This call was paged throughout the ship during many of our drills.  It was a call whenever the ship faced immediate physical danger (inbound missiles, ordnance, collisions, etc.).  Here, crew members did what they could to hold on to something safely without being thrown about or absorbing the energy that the ship would absorb.

I’m merely giving you the naval definition for my blog title.  However, down here in the north TX area we are indeed bracing.  A significant cold front has passed through and while last night’s low was in the low 60s and it came up to the 70s, we’re dipping to the upper 20s tonight and going up to the 40s tomorrow.  We also had a tornado watch a few hours ago…how are we going to brace for sudden cold, icing and snow and then throw a possible tornado into the mix?  Nice…

Anyways, here’s into my random moments here.  I hear that a judge ruled this morning that paper bills are discriminatory to blind people.  Well, how on earth did they economically and financially survive before?  Is that why drive-up ATMs have Braille on them?  Just curious.  Hearing that, I heard a few weeks ago that the government wasn’t going to use the term “hunger” anymore…I guess that was too offensive or something.  Now they’re going to use “low food security” or something like that.  Well, whatever…we’re about to have low heat security in a few hours.  Bundle up!

Man, I have like two to three weeks of stuff to throw on here…but number one, despite being awake for a few hours now my brain waves are still on the flat line (maybe I should go back to sleep!)…so we’ll see what jumps out.  We’ll start with the most recent and see if I can work backwards.

Thanksgiving was crazy.  I don’t think I was as busy or as much a traveler on that day than I was yesterday.  By the time I really had time for myself it was already seven in the evening.  Ben and his siblings and friends were having a flag football game in the morning so I spent some time the night before and the early morning trying to figure everything, as I was going to attempt to video record the game.  This would be a challenge since I usually try to have two people with me…I think I do better using my camera and grabbing some action shots.

I got there and I accepted to hold their dog, Chase, while they played.  That got interesting…energetic dog in one hand and camcorder in another!  Later when I reviewed the video, it turned out a lot better than I thought.  Eventually, I was able to relinquish Chase to another friend and I could focus on the second half of the game to an extent.

That done, I made it back and fired up the computer and burned the raw video to DVD, which I then hurried back to give the disc to Ben.  Oh, they game and all that was at Grand Prairie and I’m in Mesquite…so there’s a modest amount of time spent on the road, which was no big deal.  But as I’ve said before, there is just not enough hours in the day!  So it played out like a scene from “24.”  Especially when I saw they were doing Thanksgiving with a myriad of families and friends…which simply just meant that there was a lot of food stacked there and they tempted me to the food and I eventually submitted to the desserts.  Yeah, try picturing all that unfold “24″ style!  Ben’s Mom then helped me clean out a wide variety of food to take back home (!!!) with me.  Yes, I think we had more than enough chicken…which actually turned out to be pretty good.  So we tried to squeeze it all in.  It was your typical good dinner afterwards, along with some odd singing and wrestling (don’t worry, if you weren’t there…don’t try to assume anything!).

That was Thanksgiving!  Even though I don’t really want to, I have to be out and about this Friday morning.  This is where most of the people of the population turn into psychotic zombies that are all about the shopping frenzy today.  Yeah, I really don’t want to be at a shopping area…but I have to.  Exposure to psychotic bouts of anger, being surrounded by the swarm…oh yes.  I usually don’t have to worry…but hey, people got shot when Playstation 3 came out (more on that later!).  So, I will just have to be at Level 4 today and maximum homeland security posture, lol.

I know of at least two more things I want to blog about…but I don’t want this to be too long.  So I’m gonna stop now and check my bullets!  If I make it alive and well through this day, I will continue the rest of what I wanted to say either later today or tomorrow.

Where do I begin…? Where do I end…? Why is everyone leaving the radio station? Oh well. Darrell, you will be missed every bit as much, if not more, than you will miss us. Thanks for all the laughs and insight first thing in the morning. Thanks for your actions every bit as much as your words. Thanks for getting people on the ball and finding ways to make things happen. You’ve helped a lot of people go from simply being frustrated about events to standing up and doing things about it.

I still remember when Austin was getting ready to pass a bill that you opposed and you rallied your listeners and you all sent panties down to the legislators that voted for the bill. That’s when I first started listening to you and I laughed and realized that unlike anywhere else before, I was proud to be from here.

Thanks for supporting your Marine son and everyone else in the military. You caught the eyes of Glenn Beck and you helped make history for yourself. I’ll remember sweating down to Crawford and laughing when I heard you threaten the “God Hates Fags” preacher that you’d eat his spleen! It was even great to hear you somewhat stumble on my name on the air as you announced I won a t-shirt from you.

I’ve learned quickly that the good moments don’t last forever, and I guess this is one of them. I didn’t get to hear you sooner and I wish I did. Best wishes to you and your family as you continue the next phase of your life in Phoenix, AZ with KTAR and we look forward to seeing you again.

I don’t know how many of you know Glenn, but tomorrow (November 15) he is going to have a one-hour special on his show of The Extremist Agenda and had to pretty much fight for every word on his show because they (CNN Headline News) didn’t want it out.

If you’re interested and have nothing to do tomorrow evening (November 15), it’ll be on 7P and 9P Eastern on CNN Headline News.

You can see the “trailer” at http://glennbeck.com