BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia

Subject: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Charmion
Date: 17 May 08 - 11:41 AM

Because of a professional engagement abroad, our friend CET (Edmund) may not be visiting this forum as frequently or contributing as fully as has for lo, this long time. He will be as safe as an adult can be, spending most of his time in a large military installation, and I expect him back in early December.

He took a large iPod stuffed with all manner of songs, including a heck of a lot of sea shantys that he can listen to without having to put up with my wincing.

This deployment is a welcome opportunity, and he prepared himself with care and determination all through the winter. We had a pre-embarkation treat of a trip to New York City for the Metropolitan Opera and a Broadway show, followed by a weekend of music with folkie friends in New England. Then we came home, I got over my cold (no, it wasn't allergies) and he packed. On Friday -- yesterday, that is -- we had a nice, quiet three-hour drive to Trenton and I handed him over to the air movements people at 8 Wing. That's it until his mid-tour leave.

The house is remarkably empty of large items of military luggage and odd camouflage-patterned items lying around in inappropriate places -- note to file, all you military folks out there, the dining room table is not the place to leave your new holster, and your spouse will get very tired of stepping over and/or around the inevitable heap of boots.

So it's six months of coffee for one ...

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Jeri
Date: 17 May 08 - 12:00 PM

They never let me take a gun home, but boots were a traffic hazard. I still have a pair of desert boots under the bed, but they're so far in the spiders would fight me for them.

There IS a song in this... sending lawyers to et cetera.   I hope he has time to post once in a while. We'll certainly be thinking of him, and of you.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: curmudgeon
Date: 17 May 08 - 12:04 PM

It was great to see you both last weekend. I lfted a pint to Edmund's safe journey at last night's Press Room session, and we will send a shanty his way this afternoon -- Tom & Linn

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: gnu
Date: 17 May 08 - 01:10 PM

Godspeed Edmund. Take care. And, thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 May 08 - 05:14 PM

Same here. Take care and come home before ya know it, safely that is!

Charmion, surely you will have more than just coffee? *just teasing* Sounds as though you had a lovely weekend and are being quite sensible about things.

ATB,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Bill D
Date: 17 May 08 - 05:45 PM

Well! Such an experience... I do hope he learns interesting stuff and comes home safely. Technology does allow folks to keep in contact during these forays. I trust YOU will hear regularly, and I hope WE will if possible.

So...is Getaway possible for you?

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Amos
Date: 17 May 08 - 06:04 PM

Charmion,

I hope you don't have to fend off too many salivating Casanovas, and that you have plenty to do to keep your heart full and your smile in place until Edmund gets back.

Very best to both of you until reunion is...


A

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: artbrooks
Date: 17 May 08 - 07:02 PM

Knock wood, and all that stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: ranger1
Date: 17 May 08 - 07:04 PM

Stay safe, Edmund. Stay sane, Charmion.
Tami

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Peace
Date: 17 May 08 - 07:05 PM

Ditto the above posts and sentiments.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 May 08 - 09:34 PM

Charmion, you and Edmund will be remembered daily, especially in Hardi's private prayers. If you get a chance for a visit, please come!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 May 08 - 07:25 PM

Charmion,
Sorry I can't say anything light and humorous. When I think of Edmund I think of him walking Seamus along Bonny Bank Terrace and that damn dog was marching in time with his head held high. That and Sam Hall.
I keep both of you in my prayers and hope we can celebrate New Years together safe and healthy,
Mary

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Escapee
Date: 18 May 08 - 10:22 PM

My son's advice when he went to Baghdad was " Don't watch the news." Thanks for serving, Edmond, and God keep you both.
SKP

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Beer
Date: 18 May 08 - 10:50 PM

Charmion, you are certainly welcomed back to our new festival (www.applehollowmusicfest.org)as it was a pleasure meeting both of you last year. Give my best to Edmund for me. Sorry I didn't get the chance to sit down and have a long chat with you both but as an organizer I hope you understand.
Adrien

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: wysiwyg
Date: 19 May 08 - 01:57 PM

Charmion,

Time to start another new instrument, my girl. Or start and volunteer to maintain a permathread in some area of musical interest-- they're a lot of fun. I offer the Spirituals permathread as one model.

Edmund will want to come back to find you sane and happy. Use Mudcat as you like to be sure of it, OK? And stay close.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: GUEST,Seiri Omaar
Date: 19 May 08 - 09:58 PM

Best to you both. I'll be thinking of you, especially once Goderich Celtic Fest rolls around...
~Sarah Crocker

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Charmion
Date: 19 May 08 - 10:25 PM

Hey, Sarah -- I'm planning to go to Goderich this year, and if Edmund can get his mid-tour leave that early he will come too. I'll see you there.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 May 08 - 10:53 PM

Be back to us safe and sound and as others have said, keep us as informed as possible.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 08 - 11:18 PM

That's one helluva way to de-clutter, Charmion. We were talking about stuff, not folks. . . ;-)

My best to the both of you and the various ways you find to communicate during this separation.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: GUEST,Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 23 May 08 - 12:47 PM

Don't worry, Charmion, your baby brother will look out for you.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: CET
Date: 27 May 08 - 09:59 PM

Folks:

Thank you all for your kind messages. I am on the ground, and thanks to the U.S. Army's morale and welfare organization, able to log on to Mudcat via the Internet Cafe. I have a good crew of American JAG officers to work with. My immediate boss is a guitar playing Marine JAG lieutenant-colonel, who seems to take an interest in my peculiar musical predilections. I expect there will be some good conversations in the office. Unfortunately, he doesn't have his guitar with him.

Cheers.

Edmund

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 May 08 - 10:21 PM

Wow, thanks for connecting with us, Edmund! Stay safe and happy pickin'!

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: wysiwyg
Date: 27 May 08 - 11:20 PM

Air guitar!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: CET
Date: 02 Jun 08 - 11:09 PM

I have just enjoyed a little bit of cultural cognitive dissonance. A TV on the camp was tuned to a local Afghan station and a rather sappy video of people walking around in a park was showing. The background music was ... the pride of Stratford, Ontario, Loreena McKennit.

The Canadian I have replaced here gave me a Stan Rogers CD, Home in Halifax, before he left. I was looking forward to listening to it, but since I have a copy of my own back home I gave it to our interpreter.

What's next on the Canadian cultural campaign in Afghanistan? Stompin' Tom Connors? The Red Green Show? Trailer Park Boys?

Edmund

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: SINSULL
Date: 03 Jun 08 - 08:10 AM

More likely, Shatner and Terrence and Phil.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: gnu
Date: 03 Jun 08 - 08:14 AM

Good to hear from you! Read the news today about the wounded... stay safe eh!

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Rapparee
Date: 03 Jun 08 - 10:06 PM

Keep your head down, don't volunteer, and if they tell you to go outside the wire tell them that JAGs simply don't do that sort of thing. If they insist, tell them that specifically YOU don't do that sort of thing.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Jun 08 - 10:26 PM

Oh Edmund!-- hello-for-next time! :~)

Atticus wants to go out and play; the birdies are calling him. Since the trees out front blew down, the back bushes are FULL of nests right outside the south window. He escapes.

I'm thinking of getting him a cage so he can see them up close, or maybe we'll just open the window and make sure the screen fastened in is nice and tight. (Gotta keep him off that road you know.)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 04 Jun 08 - 06:42 AM

Best wishes to you both!

Someone get that man a guitar, willya?

As a former (long-ago) Navy wife, I get the 6-month thing. A little better now that you can stay in touch? I remember waiting for ships to pull into docks to tie up to phone lines, and for the number to spread among the wives... funny story there, I'll come back and tell it later...

Anyway. Stretch out, luxuriate in taking up the WHOLE bed, and keep in touch.

Dani

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Charmion
Date: 04 Jun 08 - 07:07 AM

No chance of taking up the WHOLE bed, not with Bill the 18-pound tomcat in residence. In fact, I have trouble retaining sovereignty over my pillow.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Greg B
Date: 04 Jun 08 - 09:44 PM

Damned war.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Jun 08 - 10:52 PM

Good to *see* you here at the Mudcat. Stay safe!

kat

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 05 Jun 08 - 10:26 AM

Back in the day (before cell phones, internet, etc) there were letters, and if you were really lucky, expensive phone calls in port.

So, there was always this race to spread the phone number around when a ship tied up to the pier overseas, so everyone could call their guy.

Once (I think they were somewhere in Italy? Med, anyway) someone got the phone number wrong, and drove some poor woman buggy. Her phone rang day and night with lonely women trying to track down their men. She got tired of trying to fix the unfixable, and took to answering them: "no, he can't come to the phone right now. He's got my #$&@ in his mouth."

Dani

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: CET
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 12:51 PM

Thanks to the combined efficency of Charmion and the U.S. Postal Service I got a very nice care package today, mailed from Michigan where Charmion attended banjo camp last weekend.

I have met some very good guitar players. We also have a well attended karaoke night once a week (this is pretty spartan, but it's no forward operating base). The playlist is rather short on Child ballads and sea shantys, but it does have Pancho and Lefty, complete with a video.

I am learning to speak U.S. Army American: "working the (fill in the blank) piece", "that's not in my lane", "going to chow". Working for a Marine is an experience in itself. I find that I definitely like working with Americans in uniform, although the bureaucracy is even more rigid than ours.

I also find that I appreciate Mudcat more than ever. It's a real life line.

Edmund

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: gnu
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 01:51 PM

It's great to read your posts. Take care.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Amos
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 04:04 PM

Edmund:

So glad to hear from you, pal. The Marines need the bright fresh breath of up-country attitude around there; you should get a service medal for providing it.

Come home soon, come home safe.

Write to the Martin Company, and the Taylor boys and L'Arriveeistas, and ask them to each donate ten decent guitars to the war effort. Offer to act as a neutral distributor.

We'll be hooting all night long in no timer!


A

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Susan A-R
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 08:54 PM

Charmion and Edmund, I promise that I shall salt, sand, shovel and do all other such S things to my driveway at the tail end of next Decmeber. Just be there, both of you.

Charmion,I know about those cats. How is it that someone who I outweigh easily 10 to 1 manages to get the middle/diagonal of the bed.

Take care, both of you.

Susan

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Jun 08 - 08:02 AM

Edmund,
Is there anything you and your buddies would like from Maine? I promise to stay out if the Christmas tree Shop.
Mary

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: CET
Date: 19 Jun 08 - 12:32 PM

Well, some good local Maine beer would be nice, but illegal, and not practical to ship anyway.

I could do without any tiny nun dolls, just in case you were considering sending me some.

It's always a treat to get mail, but I can't think of any specific thing that I want. Maybe some pictures from your next song circle.

Cheers

Edmund

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Micca
Date: 19 Jun 08 - 04:25 PM

Hi Edmund,and Charmion, Greetings from The London(not that hole in Ontario) hope things are Ok, and not too SNAFUed, keep well, hope to see you sometime soon, remember only the military can really do a FUBAR well
Micca

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Jun 08 - 04:38 PM

But then you can always look at those as AFGOs ala Bat Goddess (I think it was told me about them:) Another F***ing Growth Opportunity!

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: ranger1
Date: 19 Jun 08 - 07:15 PM

OK, so tiny little nuns are out. How about glow-in-the-dark plastic Marys? Inflatable moose heads? Anything at all? Best make a serious request before we get bored and decide your living quarters need redecorating...

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Jun 08 - 07:29 PM

heh heh
Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Micca
Date: 19 Jun 08 - 07:36 PM

what do I care if it rains or freezes
as long as I've got my plastic Jesus
riding on the dash of my SUV
I dont care if Mohammeds about
Jesus He has much more clout
he'll surround me with divinity

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 08:28 AM

Right...AFGO came from me. Handy bit of terminology. I stole it from Jeff Lind, great bass and tuba player and maker of fine furniture.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 08:29 AM

So, Edmund, what's the beer like there? Or are you stuck with American swill?

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: CET
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 10:52 AM

The "beer" is de-alcoholized Becks. How to describe it? Try to imagine marinating unwashed turnips in Kool-Aid and then boiling the juice for a few days. The U.S. Army, alas, is dry wherever it deploys, unlike the Europeans down the road at ISAF Headquarters.

Edmund

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: Barry Finn
Date: 02 Jul 08 - 09:24 PM

Just saw this thread for he 1st time. Hope all is well with you. So I guess this means that you won't make the Portsmouth Maritime festival either, you'll have to just make up for lost time when you get back. Good luck & God speed


All my best
Barry


This is the 4th time I've tried to reply & post this with no luck. What's up with that?

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Jul 08 - 09:47 PM

You're just giving double lucks and God speeds, Barry!

Edmund, that is a very imaginative description and it sounds AWFUL!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jul 08 - 09:57 PM

A reminder of a wonderfully fun song from our own Alaska Mike:

(with love from Dani as I throw back a Saranac ale in your name)


Back In The Clydesdale
by Mike Campbell 2004

I went to the bar after working all day,
And ordered a dark Guinness Beer.
But the Yuppies were chatting so thick on their cell phones,
I guess the barman did not hear.
He brought me a glass and a tall boy of Bud,
And set them down in front of me,
Well I coughed and I sputtered in pure disbelief,
And sang out this chorus with glee.

OOOOO
Put that Budweiser back in the Clydesdale,
Its not the right flavor for me.
The color's all wrong and there's not enough foam,
And its got all the kick of weak tea.
Now pour me a pint of that good Guinness Stout,
With color you cannot see through.
Put that Budweiser back in the Clydesdale, boys,
And pour me a beer that is true.

Then the waitress came by when I'd finished my first one,
An angry young woman named Jill,
She snatched up my empty without even looking,
And went off to find a refill.
Then she brought back a glass of some pale liquid garbage,
And said, "Here's the Bud you asked for."
Well I gave her a glare that would knock down a horse,
And sang out this chorus once more.

Chorus

So if ever you're seeking a beer with good flavor,
To finish your day or your meal.
If they serve you a Millers, a Coors or a Bud,
Or some other brand that ain't real,
If the "King of Beers" is the only selection,
I hope that you'll answer like this,
Put that Budweiser back in the Clydesdale, boys,
I won't drink twelve ounces of that lousy beer.

Chorus