"Snick, Crunch..."

hear that sound?  that's the sound of a really rough gear change...

i was going pretty well with this blogging business for a bit there, but it fell off as things around me changed.  now i've had yet another change.  i'm home from afghanistan.  i will no longer be in the army (soon).  we're having another baby.  we're moving to a new state.  we're starting a new job... whew!  this is a lot!

anyway, with all these new shifts i figured what better time to press in the clutch pedal on this blog and try for gear number 2.  lets hope that this time around as my life shifts gears i'll be able to shift as fast on the blog!

here's to new experiences and learning to drive your life via "manual".

----EDIT----

Yet another gear change means this blog is only used as 1st Gear!  2nd Gear included the post you see above... but has since given way to 3rd Gear over at nateshoemaker.wordpress.com.

Won't Back Down...

I love the song Won't Back Down.  The Tom Petty arrangement is good, but my favorite one is Johnny Cash's.  There's just something righteous about it and it always gets my attention and makes me want to listen intently to it when it plays.  


Here are the lyrics:


[Verse 1]
Well I won't back down, no I won't back down
You can stand me up at the gates of hell
But I won't back down

[Verse 2]
Gonna stand my ground, won't be turned around
And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down
Gonna stand my ground and I won't back down

[Chorus]
Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out
Hey I will stand my ground and I won't back down

[Verse 3]
Well I know what's right, I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin' me around
But I stand my ground and I won't back down

[Chorus]
Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out
Hey I will stand my ground and I won't back down
No I won't back down.


[written by Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne]
copyright EMI APRIL MUSIC INC.

Christmas cheer? You tell me... (possibly NSFW)

Well... this Christmas is one that will be remembered forever, no doubt.  This is my good friend (and our squad's medic) SGT Larmer.  He's nuts, as I'm sure you can see at this point... and apparently has no problem risking his own ... well you get the idea.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Decorations!

Well, it's Christmas Eve and I finally put up some my decorations... I moved my roommate's tree because he's on leave and then set up my own in its place.  And then I strung lights all around my bed and shelving (as you can see in the pictures).  I don't have a whole lot to say about all this, I just thought I'd share the pictures, really...

Santa Shoemaker

So I got to play Santa over here in Afghanistan. My dad and his office sent over lots of food and batteries and some socks and head-lamps. There were tons and tons of Snickers bars, and Twix, and Milkyway. And tons and tons of AA and AAA Batteries. And also assorted snacks from other candies to beef jerky to chicken salad packs.

It was surprisingly difficult to get started, figuring out how to mix and match so many items without an assembly line so to speak... and all the moving around made me feel hot, and then I started to sweat and then my head felt itchy; but I powered through, Santa doesn't let an itchy head keep him from rewarding the nice with gifts and embarrassing the naughty with coal. So I had to trek onward.

Eventually I got sort of a system going, keeping track of which bags had what items and got them separated into different piles. Then it was basically as simple as just going around in a circle distributing the goods to the bags. As you can see, there was plenty of stuff and it all took up a lot of space in my little living space. I'm glad my roomie had just left for leave because that would have been more stuff and 1 person too many walking around our little room.

I kept stepping on the bags, and almost tripping myself, and catching stuff on the wires around

the computer, etc. But eventually, the bed was cleared off, the floor was covered with full bags, I was sweaty and ready to begin delivering the presents. Let's face it, there was no room for me to hang on to the bags until Christmas...

I took 3-4 bags at a time to each room and dropped them off.

Each guy was glad for the bag of goods (speaking of which, I hope my roommate doesn't mind that I used all his extra shopping bags...) It was fun to watch the ones that got head-lamps walking around with little red lights on their heads... and wearing smart wool socks with their flip-flops... silly soldiers.

It felt really good to give the presents to the guys, even if I didn't buy them. And it is really neat to see joy, happiness, and excitement in the guys. Morale has been a bit low as of late, but it's wonderful to see how the Christmas season can make a difference for soldiers who see hard things, traumatic things, and stupid things regularly here and where they don't have family to help them deal with it.