreaked havoc wit blog posting, and may well continue to do so, as arrival back home will not be until around the 4th.

BLOGNOTE: Posting has been kind of spotty lately due to a road trip…am currently in Boston, and soon after returning home next week, will be out again on an 18 day “historiography” road trip as part of a Master’s degree program that the Chief is in through a U.S.D. grant.

I hope to keep up with posting somewhat…but it will likely be “catch as catch can” for most of the month of June.

As you may have noticed blogging has been a bit sparse lately…lots of stuff going on with school this time of year, plus fighting off a couple of late spring blizzards (!) here in eastern South Dakota, most recently last Friday, has had a certain…disruptive effect here.

There’s been the usual ration of insane news lately, however, and the Chief is definitely still hangin’ in there…

Been busier than a one-armed paper hanger with a number of different things going on all at once: result, an involuntary, circumstantial blog hiatus.

Hey, but guess what? It’s past!

Blogging has been off lately – yeah, of course, the holidays, right?

That hasn’t been too bad…but the touch of pneumonia has been another story.

Things are on the upswing…and hopefully will continue to be so.

Road Trip Report

Just completed 10 day road trip – meandering across southern Indiana in search of genealogical information.

This exercise was successful, with a lot of the Chief”s ancestral information and family historical locations visited.

The emotional highlight came with a visit to a remote rural family burying ground, with the grave of (one of) my Revolutionary War ancestors, who served in the 3rd Pennsylvania infantry, and fought at Trenton and Brandywine. Also discovered another previously unknown Revolutionary vet, and a number of War of 1812-ers, and Civil War types also.

The next day, I had the chance to visit the George Rogers Clark memorial – what a job HE did, leading a 3-week forced march of about 190 men across flooded out southern Illinois in mid-winter, and then attacking, and getting the surrender of around 600 Brits in their Ft. Sackville at Vincennes, IN.

This American victory sealed the presence of the United States in the “Old Northwest” and insured that the new republic would NOT be restricted to the strip of the 13 (former) colonies along the Atlantic seaboard.

We stand on the shoulders of giants. May we be worthy of the sacrifice and accomplishments of our ancestors, and add to their edifice rather than tear it down.

Posting may be spotty for a while…ROAD TRIP!

Will try to keep up…but…you know…

This blog will be changing residence locations again…the process is rolling, so if at some point the URL isn’t working, hang in there…it will all come back as normal again.

As will be said at the end of the universe: “We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Posting will be lacking for a few days while the Chief assists with a group of Scouts doing their summer camp thing. Will be back after Monday.

Hopefully The world doesn’t blow up or anything until I’m back to post about it!

Chief Week-end hiatus Ends!

Circumstances prevented posting over the weekend, but like a bad check, bolgging has bounced back!

FIRST Robotics KC Regional

This past week the Chief had to prepare and then travel to Kansas City for a F.I.R.S.T. (see above link!) Robotics competition as coach of the robotics team at the Flandreau Indian School.

There were 42 teams at the event, and while our outcome in the competition standings wasn’t high, the efforts of the 4 female students of the team was recognized in the form of the Judge’s Award – designed to recognize what was considered to be an extraordinary effort and circumstance of a team that needed to be noted, but didn’t fall under any of the other categories of awards.

It’s a credit to the students, and their efforts during the robot build period, and in the competition event itself.

With this season completed, blogging will be more regular than it’s been since the robot build “season”, etc. over.

THe next blog project is to shift from MovableType to a WordPress server. That should be a big improvement – once it takes place.

Iraq Insurgents Claim to Kill 4 Russians

An al-Qaida-linked group posted a Web video Sunday showing the killings of three Russian embassy workers abducted earlier this month in Iraq. A fourth also was said to have been killed.

Let’s see now. Russia has staunchly opposed the US Iraq war. So what’s the problem with them as far as al Qaida is concerned. Perhaps, they are fighting agains Islamofascists in Chechnya. Oh yeah, they are also guilty of not being Muslim.

One wonders whether Pooty will start to get the point.