Thursday, January 10, 2013

Small Stuff, Again

From the Usual USAF Source...
Schwartz's Official Portrait Unveiled: Air Force officials unveiled the official portrait painting of retired Gen. Norton Schwartz, 19th Chief of Staff, on Tuesday during a ceremony at the Pentagon. The portrait features Schwartz standing with the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Va., shown in the background. The painting will be on display in the Pentagon's Arnold Corridor alongside the portraits of the other former Air Force Chiefs of Staff. "As I painted the portrait itself, my main goal was to convey something of the spirit of General Schwartz," said artist Michele Rushwort during the Jan. 8 unveiling. Schwartz retired from the Air Force last year after 39 years of service. He spent his last four years in uniform as Chief of Staff. "Our nation must never take for granted the selfless service, dedication, and sacrifice of public servants and military leaders like Norty Schwartz," said Air Force Secretary Michael Donley at the ceremony. Schwartz said the portrait "will be a lasting symbol that in America, and in America's armed forces, remarkable things are still possible no matter who you were, or where you came from." (Washington, D.C., report by SSgt. David Salanitri)
Well, at least it looks like him.  Gen. Schwartz has every right to smile, seeing as how he'll be drawing 97.5% of his final base pay for the rest of his life.  That works out to $14,600.00 a month.  I'd smile, too.

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We're still eating those Navy beans we cooked up last Sunday but we'll see the end of 'em today.  That said, it's a great good thing I really, rilly like those beans.  I can't think of anything else I'd eat for five days straight... unless I was forced to do so.  OTOH, fixing dinner has been remarkably easy these past few days... make a salad while the beans are in the nuker, sit down, eat.  It don't get much easier than that, Gentle Reader.

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I forgot to mention this yesterday, but the onset o' winter has GREATLY reduced my whiskey and cigar consumption, what with the virtual suspension of After Dinner Whiskey Hour, which is always taken on the verandah in warmer weather.  The last time I bought whiskey was on November 14th and I went the entire month of December without purchasing cigars.  The impact on my budget has been astounding.  That won't last, however.

11 comments:

  1. You don't drink inside? Hell, if I were cooped up Cabin Fever style that's all I would do all day. You know, the old drink->pass-out->wake-up& sober-up->drink->pass-out, etc. (eatin's cheatin') schedule. What the H do you DO w. your time, anyway--watch re-runs of NCIS all day? :)

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    1. Oh, I drink inside... I just don't drink as MUCH. There's a lot to do, Virgil, and I do go out from time to time. Remember: only the boring are bored.

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    2. Yeah, you've got to spend some time working on your blogsite to keep feeding all the animals like me who hang around just so we'll have something to do with our spare time, right, ?

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    3. The blog does take up a bit o' my time. It's actually the ONLY thing that lends structure to my life at this point.

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    4. The ONLY thing? You ought to invest in an X-box 360 or Play-Station 2/3 and get into 1st person shooter games or World of Warcraft, etc. You could loose yourself for hours that way. Better yet, get into those flt simulation games. You can pick your aircraft (WWI/II/or Vietnam era+) and either play against the computer or on-line against others. Get yourself a good joystick at min. (Some go semi whole-hog and get a throttle quadrant and rudder-peddles for your feet--whole-hog is the guy who builds a gimballed flt sim in his house, lol) I can't go that route because it would be divorce-city--my wife is the jealous type. If she had married me when I was a fighter pilot she would have had to share the love and there would have been no way with her--I'd be working on my second wife by now, lol. But YOU'VE got the free time, my man! Go to it!

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    5. I SUCK at flight sims and I don't have much use for other computer games... none at all, actually. I bought a couple of flight sims back in the early '90s and quickly discovered I had no aptitude. I consider the other sorts of computer games a colossal waste o' time; I'd rather watch teevee (which I don't do a lot of, anyway) than play those damned things.

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  2. You had a good run (no pun intended) with those beans. I could do 5 days of Navy beans, Whites, or Pintos easy. Outside of marinara cappellini I can't say that about much of anything else to eat.

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    1. Heh. There was a point in time when I ate pinto beans nearly every day -- when I was a young three-striper with a wife and child, circa 1967. Pinto beans were good AND cheap, plus I had a wife who could... with a lot of instruction from her tias... work magic with those things.

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  3. I made a big stew - Mexican style - for supper. Without Jesse around, it lasts a long time. She made "Evil Jungle Chicken" - some sort of curry/coconut milk concoction and posted it on FB. I teased her about making so much when it is just her and Bethany eating. She said that Bethany eats a lot.

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    1. Does Bethany LOOK like she eats a lot? ;-)

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    2. Bethany is tall, slim and gorgeous. She is one of the girls who went to Hawaii with Jes (May 2011).

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Just be polite... that's all I ask.