iPhones

I mentioned at the beginning of my post yesterday but forgot to get back to it. The Wife and I are going to join the i world. The touch screen on our phones have stopped working and this was unacceptable to The Wife. I didn’t like it, but I’m able to adapt… The Wife, not so much. She complained and complained and complained about my touch screen not working until hers also stopped working. Once that happened, she was able to start complaining about that. She decided she wanted an iPhone. Really, there were just no other options that were available unless we wanted to get a phone like our my friend Danny (you know, the kind that is in a bag and takes you 5 minutes to type a 4 word text). So we went to the cell phone store to get our new phones.


We go in the store and I do what I always do… walk away and let The Wife talk to the sales lady. I do this because I want them to know up front that talking to me will get them nowhere. The good news here is that for the brief time we were in the store, I did not have anyone walk up and ask me to help them. So I’ve got that going for me… which is nice. Anyway, I glance over to the counter and see The Wife with an annoyed look on her face. I can tell the sales lady is telling her something she doesn’t want to hear. They go back and forth for a while and then I decided it was time to step in. So I walked over there and told The Wife it was time for us to go. Apparently The Wife was mad because she was told that we would have to pay full retail for the phones since we weren’t eligible for new phones. And they don’t have our phones anymore… so they can’t replace them. So we leave and talk about it in the van while going back to church to get my car. By the time we get to my car we have agreed that our phones are still useable (not ideal…but useable) so we will wait a while before we get new phones. I guess I wasn’t really clear on how long “a while” was. I drove home while The Wife went to her parents’ house to get the kids. When she got home I was informed that our new iPhones would be here by Wednesday. I had thought “a while” might mean a few months… it seems she thought it was a few days. To be fair, it seems The Wife was able to call someone and beat them down until she was able to get what she wanted (kind of reminds me of our engagement). She got them to agree to let us upgrade at the super deal price (still more than I’d like… but a heck of a lot cheaper than retail). So by sometime tomorrow (or today if you’re reading this on Wednesday) we will enter the i world. I hope it is worth it.


Know Your Medal of Honor Recipients:

Sergeant Daniel Caldwell (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on February 6, 1865 at Hatchers Run, Virginia. His citation reads:

In a mounted charge, dashed into center of the enemy's line and captured the colors of the 33rd North Carolina Infantry.

First Sergeant Ivers S. Calkin (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions from April 6, 1865 at Sailors Creek, Virginia. His citation reads:

Capture of flag of 18th Virginia Infantry (C.S.A.).

Corporal Donald M. Call (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on September 26, 1918 near Varennes, France. His citation reads:

During an operation against enemy machinegun nests west of Varennes, Cpl. Call was in a tank with an officer when half of the turret was knocked off by a direct artillery hit. Choked by gas from the high-explosive shell, he left the tank and took cover in a shellhole 30 yards away. Seeing that the officer did not follow, and thinking that he might be alive, Cpl. Call returned to the tank under intense machinegun and shell fire and carried the officer over a mile under machinegun and sniper fire to safety.

Congrats Susan!!!!!!!!!!

BIG NEWS!!!!!!!!


The Wife and I are getting iPhones. But more on that later… In other news, we at I’m just sayin… would like to extend our very happy congratulations to our cousin Susan and her now fiancé Bryan. We are happy because we like Bryan and because we didn’t want something to happen to them causing us to feel like we’d wasted the last 8 or 9 years of our lives trying to remember his name :). Haha… I kid… I don’t really know how long they’ve been dating. Anyway, CONGRATS to Susan and Bryan. I know it was a great Saturday for them.


Speaking of Awesome Saturdays… This past Saturday was an awesome day/night for me. I have been looking forward to this day for sometime now and it lived up to my expectations. It started with us running late to KC and LA’s house. As anyone who knows me knows, I hate running late… which is somewhat ironic since I seem to be late a good bit. So I’m not in a great mood and The Wife got a little snippy with me. I told her the only reason she was making us late is because we were going to hang out with my friends… if we were going to hang out with her friends she wouldn’t be making us late. She seemed to take offense to this since, she feels, they are just as much her friends as they are mine (and she’s known most of them longer than I have). So one thing leads to another and she says if we were divorced, they would stay friends with her and not me. That, I told her, was just crazy talk. So we went down the list trying to figure out who would stick with her and who would stick with me. Let’s just say, I won by a large margin and really the only reason she had any on her side was because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. To prove my point, when we got to KC’s house I got out of the car and asked my friend (and longtime I’m just sayin reader) Danny who he would stick with. Before the question was fully out of my mouth (and with a tone and facial expression which would lead one to think that the question is such a no-brainer that it’s almost insulting to be asked it) he said “Greg”. The Wife then, in a very pleading tone, ask Danny’s wife Jen (also a longtime I’m just sayin… reader) who she would stick with. While Jen did say “The Wife”, the soft wavering tone of her voice and her body language clearly said “Greg”. So that’s how the night started. We brought with us a good sausage/cheese dip, Woodchuck (the apple juice of beer… for The Wife) and PBR (the beer of real men… for me). Susie picked the beer for me earlier in the day when we were at The Pig (my choice for grocery stores). Of course, I could have gone with Pig Swig, but I was feeling the canned beer Saturday night over bottled beer… so that ruled Pig Swig out. Anyway, I’m standing there trying to figure out which beer I’m going to take and Susie picked PBR. Actually, I think she picked Old Milwaukee NA (non-alcoholic)… but she didn’t protest when I grabbed the PBR, so we’ll go say she picked that. Some of you might be asking, “Why PBR?” That’s a very fair question. I’ve taken a liking to PBR for a couple of reasons. The main reason is when I’m in a group setting, it makes it easy to keep up with which beer I brought… since no one else in my circle is going to bring it to a party. Also, it makes it easy to share with others:


Friend: “Hey… Can I grab a beer?”


Me: “Sure, no problem. It’s the PBR”.


Friend: “Never mind”.


So we were at KC’s house partying with my friends KC, LA, Danny, Jen, Michael, Adrian, Ross, Ginny, Cory and Ashley. We won’t talk about what was talked about because, as you all know, what’s said at KC’s stays at KC’s. This extends to cars going to and from KC’s. Speaking of cars, big shout outs go to LA and Adrian for being our drivers for the night. While I won’t get into specifics, I can say a somewhat inappropriate conversation was going on between some of the people in the Adrian car while Jen was on a work related phone call. I know it was somewhat inappropriate because at one point Jen covered her phone and said “Hey! I’m on a work related call here!” What went unsaid, but could be gathered from her tone of voice, was “If I get a (bleep)ing call on Monday morning because of the (bleep)ing stuff you (bleep)ing people are talking about right now, heads are going to (bleep)ing roll!!!!” So everyone did there best not to say anything else until she got off the phone… and she did her best to resolve the work situation and get off the phone in a record time. Needless to say, no more work calls were taken that night.


We then get to the Hootie and the Blowfish concert and… well… it rained. Really, really, really, really hard. How hard? Go get a big bucket, fill it up with water and pour it on your head. Now picture that going on non-stop. The girls went downstairs to get under cover. Me, KC, Michael and Ross stayed in our seats. Within five minutes we were soaked. We would not have been any wetter had we been standing in a pool. It’s funny to see how different people react to rain. The girls (who were out of the rain) had ponchos/rain gear… Danny (also with the girls) had some type of rain gear (I don’t remember… maybe a poncho). Cory (also with the girls) had a fishing shirt that was made out of duck hair (a yellow duck). Ross, Michael, KC and me (the people in our group still in the rain) had the clothes we were wearing… and smiles on our faces. The rain actually felt pretty good. I mean, if it were the middle of November then I’d have gone downstairs. But in the summer heat we’ve been having I was willing to take my chances in the rain. Then someone from the concert staff came around and told us the show was being cancelled. We weren’t happy… but it was still pouring rain so Michael and I started heading down to get the girls. By this point, KC had made some new friends and was under the stairs to the metal bleachers… he refused to leave. Ross… well, let’s be honest… Ross is easily distracted and I think by this point he had wandered off to who knows where. So we decide to head to the cars (really, to only lose two guys in a situation like that isn’t all that bad). We get to the gate and as people are flooding out (pun intended), the guy working the gate is telling people the concert has not been cancelled. This is about 9:15pm. So we head back up to our seats and Hootie comes on a little after 9:30pm. If I had to use one word to describe the concert, it would be: justasfreakingawesomeasIthoughtitwouldbe. It looked like they were very grateful and somewhat amazed that so many people stuck around in the pouring rain just to hear them play. I won’t give you a blow by blow accounting of the concert (like I did for most of the night), but I will point out some things. I’m pretty sure they played all of the Hootie “classics”. They also played some of Darius’ Country hits. The guys also had some guests up on stage with them. They had a couple of guys from Sister Hazel get up on stage with them to sing “All For You” (with Darius singing back-up… along with everyone else in the stadium). Radney Foster was also in the house and he got up on stage to sing some of his songs that the band has covered over the years. It was kind of fun seeing how much fun Darius was having singing with a guy who (he says) has had a big influence on his music. Let me tell you why I like going to a Hootie concert… it’s because I like their songs AND I like the songs they cover. I don’t remember all of the cover songs they sang this past Saturday, but two that come to mind are “Losing My Religion” by REM and “Surrender” by Cheap Trick. That was the song they ended the show with and I think it was a good choice. It sends everyone out on a pumped up high note. I would have liked to have them play (and perhaps end the show) with David Allen Coe’s “You Never Even Called Me by My Name” as they have a few times in the past… but “Surrender” was also a good choice. After the concert we went back to KC and LA’s house to hang out some more. The Wife and I finally left some time after 1:00 am because we had to get up and go to church in a few hours (I had to usher the 8:45 service and she had to teach the Special Needs Sunday School class… and trust me, after the night we just had… we needed to go to church).  :)


Cory and Michael also had to get up in time to usher the 8:45 service. I am happy (and more than a little surprised) to say that we all made it (and on time… and by on time I mean after Jeremy, who I think must spend the night in the church on Saturdays before we usher).


One more thing about why I like Darius Rucker. He’s from the area and he still lives in the area. He could live anywhere he wants… and he wants to live here. I like that. He’s also a big supporter of Pattison’s Academy which is a non-profit group that does a lot of work helping children with special needs (including running a charter school for special needs children). We at I’m just sayin… would like to tip our hat to Darius Rucker and all the guys of Hootie and The Blowfish. We can’t wait for the concert next year!


Speaking of school… Today was Mary Ruth’s first day of school. Susie also moved up to the 2 year old class today. Here’s a picture of my girls from this morning:

The big one and the little one

I don’t know if you heard this, but it’s pretty good. The Indiana football coach and some radio guys got in a little argument. It’s worth a listen.


Know Your Medal of Honor Recipients:

Sergeant Luman L. Cadwell (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions from September 20, 1864 at Alabama Bayou, Louisiana. His citation reads:

Swam the bayou under fire of the enemy and captured and brought off a boat by means of which the command crossed and routed the enemy.

Private Hector A. Cafferata, Jr. (US Marine Corps) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on November 28, 1950 in Korea. His citation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a rifleman with Company F, in action against enemy aggressor forces. When all the other members of his fire team became casualties, creating a gap in the lines, during the initial phase of a vicious attack launched by a fanatical enemy of regimental strength against his company's hill position, Pvt. Cafferata waged a lone battle with grenades and rifle fire as the attack gained momentum and the enemy threatened penetration through the gap and endangered the integrity of the entire defensive perimeter. Making a target of himself under the devastating fire from automatic weapons, rifles, grenades, and mortars, he maneuvered up and down the line and delivered accurate and effective fire against the onrushing force, killing 15, wounding many more, and forcing the others to withdraw so that reinforcements could move up and consolidate the position. Again fighting desperately against a renewed onslaught later that same morning when a hostile grenade landed in a shallow entrenchment occupied by wounded marines, Pvt. Cafferata rushed into the gully under heavy fire, seized the deadly missile in his right hand and hurled it free of his comrades before it detonated, severing part of 1 finger and seriously wounding him in the right hand and arm. Courageously ignoring the intense pain, he staunchly fought on until he was struck by a sniper's bullet and forced to submit to evacuation for medical treatment Stouthearted and indomitable, Pvt. Cafferata, by his fortitude, great personal valor, and dauntless perseverance in the face of almost certain death, saved the lives of several of his fellow marines and contributed essentially to the success achieved by his company in maintaining its defensive position against tremendous odds. His extraordinary heroism throughout was in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

Seaman Thomas Cahey (US Navy) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on March 31, 1901 on board the USS Petrel. His citation reads:

On board the U.S.S. Petrel for heroism and gallantry, fearlessly exposing his own life to danger in saving others on the occasion of the fire on board that vessel, 31 March 1901.