Well much to my surprise, the Chargers did it.  Amazing.  A fun game to watch, probably less so for Colts fans.  Actually, I am a big fan of both the Manning boys (with his hair growing out, Peyton looks more like Eli than ever).  But tonight Peyton's magic just wasn't there.  If you are gonna whine about the "free" first downs the Chargers got on their overtime drive...there was no controversy, the Colts did those crimes and had to pay for it.  So you could blame ...

The Chargers may not get past the Colts tomorrow night, I would be surprised if they did, but they did two MONUMENTAL things by beating the Broncos so soundly last week....thing 1)  they sent the Broncos home...no play offs for you, my little ponies...and 2) Mike Shanahan is GONE.  Not that I have any real animosity towards Mike, but he has whupped up on the Raiders way too much ever since they fired him.  I know, so has everyone else lately.  But he has built a tradition ar...

Unseasonally warm today, maybe that is a good omen for the rest of the year, I hope so, cause another one like 2008 would do me in.  Here's to ya, hope the new year is a good one. 

The house is trashed, the kids are home burning off a sugar rush and adrenaline high from candies and cookies and sugary ham and presents galore.  MamaCharlie is soaking her feet, the dishwasher is churning on its last load of the day, and I sit here with no ambition to move an inch.   Perfect Christmas Eve.  We had a ball.  Hope you are with someone you love and are full of good cheer and hope for the new year.  From the House of Stone to yours, Merry Christmas.&n...

  Last month my little sister gave me a bit of a fright. We were bound for Phoenix to attend the funeral of MamaCharlie's mom when we got a call from San Diego telling us that Roddie had some bad test results and it looked like scary surgery was on the horizon. So we included a two day extension on our trip so we could "swing by" San Diego on our way home to Colorado from Arizona (we use the same map that HBW & LH use). It was a fun two days and we had a great visit and were a...

It was the winter of 1968. We were visiting with some friends in the village of Viernheim, near Mannheim. There was about three inches of snow on the ground and things were pretty slickery. Talking about the weather and winter fun and games got some of those present to get nostalgic for a sled and a hill. The problem was that we didn't have a sled, and between Weinheim (about 6 or 7 miles east of us) and the hills on the other side of the Rhein River west of us (12 to 15 miles), there just wer...

In a previous article I mentioned that I had spent a month down in Riverside during a huge military exercise that covered almost all of Southern California. It was another of those Navy-Marine vs Army-Air Force things. The 301st Trans was bivouaced at the end of March AFB's runway. Every 15 minutes a flying gas station would take off right over our tents. The KC 10s weren't so bad, they had the modern engines with all the noise abatement stuff on them, but the KC 135 was still in service and m...

Here in the Swirl, it is now 2105 hrs (9:05 pm for those who DON'T have a military mind).  The day will soon be over and I haven't heard one single mention of Pearl Harbor today.  I wonder why.  If I could blame it on the democrats, I would, but I don't think they are responsible.  I could try to blame it on the republicans, but they seem to be too busy whining and smoochin' Dem butt to consider anything historic.  I admit, I wasn't LOOKING for any mention of it, but i...

We were processing a new class of students into the Motor Vehicle Operators Course. The classroom we were in was right across the road from the Final Test Module. I was standing outside the classroom watching the trucks coming and going as the "Finished Products" took the test that would determine if they had retained enough over the last five weeks to qualify them as 88Ms, Army Military Occupation Specialty (MOS) code for truck drivers. The course had recently changed its mode of operat...

I was over on Fort Carson today and was on my way off-post when the sounds of the bugle announced the flag lowering ceremony was begining. I started to look for a place to pull over, get out of the car, stand at attention with hand over heart as prescribed in regulations. No one was stopping. I wasn't about to stop in the flow and since there was no room to pull over, I kept on, too. But I thought about it for a minute, about how things have changed and how some of those things should never ha...

I was at Fort Ord, CA in the middle seventies. After some time as an instructor at the drivers school, I wound up in the Supply and Transport Battalion, B Company to be exact. The Army was in a quandry about what was and wasn't acceptable training for its warriors then. General Rogers had become the Chief of Staff of the Army and immediately changed two important regulations: 1) the weight standards were drastically changed and 2) the PT requirements were put under serious review...but until t...

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.  Hope you are with family, happy, safe and able to pound down tons of turkey, taters, stuffing, pies, them little sweet pickles...and maybe some of that broccoli salad.  And give a thankful thought to those who can't do all that today...the ones whose constant vigilance makes it possible for us to pig out in peace !!!

A year or so ago my number two and three sons (Humbord and Toothache, respectively) told me they got me a Christmas Present but I couldn't have it until March. They wanted to keep me in suspense but neither one can keep a secret and were both too excited about it to keep quiet. They had bought us some great seats at the World Arena for a show called "The Last of the Breed" featuring Ray Price, Merle Haggard, and Willie Nelson. It was kind of surprising to see the boys so wired to see these old...

I have lived in the Swirling Epicenter for more than fifteen years,now.  It still doesn't feel much like home to me.  But most of my kids and their kids live there so I am pretty much anchored there for life.  I mention this today because I am writing to you from the Valley of the Sun, many long ardous miles from the Swirling Epicenter.  We left mid morning so fortunately half of the drive was after dark, saving us from endless views of empty prairie, desert, mesas, and the...

    My aunt's house sat on the side of a hill in Lakeside. From her front porch you had a great view across the hardly-a-valley to the hill on the other side of the road. If you strained to the right, you could look down the length of the valley out across Winterhaven Blvd to what would become Santee but then was just more valley. There were three houses serviced by the driveway. It was a sharp turn off of Marilla drive and a steep climb up to her parking lot; maybe not...