Stupid Random!

I've been busy, and have been wanting to post, yet I haven't found the gumption to sit down and write one. I didn't even do a Lost post this week! Well I am forcing myself to get at least one post out, so I might as well make it a random one.

"Back" in the field

OK the back sprain is healing pretty good and I think I am ready to go shot again. Well, it might also be that I am sick of show editing. I've not touched a camera for two weeks now and I need to start up again. I've got a small amount of discomfort when I sit, but we will see about carrying heavy items around. At times I fell the station thinks I want to get out of shooting, why else am I always getting injured? I just need to do more preventive work like stretches and actually lifting the proper way. My goal is no more injuries for at least one year. Stop laughing.. seriously, I want to be injury free for a year. OK, I'll go for 6 months, that's a good start.

Dog Watch March 08

For the last year we have had a battle of will in our house, baby vs dog. You can probably figure out who wants what. My argument is that we start with a dog and then we can see how we do there and then go for the baby thing. It's kind of like The Wife's brother and his wife, they got a dog, everyone but them realized she was going to be crazy and now that they have a baby, she is well, crazy.

Well The Wife decided to meet some of our neighbors and guess what they had... A PUPPY! and she fell in love with it. To make things even more awesome, they told her my idea was a good one. I finally won a battle!!!! I felt like there should have been balloons and confetti dropping from the ceiling. We started a search and came across Odie on craigslist. We have been emailing back and forth and then we could not check our email on Sunday and from that point on it went quiet. I emailed twice on Monday and no response, finally I open my email and see a message from the woman... Odie may be adopted to someone else. The current owner for some reason took no emails on Sunday as several days. We both would love to have this dog, now it looks like we may have to move on. We'll try and give updated.

"You Ain't No Kind of Man if You Don't Own Land"

That quote came from the movie O Brother Where Art Thou one of my favorite movies, and from it you can probably figure out we are looking at buying a house... sort of. This past Sunday, we had lunch with some friends and they happen to live near a house for sale. We look at it and it's a nice house and then we see the price has been dropped. The builder is actually selling it for less than it's worth. Then an agent just happens to show up. We are thinking this house has to be for us what are the odds of all this happening?

We look at the house and think it would be a great place to buy. Then comes the part I feared the most... figuring out how we can get a loan. You see back in aught 5 I subconsciously decided that credit was not that important and well, destroyed it. Money wise, I'm fine, yet they look at that score and cringe and usually hang up. The Wife's credit is much better, but she doesn't make enough, so we have constant problems with anything that involves credit.

I call a group that specializes in first time home mortgages and amazingly enough we get approved and at 6% fixed. Considering that is no money now... not too bad, then the bad part, the payments are 180 dollars more than we pay in rent now. We could probably make that payment, but things would be tight. We have done well in getting rid of some of our debt, I'd have to see us revert back to having problems. It's kind of hard to get that close and then find out that everything is just out of reach. At least I now know that I can buy a house if we want to.

Basketball Postseason

For the past 6 years I have been able to cover some form of basketball post season. I thought I was about to make it 7 till I was pulled from the ACC women's tournament because of "overtime" issue. Then I threw my back out and the point was mute. It just feels odd not having to travel cover pressers and rushing around trying to feed out video. It was always a lot of work, but I loved it. It all started with the MAC tournament when I was in West Virginia, I got to see Antonio Gates play basketball not football. I covered three years of high school basketball in Ohio and got to see OJ Mayo, Raymar Morgan and Bill Walker play. Last year I covered North Carolina in Winston-Salem and then East Rutheford, New Jersey.

There were rumors that I would run the sat truck, but they installed new equipment and I have no idea how to work the truck now. There could be an outside shot, but I'm not holding my breathe. We are short two photographers and no way are they going to give anyone up to sports. Yet another era for me ends.

Birthday

This will be the first time in 6 years I won't have to cover basketball on my birthday so that's a nice trade off. I normally hate birthdays and usually bad things happen around them. Nothing horrible, just random bad days that make me not want to have birthdays. This year I was hoping to get Odie, but now I might get to go to the Bentonville Battlefield reenactment. I know a Civil War reenactment... I'm a dork. I like the Civil War, it was an interesting time in our country and I live near the final battle sight so I'm going to see the reenactment.

Book Review

I mentioned early in the year that I was trying to read 10 books this year. Well I just finished my third so I'm on average to do 6.5 books. I better get on the ball, but the latest book is what I want to talk about.

Four weeks ago The Wife and I were walking around the Triangle Mall when we past a Borders Books. Just in passing she asked if I wanted a new book. I was not liking the one I was reading and pretty much had not read in three weeks. I say now, but something was telling to do it. We go inside and I was looking for another sports, but I meandered into the Civil War section and found Testament: A Soldier's Story of the Civil War. It's the story of Benjamin Webb Baker, a soldier with the Illinois 25th. He was just a normal farm boy who was against slavery in the new territories and saw a need to serve when the south left the Union.

The interesting thing is that during the entire time he was in the War he was really only in 4 major battles (Pea Ridge, Perryville and Stones River and part of Sherman's March to the Atlanta). The Union Army mostly chased Braxton Bragg around Tennessee and waisted time and men. The Army of the Cumberland just marched and changed leaders constantly.

It was interesting to hear how he dealt with the march and what he thought about the war. The most compelling part of the book was after his brother joined the army and saw his first action at Perryville and was killed. His letter home was heart wrenching. He actually found (his brother) John's body on the field of battle and helped bury him. His letter's home changed from that point on, he seemed more lonesome and sad. Then at Stones River he was injured. He had a bullet lodged in in left shoulder. It took a few months to heal, but he kept telling his mother that he would be better within a month. After that he did not want to go to the front and wanted the war over. It was also at this time that some of the northerners were starting to rally against the war and were tying to cause problems with the draft and with anyone who supported the troops.

Truthfully, I saw a lot of similarities from what was happening in the 1860s to now. I'm not for the war, but I want our troops to be safe and come home as soon as they can and hopefully get Iraq to some what of a sable ground. Do I know how that will happen no, but I can wish. The country was torn and just like now people are trying every means they can to create chaos and want this war to be over. A lot of the people then and now voted for action, but once things started getting real bad changed their minds and wanted it over at all cost.

Overall I loved this book, it only took me three and a half weeks to read which for me is very fast. If you like to read about the Civil War or want to see how things truthfully do not change read this book.