Seven years ago this month I performed my last Drill Weekend with the Navy Reserve. I was retiring after almost 26 years of Active and Reserve service. Several of my peers where I work today, Navy veterans all, greet me with “Chief” or “Senior Chief”, One of my favorite people is a formerly active (NEVER call them former) Marine who participates all year long in Pirate-themed public events. At other times and places, love to engage in sea stories with with among others, a friend who served in the Navy fifty years ago.
So the Navy was good to me.
These days I supplement my working hours, church meetings and some political engaging on Facebook, with the dubious and infrequent bit of wisdom I can impart to family and the public at large through blogging.
Some of my best ideas germinate from twice daily walks with my dogs Dexter and Comet. This week, I wrote about such topics as dealing with weeds, weather, dog behavior and so on. But it was a bird, or rather a flock of birds that got my thinking cap on.
The annual ‘migration’ of parrots to my neighborhood (they actually live in San Diego year round) noisily began this week. These are descended from escapees from a pet store many ago; over the years I have seen them in various communities of east San Diego County. On this particular occasion, Monday, all the squawking and fluttering of wings began about 6:30 in the morning; it grabbed the attention of one of my dogs (the other was “focused” on his morning constitutional). If it were not for my need to get my work commute started, Dexter would have just stood there watching the tumult for quite some time.
So, today at lunch, I was reading from one of my favorite military humor websites, The Sitrep, when I happened to read an article and watch the video of a little parrot that wanted to join the Navy.
Looney Tunes.
With adult eyes and the experience of a few decades, I can understand why these cartoons may have disappeared. The themes were as much ‘adult’ as they were to entertain kids. Twenty-five years ago prior to an entire generation being raised on Family Guy, the cartoon had been rather tame. But entertainment today is an endless supply of melodrama and human caricatures on cable television.
However, it does an old Sea Dog ‘s heart good to chuckle with a cartoon. Perhaps the pirating life has not dimmed entirely for me.
Truths, Half-truths, and Sea Stories 