On To The Next Phase

My training in DC finished up yesterday. I have to say that what I've seen so far is way better than what I saw three years ago. These courses were very well laid out, with well-chosen topics and mostly good presenters. This week, we started with presentations and moved more into scenario-based role-playing. These demanded that we be involved and participating, and provided some excellent insight into what we'll be facing.

For example, in one role, I was on a small district-level team that was having trouble with a district official. He was always off for "consultations" in the provincial capital and never in his district. But as I put myself in his place, I realized that he couldn't read, couldn't write, didn't know what his job was supposed to be, wasn't from the area, was probably from a different tribal background, didn't know anybody, and was probably curled up in a fetal position under the desk, sucking his thumb and waiting for the hammer to fall. My job was to build his confidence, get him out to the villages and introduce him to the elders, and give him some of the basic tools to do something. Anything. Because the Afghan government doesn't have the resources to do it.

Next week, I'll be in an immersion course in Indiana. We'll be living on a pseudo-FOB (a Forward Operating Base), working with military counterparts also going thru training, and interacting with Afghans. We'll learn what to do if an MRAP rolls over and ride in a helo, live in tents and eat in DFACs. Should be fun.

So today, I have to wrap up things here in the DC area. There are some computer account issues that I have to straighten out, make a bank run, go by the post office, drop off a bag at the hotel I'll stay at next weekend, turn in the rental car, and get on the flight. Time's a-wastin'!

A Week of Training

It's been a pretty busy week since my last post. I completed my first week of training for my new job. It was actually a pretty good course: every topic was important and most were taught by really good instructors. There were a few that were painful, such as the droning lecturer right after lunch (whiplash city, and not just for me), but overall, I give it high marks. This class was very large, and most of the people have experience in Iraq or Afghanistan already, some for up to five or six years. Only a few were first-timers.

This class gave us a macro overview of Afghanistan. It touched on its history, culture (repeatedly), government, economy, the US strategy, US and international organizations, dealing with the military, life at the Embassy and in the field, and much more. You can't teach everything, especially in one week, but this provided a good framework for the more specific training that will follow. This coming week, I'll be in a smaller group of people who are all headed for assignments in the field ("the field" being anywhere outside Kabul).

My bottom-line takeaway from this week's classes: Afghanistan is a much harder problem than Iraq was, and if we screw it up or pull out too soon, we'll have to go back again.

All was not classroom drudgery, however. We had a group get-together one night, and on two other nights I got to meet up with old friends. One is a friend from my Bosnian deployment - I hadn't seen him in 15 years. The other was a guy I worked closely with in Baghdad. And I'll see a couple more old friends this coming week. That's one good thing about passing through DC when you've spent time in the military or federal service. I also got to see my cousin and her son yesterday and have a wonderful dinner in Dupont Circle. I tell ya, I'm trying to make the most of the opportunities to hit some good restaurants while I can. Life's gonna change here really soon!

Today, I went down to the National Gallery of Art to get my art fix. I took my sketch pad and tried to learn a few things from the masters. Did I? I dunno. But it sure felt good to try!

Employed Again

This has been a hectic week.  I was in a group of nine new temporary employees who are all bound for Afghanistan.  We spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday getting paperwork done, badges made, inoculations injected, and training accomplished.  It was a pretty well-organized whirlwind of activity.

Wednesday was a maddening day due to the weather.  Tropical Storm Lee hit DC that day.  We had to do a lot of running around between buildings.  It seemed like whenever we had to go outside, it POURED, and as soon as we reached our destination and got inside, it quit.  And, of course, we were all wearing the standard DC civilian uniform of blazer, tie, and nice shoes.  All of which were quickly soaked in the morning, so we remained in various stages of damp/wet/drenched the rest of the day.  It rained Thursday and Friday, too, but we all decided the hell with protocol and went with our Afghanistan field uniform of work shirts, cargo pants and heavy boots.

Yesterday (Saturday), I went up to Baltimore to visit my aunt and cousin.  It was great to see them again.  They've watched me go off to quite a few adventures over the years: joining the Navy, going off to Bosnia, going to Europe after retirement, then off to Iraq three years ago, and now this.  They're not surprised by any of my foolish decisions anymore.  I always know there's a home base for me in Baltimore whenever I need it.

Today I went up to Gettysburg.  Recently, I discovered that one of my ancestors fought in the 2nd Mississippi infantry regiment and was wounded and captured at Gettysburg, and wrote about it in a blog post.  Since Gettysburg is so close to Baltimore, I didn't want to pass up the opportunity.  Last time I was there was about 45 years ago (ouch) and we didn't know anything about my ancestor then.

Quick summary: my great-great-grandfather was a private in the 2nd Mississippi.  On the first day of the battle, they attacked Union forces just northeast of Gettysburg.  They routed some, then turned and hit others from the flank.  But then they were caught in a deep cut in the hill for a railroad bed.  The sides were too steep to climb, it was too deep to fire out of, and Union forces were on the top of the cut and advancing down the tracks.  It was a killing ground before they surrendered.

Today I saw the spot where this action took place.  I have to say, exploring a national monument such as the Gettysburg battlefield is different when you have a personal connection to it.  Seeing the field across which my great-great-grandfather advanced, the ridge line where he helped route Union forces, and then the deep cut where he was trapped, wounded, and captured, was deeply moving.  Of 494 soldiers in the 2nd Mississippi that morning, 411 were killed, wounded, captured, or missing.  Numbers are one thing; knowing that one of those numbers was a personal ancestor is another.

Later, I went to see the site of Pickett's Charge.  The remnants of the 2nd Mississippi participated in that disaster.  Of 60 men who set out across the field, only one was not killed, wounded, or captured.  I stood on the spot where my great-great-grandfather's unit had started from and looked out across the field.  It was a very humbling experience.

Now I'm back in the DC area.  Gettysburg is behind me.  Tomorrow we start another class to get trained up for Afghanistan.  

The Adventure Begins

I'm officially a State Department employee again.  Today we were sworn in, got our CAC cards (special "smart" ID cards), had the nurses give us some inoculations (rabies and typhoid for me), filled out stacks of forms, and got to know our fellow classmates and support staff.  Tomorrow, we start the training program in earnest.

Getting here has been a long road.  I actually applied for this particular job back at the end of May.  A month later (late June), they contacted me, a kind of "are you sure?"check, and then about 10 days later, I was notified of my selection.  Then began the Paperwork Shuffle.  Lots of forms went back and forth over email to re-establish my security clearance, get my medical checkups completed, make sure I wasn't a war profiteer, sign up for a savings plan, and much much more.  But finally it was done and all that was left was to pack my bags and go.

While all that was going on, Janis and I were getting as much done as possible around the house to get ready.  I made sure the cars were tuned and tweaked and shouldn't need maintenance for a while.  We double-checked our own paperwork.  Janis has some special projects for the house, and we had to get things all lined up for them to get accomplished.  And we took some time out to see some of our friends and family.

As for the pending separation, we treated it in the time-honored American way: we pretended it didn't exist.  We talked as little as possible about it, and when we did, it was usually in a neutral, roundabout way.  But still, when you've been with somebody for 20 years, you can say a lot without actually saying a lot.  And we said a lot to each other.  So we're ready.

Tuesday was D-Day.  I had pretty much completed my packing the day before, so after walking the dogs one last time and having a great breakfast of machaca, we hit the road to the airport.  We were fine until we actually got there, and then ... well, it was tough, both on us and the dogs, who knew something bad was going on.  We got through it, though.  We've done it before and it actually does seem to get easier with practice.

The flight to DC was not the greatest: packed planes, delays, and crappy weather from Tropical Storm Lee.  We landed at Reagan National Airport.  I haven't been through there in 20 years, and let's just say that things have changed a bit.  They've got 10 pounds of facilities in a 5-pound section of real estate.  Picked up my rental car and promptly got lost, nearly heading straight into downtown Washington before realizing my mistake and dive-bombing across 2 lanes of traffic to head towards northern Virginia instead.  Nothing like trying to find your way through DC metro traffic at rush hour in the rain with only a vague idea of where you are and where you need to go!  I lived in the DC area twice before, but this place has changed (see previous comment about Reagan Airport).  I kept having this odd experience of knowing I'd been in this particular place before but not recognizing it at all .... kind of an anti-deja-vu feeling.  But I finally made it to my hotel, my temporary home for the next couple of weeks.  Had a gut-bomb at the McDonald's next door for dinner, unpacked my bags, and settled in.

Bright and early this morning, it was time to head into town.  I got there a bit early, which was good, and met up with the rest of my classmates.  We were run back and forth between several different locations.  Most annoying, whenever we had a long outdoor run, old Tropical Storm Lee dumped BUCKETS of rain on us, and as soon as we got to where we were going, it would stop.  We all spent most of the day in various stages of being damp, wet, or completely soaked.  No fun.  Nothing like dashing through a downpour and plunking your foot ankle-deep into an invisible pothole while wearing a DC-civilian uniform of dress pants, dress shoes, dress shirt, dress tie, and (soaking) blue blazer.

We survived, though.  Tomorrow, I'm wearing boots.  The hell with protocol. 

What To Do In Asheville With Kids

An old shipmate of mine is coming into Asheville soon.  He asked for some recommendations for things to do with his two 3 1/2-year-old kids.  I checked with an expert (a friend of ours who has three small kids), combined them with my own recommendations, and thought I'd share them here.

Downtown Asheville.  Downtown is very walkable.  Most of the buildings date from the early 1900's to late 1920's and have been fixed up.  Tons of restaurants, coffee shops, stores, galleries, and so on, most of which are local and not chain stores.  The fun part is bounded, more or less, by I-240 on the north, O Henry Ave on the west, Patton Ave on the south, and N. Spruce on the east, with another nice bit on Biltmore Ave (Hwy 25) running a few blocks south of Pack Square.

Health Adventure (www.thehealthadventure.org).  It's right in downtown Asheville on Pack Square.  It's a participatory, hands-on, interactive, science-oriented place that explores health, biology, and physical sciences.  Lots of fun for kids.  Open 10-5.

Splasheville.  This is in Pack Square, next to the Health Adventure.  It shoots random jets of water in the air.  Kids can run around in it and get soaked.  Better bring some towels and dry clothes.  Read about it and some other water-oriented attractions at: 

http://blog.exploreasheville.com/2011/05/budget-friendly-ways-to-cool-off-this.html

Carrier Park.  This used to be the old Asheville Speedway.  When it closed, the city turned it into a park, with a large playground, volleyball, basketball, picnic areas, nature walk, river overlooks, more.  Located at 220 Amboy Rd on the west side of Asheville.

WNC Nature Center (www.wncnaturecenter.com).  This showcases the natural features of western North Carolina.  It includes a petting zoo.  You can see coyotes, bears, and other critters, too.  Located on the east side of Asheville; a bit hard to find but they have directions on the web site.

River Arts District (www.riverartsdistrict.com).  This is where I used to have my studio.  It's the old industrial area along the French Broad River.  Most of the industry has moved out and been replaced by artists: painters, potters, woodworkers, sculptors, you name it, they're there.  There will be studios open - some are open 7 days a week, others catch-as-catch-can.  Some great places to eat down there, too: 12 Bones Barbecue (won a national competition on Good Morning America), the Clingman Cafe, and White Duck Tacos, to name three.  Plus a brewery.

Mountain Play Lodge (www.mountainplaylodge.com).  It's an indoor play center located in Arden, just south of Asheville on Hwy 25.  

The Hop (www.thehopicecreamcafe.com).  Homemade ice cream in sometimes strange but really good flavors.  The kids will probably go for vanilla or chocolate, but the adults can get things like salted caramel, nutella, avocado, mustard, or whatever the flavor of the day is.  Two locations, one on Haywood Rd. in west Asheville, the other a mile or two north of downtown on Merrimon.

Asheville's a great place and all the above just barely scratch the surface.  If you know of other cool things to do with kids, post a comment!

Messing with the Macs

One of the things on my "to-do" list before heading out of town is to get our two Macs in good shape.  That meant updating to the new Lion operating system, updating all our software, making sure the hardware is in good shape, and taking a few security precautions.  I am not a computer junkie - to me, they're a means to an end, not an end in themselves.  But just like cars, they need a bit of attention from time to time, and right now, it's time.

The first thing I did was to put a new backup drive on Janis's iMac.  Hers had died a while back and I'd been meaning to get around to replacing it but it never percolated to the top of the list.  I did a bit of research to find a good Mac-compatible drive, along with a place to buy one, and wound up getting a 1TB Western Digital "MyBook for Mac" on sale at our local Best Buy.  Plugged it in, turned it on, and it's working like a champ.  I've got a rugged little portable external hard drive for my MacBook that works just fine, so now both of our computers are safely backed up.

The next thing was to update to the new Lion operating system.  Now, Microsoft's handling of new OS's pretty much drove me out of the Windows community three years ago.  I got tired of getting buggy installations that crashed, acted weird, and needed new drivers or patches or whatever to run my old software and accessories.  It often took a lot of fiddling over a week or two before a new "update" would work correctly, and there were several times that I deleted the update in disgust and went back to the old system.  Apple's updates have all worked as advertised.  Install it, turn it on, and you're good to go.

This time, Lion is only available as a download.  And it's a 4GB download, which is a huge file, even on a DSL line.  We're talking maybe four hours.  So I started the download just before going to bed.  Next morning (yes, still with a bit of trepidation), I hit the "install" button.  After a few interactive screens, it started installing itself, and an hour later was done.  And it worked just fine.  I've noticed, though, that everything was a lot slower at first - a lot of waiting, watching the "spinning wheel of death" the first time a program was fired up, and so on.  After a few days, things get better.  Still, both of our computers feel like they're struggling with a lot more code than before, and normal operations are taking a bit longer.

As for new features, well, there are a lot, but we haven't used them much.  I gotta learn more of what they're about before I can take advantage of them.

One new feature that looks promising is FaceTime.  This is Apple's video chat feature from the iPhone and iPad.  The reason it looks promising is that it is designed to use a small bandwidth.  We already have Apple's iChat feature on our Macs, as well as Skype, which works on all kinds of computers, but both of those require a pretty good chunk of bandwidth.  When I was in Iraq, iChat never worked and Skype could be spotty.  I'm hoping that FaceTime will be more reliable when I head off to Afghanistan.

While doing all this computer tweaking, I also wanted to do something about security.  Macs have a reputation as being safer than PC's.  That's not really true - Macs are as vulnerable to intrusion as PC's, it's just that there are so many more PC's, the bad guys spend much more effort targeting them and leaving Macs alone.  But since I'm heading to A'stan, and we already know that bad guys target good guys in places like that, I wanted to be a bit better prepared.  After a bit of research, I discovered that there's a pretty capable malware protector called Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac.  Not only is it capable, but it's free.  I installed it and it did, indeed, find a bit of malware on my MacBook.  Found it and cleaned it up.  Janis's iMac was fine, though.

I also found a neat little app called Ghostery.  It sits in Safari and tells me who's tracking my visit to any given page.  Not only that, but it lets you determine which ones to block and which ones to allow.  For example, if I go to the CNN home page, there are six sites tracking me.  Four are for companies that provide or track advertising and two are for Facebook links.  I'm blocking all the advertising tracking and allowing the social media links.  Originally, I blocked everything, but then found that some sites, like Facebook, were acting screwy.  So I reset it.  Ghostery is a free application and available for PC's as well as Macs, so you can put it on your own web browser.

So now our computers are in pretty good shape.  I just need to learn more about what these new features are in Lion.  Maybe there's something really cool ...

Three Soldiers

Recently, I was asked to create portraits of three young soldiers for an Army officer.  She had commanded a company that ran supply convoys through Iraq in 2005 and 2006.  These three soldiers had been in her company when they were killed - two by an IED and one by a sniper.  She felt their loss every day and kept framed photos of them.  These portraits were meant to give her something a bit more personal.

Commemorative and posthumous portraits are extremely difficult to do.  Getting a good likeness is hard at best; getting a good likeness that has the inner character of the individual is harder.  Add in the pressures of getting it right when the subject is no longer around, and you have to work from other people's snapshots that have the wrong posing and lighting, and you have a major headache.  Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don't.  So I am normally not interested in doing such portraits.

This time, though, I wanted to do something for this officer to help her remember her three soldiers.  Based on previous experience, I decided to do them in ink with watercolor, rather than my usual oil on canvas.  The reason was that this allowed me to separate the drawing from color, which allowed me to get the shapes and features correctly positioned in relation to each other.  It also let me use a very loose drawing pen over the underlying pencil drawing, which gave the drawings a lot of liveliness.  Had I tried to do them in oil, each stroke would have defined both color and shape, which would have made it very difficult for me to tell what was wrong and how to fix it.  And "fixing" it would probably have worked out most of the life from each of the pictures.  I might still be working on them.

But the word I heard from the client is that these pictures have hit the mark.  I'm really glad - both from a professional standpoint of creating good, accurate portraits, and from the personal standpoint of helping a young officer remember her troops.

Afghanistan Bound

I have accepted an offer from the State Department to work in Afghanistan for a year.  The current plan (subject to change) is for me to go to Washington early next month for training, and then to head down range to my new assignment at the end of September.  I'll be working on a Field Engagement Team at one of the US or NATO bases.  I don't know which team yet, and even if I did, it would probably change before I got there.  These teams are made up of representatives from State, Defense, and various other departments.  Their mission is to work with local officials and businesses to improve local conditions.

You might think I'm nuts, but I'm very excited about this opportunity.  Why would anybody be excited about going someplace that is medieval at best and a dangerously hot war zone at worst?  Well, for some of  the same reasons that people have volunteered to go to Iraq, Haiti, Somalia, or other trouble spots.  It's a chance to do something that makes an important difference to people's lives.  It's an opportunity to participate in something much bigger than my own puny concerns.  It's a national mission that has to be successful, for their sake and ours.  And it's a difficult job that not many people can or would do, but it's one that I have the skills and experience for.

To be honest, going to Afghanistan was not my first choice.  When I began my job search back in January, I focused on the US, particularly Asheville (where we now live), San Diego (where we have family and friends), and Washington, DC (which is the only place in the country with a strong economy).  I wrote about my initial thoughts in a blog post in February and then in periodic updates after that.  But while I found lots of interesting opportunities in the US, I never got so much a phone interview.  Even though I had a lot of positive comments about my resume, and even when I could show solid accomplishments in everything listed in the job qualifications, I heard nothing except the occasional "job's been filled", "we're reviewing your qualifications", or "no, thanks".  To say it was frustrating is an understatement.

But early on, I started applying for jobs in Afghanistan.  Why?  Well, frankly, I wanted to do something more important than just make money for some corporation, and while there were some great opportunities to make a contribution in the US, there weren't that many of them.  The vast majority of openings that I could reasonably apply for were to fundamentally help some company make a profit.  There's nothing wrong with that, and it could be argued that making a profit is what America is all about.  But just making a profit has never excited me, which is probably why I never did as a professional artist.  Instead, I needed something that provided a deeper meaning and purpose.  The mission in Afghanistan not only did that, but it's something that I'm qualified to do.

And it was Afghanistan that finally came through for me.  After months of hearing nothing back from my job applications, suddenly four organizations contacted me within two weeks.  Each had a very different mission in Afghanistan and all of them were very cool.  I decided to work with the Field Engagement Team in large part because it was a front-line mission.  Although the other positions paid more, they were all support roles.

I can't say Janis is excited about my going away again, but she's a trooper.  We've been through long deployments before, including my previous year and a half in Iraq, so we know what to expect.  She'll do well.

So I'm getting ready to deploy one more time.  I've filled out a ton of forms already, am fixing things around the house, making lists of things to be done in the next month and sometimes actually checking things off of it.  It feels good to have something to work toward.

An Epic Fail

I haven't made a post in a while because (a) I haven't been doing much worth writing about and (b) I've been watching the budget debacle in Washington unfold with some bated breath.  (What is "bated breath", anyway?  Is it like sticking worms in your mouth?  Why would anybody want to do that?)  I think most of us try to ignore Washington politicians as much as possible, maybe more and more each year.  This year, however, what happens there has a very direct bearing on my job prospects (subject to a separate post very soon) and general economic well-being.  What is happening in Washington right now is, unfortunately, not staying in Washington.

Back in October of last year, during that particularly nasty and deceptive election season, I took a look at the federal budget and wrote a very lengthy post about it here.  Although the specific numbers have changed for the worse, the analysis and comments are as true now as they were then.  The key points:
- The last time a Democratic President was in office (Bill Clinton, remember him?), we had a very healthy economy and a budget surplus that was projected to grow to about $900B by 2010.  We could have paid down about half our national debt by now ...
- ... except George Bush and the Republicans changed all that.  He literally gave away the federal surplus in the form of rebates, slashed taxes (particularly for the wealthy), got us into two wars, grew the size of the federal government, and expanded entitlements (especially the hyper-expensive Medicare prescription drug benefit, which was enacted without identifying where the funding would come from, over the objections of the Democrats).  During Clinton's tenure, the federal budget grew 11%; during Bush's tenure, it grew by 104%.
- Since World War II, the federal government's share of the GDP has hovered around 18-20%.  During Clinton's last years, both revenues and expenditures were balanced.  When Bush left office, federal expenditures accounted for 24% of GDP while revenues were only 15%.  We had a $1.4T deficit, which was almost the size of the entire federal budget just eight years earlier.
- Obama's two budgets have not changed those proportions significantly.  Expenditures remained high and taxes remained low as part of a bipartisan effort to stimulate the economy out of a full-blown depression.
- To return the federal government to its normal level of about 20% of GDP, we would have to cut expenditures by over $600B per year and raise revenues by over $500B per year.  Cuts would have to come from discretionary spending (including defense) as well as mandatory spending (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid being the big three categories).  


Since I wrote that post, things have only gotten worse, and both Democrat and Republican lawmakers have been fiddling while Rome not only burned, but was sacked by the Vandals (aka, Tea Party).  The budget process has gone from nasty to vicious to careening out of control.  I blame the Tea Party.  They have been arrogant and ignorant to amazing degrees, have shown no respect for anybody who does not agree with them (which is about 80-90% of the American people), and keep demanding more and more. Obama, Senator Reid, and the Democrats have, unfortunately, given in on nearly everything they demanded, including massive cuts in discretionary spending and entitlement programs, as well as no tax increase.  Every time they do, the Tea Partiers just demand more.  So far, their approach has been to DEMAND, DEMAND, DEMAND. No negotiation.  No two-way discussions.  No consideration for anybody else.  Just "give me what I want or I'll wreck the economy."

Tom Friedman, the brilliant New York Times columnist, called them "the Hezbollah faction of the Republican Party".  He's being overly kind.

So here we are, four days from economic Armageddon (if you believe the hype), and I see no sign that a deal will be reached.  Note that "deal" is the word: there is no "compromise" anymore, just one side demanding unconditional surrender, and the other side trying to figure out how much to give away is too much.  Frankly, I don't see any solution for the foreseeable future.

The ball is about to land squarely in Obama's court.  Congress is not providing the financial means to carry out their own budget, so the Executive Branch will have to decide on its own how to proceed.  And, contrary to what some Tea Partiers are saying, there is not enough coming in to cover what needs to be done.  What'll happen?

I see one of two scenarios playing out.  In one, President Obama will invoke the 14th Amendment, which states:
"The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned." 
This amendment provides Obama with constitutional grounds to ignore the debt ceiling limit, which is a law that is being used for political purposes in a way that violates the Constitution.  He could tell the Treasury to go ahead and continue borrowing as needed.  Obama has indicated that he doesn't particularly like this option, but he has not specifically ruled it out, either.

The other scenario is much more Machiavellian.  I have heard several political pundits say that Obama is the master of the "rope-a-dope", giving opponents lots of room to hang themselves.  Possibly that's what is going on now.  With the Tea Party not giving in on anything, Obama might just let them have what they say they want: a situation where the federal government can only spend what it takes in.  In last October's post, I noted that once you subtract mandatory spending (required by law) from revenues, there's only about $200B left for all government functions; but once you add in defense expenditures, you're running a half-trillion-dollar deficit before you spend a dime on anything else.  Since we don't bring in enough to fund our legal requirements plus defense plus anything else that the government is responsible for, the Tea Party's position would soon be exposed for the fraud that it is.

This would be a very painful lesson for the nation to learn.  It's similar to the approach that Roosevelt used prior to World War II: he knew that war was inevitable, but also that the nation would not mobilize effectively without a major shock.  I don't think he knew that Pearl Harbor was going to happen, but something would, and the public wouldn't swing to his support until it did.  He was right.  In this case, Obama might be giving the Tea Party what they want, knowing that the shock will awaken the country to the truth behind their claims.

I don't know that that's what's going on in the White House.  It seems like an expensive gamble to take.  But we'll see what happens here in just a few days.

New Wheels

We got a new set of wheels the other day. I hadn't really planned on it happening, but sometimes life throws things at you and you have to jump.

To set the stage: for ten years, our two cars were a 2000 Land Rover Discovery and a 2000 Ford Ranger pickup. Last year, we sold the Land Rover and bought a Volvo V70 station wagon. We figured that the Land Rover was getting up there in miles (about 170,000) and it was going to get expensive at some indefinite time in the future. Then some friends decided to sell their beautiful Volvo, which Janis loved, so we sold the Discovery and bought the Volvo. It was pretty luxurious, got great gas mileage, and has many years of life left in it. All was well with the world.

Until last winter. Not only were we were clobbered with snow, but Janis started a pet-sitting business and some of her clients had driveways that absolutely required a 4WD vehicle to get up and down. Suddenly, the decision to sell the Discovery didn't look so good - maybe we should have kept it and sold the Ranger instead. But we hadn't and were stuck with the decision.

Now I'm going to be heading off to a new job soon (that'll be another blog post) and we're getting ourselves positioned for what's about to come. One of the decisions was whether to get a 4WD or AWD vehicle. Buying a new car was not on my list, but Janis felt strongly that she needed something that would get her around in another wicked winter. Suddenly, buying a new car was on my list. We looked at a lot of possibilities: trade in the Volvo for a good used SUV of some sort, buy a beater 4WD Jeep, or swap the old Ranger for something newer. We finally decided to replace the Ranger. A new(er) Ranger was out of the question: mine had been reliable, but Ford hasn't updated it in over 12 years and it's an antique design. Full-size trucks like the F150 are now the size that semi's used to be and they suck gas like it's water. After a lot of research, I thought the Nissan Frontier was going to be the best choice. It has a 300 hp V6, 4WD, excellent reliability, lots of room, and gets better gas mileage than my old Ranger.

So I started looking for a Frontier. A few days ago, I spotted an ad for one near here, in Boone, NC. It had what we looking for, plus it was a 2008 with only 12,000 miles on it, one owner, and a clean CarFax. Turns out the previous owner (actually, a leaser) was a guy with a big vacation home near Boone and only used it when he was in town. We went up to take a look, I drove it, and was hooked. We came home with it that night.

So now I have a new toy. It's in great shape, but there are a few things that I want to do with it, like put in a stereo unit that'll play my iPod, put a fiberglass lid on the bed, add a trailer hitch, and so on. Lots to do, but it doesn't have to be done right now. Before I get into personalizing the Frontier, I have to sell the Ranger. It's been a great truck and I'll be sad to see it go, but it doesn't meet our needs anymore.

Psst! Wanna buy a great used Ranger?

Life Drawing

Ann

Graphite on paper, 8"x10"

I went to a life drawing session on Monday night for the first time in three months. It felt good to get the eye and hand moving again, and I wasn't quite as rusty as expected.

Our model was a very interesting woman. She has been fighting cancer for some time and her body shows it: scars, no hair, and lots of lumps and bumps. Although her body shows it, her spirit doesn't. She's a bright, active, and cheerful woman who is enjoying her life and beating cancer. She chatted away with us about pretty much anything that popped into mind.

This was Ann's first time as a model. Although she's an artist, she'd never been to a life-drawing session before, even as a participant, and didn't know what to expect. Her decision to model was apparently driven by several factors. It was a way to confront the disease, to say "here I am, here are my scars, this is what cancer has done to me, and I'm still here." I think this is a brave thing to do for anybody. Our popular culture is so concerned with physical perfection that to show one's own very "imperfect" body, particularly one that has been mangled, takes a lot of fortitude.

In addition to confronting the disease, modeling was also a way to become comfortable with her own body. I think it's a bit frightening for a first-time model to step up on the stand and remove his or her robe in front of a crowd of strangers. What will these people do? Will they run from the room screaming in terror? Will they laugh? Will they accept me? It's a very scary moment. Imagine yourself in that situation and you'll get an idea of what a first-time model goes through. Contrary to popular belief, very few models are exhibitionists, in my experience, so something like nude modeling does not come naturally. I've had a number of models tell me that it helped them become more confident and comfortable, not only with their bodies, but with who they were.

It occurred to me that Ann is experiencing the same sort of thing that our wounded veterans are. Through no choice of their own, her body has been severely damaged and will show the damage for the rest of her life. But like most of the wounded vets, she's accepted the challenge, is fighting back, and making the most of it. I've painted wounded vets before as a personal and political statement. On Monday, I met a "wounded vet" that I'd like to paint just to celebrate her own personal victory.

And this was just an ordinary life drawing session.

Jackson

I haven't posted any pictures of my grandson in too long. Time to fix that!

These were taken at their recent vacation at Lake Powell. The little guy is growing up quite fast, isn't he?

July 4th

I love a good July 4th. Ours, yesterday, was pretty perfect: a postcard of what it's like to live in America.

I got to do some painting for the first time in two months. It's a small image of our back yard. Exciting? Full of meaning? Deep and philosophical? Nope. My skills are pretty rusty at the moment, so this was just a simple exercise in putting paint on canvas again. I love our little back yard: our deck, the table and chairs, the plants, grass, trees, and all the little things that Janis has done to spruce it up. So I thought it would be fun to work from life, what artists call alla prima. Shortly after I got the thing blocked in, though, a thunderstorm moved in and made working in the backyard impossible. So I relocated into the garage and continued. After about two or three hours, the painting was about 60% completed. I'll try to finish it up this afternoon.

Last night, we went with our neighbors to the Asheville Tourists baseball game. What can be more American than baseball, foot-long brats, and locally-brewed beer? I really like going to minor-league games. They're fun, without the expense, stress, and crowds of a major-league outing. Ten bucks buys you a great seat. The staff puts on silly games between innings like three-legged races and "Jeopardy"-like questions with "gimme" answers, with prizes such as $10 off your next oil change at the local Kia dealer. Little kids are welcome, and who cares if they're not paying any attention to the game? Most adults aren't, either. They're probably people-watching, or drinking copious amounts of the locally-brewed beer, or yakking with their friends.

This being the Fourth, there were some extra features. The Asheville-Buncombe Community Christian Ministry (ABCCM) was the night's sponsor. ABCCM works with homeless people, particularly veterans. A few years ago, ABCCM bought and refurbished a defunct motel into a home for vets. They house and help the vets get back on their feet and re-integrated into the community. Last year, they helped 300 go from jobless and homeless to employed and living on their own. A commendable group. So, as the night's sponsor, ABCCM got to put out their message several times and arranged for some very nice ceremonies honoring vets.

Right in front of us were an old couple, probably in their 80's. She was in a wheelchair and he could barely stand, let alone walk. But during the National Anthem, they both stood up. They were leaning on their chairs and leaning on each other, but by God, they stood up for the National Anthem. How great is that?

July 4th is important to us for another reason. It's Soozee and Indy's birthday. Our two little dogs turned 8 years old yesterday. So I visited a certain booth at the stadium and during the game the announcer wished the twins a very happy birthday. Very cool!

It's an Asheville Tourists tradition to have a game on July 4th, followed by fireworks. And they put on a pretty good show. Unfortunately, the Tourists got beat, 7-3, but they played their hearts out. The fireworks after the game brought out the ooh's and aaah's and a big round of applause at the end. We got out of the stadium and on the road with no fuss at all and home to Soozee and Indy, where we had to throw their balls around for about an hour before they would settle down. But hey, it was their birthday, so they deserved it.

All in all, pretty perfect. Hope you had an equally fine holiday!

An Open Letter to SEN Richard Burr

Here's the text of a letter I just sent to my Republican senator:

"I am extremely concerned about the current game of "chicken" that is currently playing out in Washington over the budget impasse. While cutting expenditures is certainly a part of any responsible solution, so is raising taxes.

Since World War 2, federal expenditures have averaged about 20% of the nation's GDP. Tax revenues have generally averaged a point below that. Under President Bush and the Republican leadership since 2000, expenditures have jumped to about 24% of GDP and revenues have fallen to about 15%. This was, and remains, irresponsible.

Moreover, the Republican mantra that tax cuts for the wealthy stimulate jobs is patently false. There has been a steady shift of wealth from the middle class (including me) to the wealthy (including you) since the Reagan administration. The top 1% now control about 42% of the nation's wealth and, due to breaks like low rates on capital gains, pay less in taxes. Moreover, the rich DO NOT create jobs. That is done by small businesses and mom-and-pop entrepreneurs. Wealthy people are sitting on trillions of dollars in Wall Street investments and are not circulating this money in the economy where it is needed.

The rich are getting a free ride in America and the Republicans are their champions. It is time to change that mantra for the good of the country. Therefore, any responsible solution to the debt problem MUST include tax increases.

Do not drive this country into bankruptcy to protect tax cuts for the rich. It's stupid."

Profound Questions

One of my LinkedIn groups had this interesting question posted this morning: "If you had to do it all over again, would you choose your present career?" I read the responses and was very surprised to see mostly negative comments. So many people were not happy with their careers or with the way their lives had turned out. It gave me something to think about. I'm a pretty happy guy by nature and generally assume that most everybody else is, too. A dangerous assumption, I know, but that's my default setting. So when I bump into evidence that my defaults are faulty, it gets my mind going.

I immediately answered the question with this:

If I had to do it all over again, I'd do the same things, absolutely. I was a naval officer for 22 years and did some neat things with wonderful people in some unbelievable situations. Then I became an artist, a completely different universe, loved it and was very good at it. But the art market has collapsed and the things I need to paint are not the things that sell, so I'm looking for an opportunity to make a living while contributing something positive to the world. It'll come. One thing I've learned is that the best things in my life haven't been the things that I planned for, they've been the unexpected: the career field that I never heard of until I stumbled into it, an assignment I never would have asked for, and the woman who came into my life right when I specifically wasn't looking. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat!

Then I went out to do some mowing. Mowing is a great time to do some thinking. It's a physical activity that doesn't take a lot of brainpower: follow the pattern, make sure to overlap the passes, and that's about it. So I thought about the LinkedIn question and why it is I was able to answer it that way.

Way back when (about 1969), my first job was with a food producer. It was a small shop that was set up to experiment with making sausage biscuits and see if they could do it profitably. I was clueless, just a 16-year-old teenager with no skills hired on as general labor for part of a summer. The older guys, who had all been doing general labor for years, even decades, took me under their wing. They showed me how to work hard and carry my weight. None had been to college and only a few had completed high school. Most of them were black, and for a middle-class white kid who grew up in the segregated south, this was an eye-opener. I learned a lot: that people could be smart even if they're not educated, that the people doing the work generally knew more about how to get the job done than the boss did, and that most people wanted to work hard and be respected for what they could do.

Those lessons were reinforced later when I went to work as a waiter at a Red Lobster. My trainer was an older black woman named Rosa. She was skinny as a rail with a beehive hairdo and more energy than anybody else in the restaurant. Rosa hustled. She was always two steps ahead of the game. Rosa was the best waitress in the place and always made more in tips than everybody else. Always. From her, I learned a lot about taking care of my customers, how to give them my attention without being obsequious, and how to monitor seventeen things going on at once. (Are my orders up? The hostess just seated a party of six at my table - need to get their water and forks to them now. This lady needs a refill on her tea. That kid just dumped his plate on the floor - get the bucket over here. How are we on rolled utensils? The coffeepot is almost empty - make a new one.) And teamwork. We all had to work together to get the job done. If anybody was slacking, it affected everybody else, because the pace was intense.

Good life lessons for a kid just out of high school.

So what does all this have to do with the LinkedIn question? Well, a career is a reflection of life in general. I had a good career in the Navy, a good career as an artist, several good careers as a student of various kinds, and a good "career" as a program/project manager in Iraq. Some careers paid better than others, but all of them were very rewarding. The reason is that it's all about people. The lessons I learned from the sausage biscuit factory and the Red Lobster stayed with me throughout all my careers. Treat your business associates, customers, and staff with respect, carry your weight and then some, and focus on the team, and you'll do well. The specific career field is almost incidental.

Monday Afternoon Musings

It's been a busy time here at the Rohde household this past week. The big news is that I suddenly have three organizations interested in hiring me. I'm filling out forms now, and next week will be flying out for an interview. All three jobs are very different, but they have one thing in common: they're all in Afghanistan. Yes, Afghanistan. Some time ago, I wrote that I seem to be qualified for only two jobs: either running multi-million-dollar projects in some war-torn country, or wearing a blue vest and saying "Welcome to Wal-Mart". Well, Wal-Mart isn't hiring, so it looks like it's Afghanistan!

For many people, learning that you're going to A'stan would be terrible news, but not for me. There's something about deployments that gets into your blood. It's working in places that most sane people don't want to go, doing things most people don't want to do, but doing a mission that needs to be done. I'm pretty good at it, too. On the flip side, the separation is a strain, but Janis and I know that we can handle it.

Any one of these opportunities will help us achieve another goal, which is to move to San Diego. Janis lived there until my transfer took us away 20 years ago, and I've been hearing about it ever since. Now that we have a young grandson, it's time to go back. Yes, it's expensive and crowded and will someday fall off into the Pacific, but too bad. We gotta go. This tour in A'stan will provide the kick to get us there. As soon as it's confirmed that I'm going, we'll put the house up for sale and start the process.

So now I have to talk with these three organizations and see which ones (a) will actually offer a job that (b) I really want to take. Three interests does not a deployment make.

Speaking of San Diego, Janis is going out there soon to see her friends and family. I get to stay home and be a single Dad to our two dogs for two weeks. If all goes well, maybe Janis will be able to start looking around for a place to live out there.

Meanwhile, here at home, we've had several waves of storms sweep through. Back in May, we had two hailstorms and some hellacious rain. Over the past week, we've had several storms with blasts of wind and more drenching rain. My neighbor had three of his four Bradford pear trees split in half a couple of days ago. I had two big branches from my dogwood break off and land halfway across the yard. Last night, the top 15' of one of my birches was blown off. I spent a couple hours today cleaning that one up. Let's hope that the storms are gone - they're no fun! The good news: my roof survived the hail, and the big trees around the house withstood all the wind.

On a lighter note, we saw a wonderful movie the other night: "The Triplets of Belleville". It's an odd French animated film, very funny, very creative, and beautifully drawn. In fact, the drawing alone is reason to see it. I could look at it frame-by-frame and be perfectly happy.

The movie trailer is on YouTube, of course (actually, the whole movie is), but I recommend that you put it on your Netflix queue and see it on a bigger screen. We loved it and you might, too!

Thoughts on the New Navy

An article in the Washington Post today caught my eye. It discussed a disturbing trend: too many Commanding Officers are being fired this year for personal misconduct. As trends go, this one is all over the board. The CO's are on ships, submarines, air squadrons, and shore sites. They're men and women. They've been fired for inappropriate relationships, hostile command climates, alcohol, raunchy movies, and more. An article in the Navy Times provides specific names and limited details.

As a former Navy Commanding Officer, I'm disturbed by these reports. They raise some serious questions. What's going on with the CO's? Is something failing in their professional development? Are they just being stupid all at once? From the information in the two articles, I can't tell.

There is no single thread running through these firings. One, heavily reported in the press, was the CO of the Enterprise. When he was the Executive Officer (XO, the #2 position on the ship) of the ship, he participated in making some raunchy and inappropriate videos. Stupid. The CO of an attack squadron was fired after being caught DUI. Stupid. The CO of an amphibious ship (female) allowed hazing and used a loaded weapon in a dangerous manner. Stupid. The CO of a submarine mishandled classified information and tried to cover it up. Stupid. The Commodore of a destroyer squadron had a relationship with another officer's wife. Stupid.

It's not just CO's. The Navy Times article lists XO's and Senior Enlisted Advisors as well. These two individuals, along with the CO, establish the climate in the command. If they screw up, it's almost as serious as a CO screwup.

The military has a long tradition of holding its leaders to higher standards. There's a reason: leadership is more important to success than technology, sheer knowledge, or anything else. In the Navy, lives depend on a senior officer's leadership on a daily basis. The sea is a very unforgiving place and when something happens, the CO and his leaders have to have the unquestioned trust and respect of the crew. Naval officers are raised with this awareness from the day they enter the service and it's pounded into them throughout their career.

Now, people are people, with all their foibles, weaknesses, and quirks, and CO's are no different. I've certainly worked with some quirky senior officers in my career and some might say I'm quirky, too. But as a CO, you have to step up to the plate and recognize that you're held to a much higher standard. These individuals, for whatever reason, messed up. Maybe it was a single bad decision, maybe it was for a pattern of behavior over a long period of time, but they didn't uphold the standard. So they were fired. For an officer, that's it: your career is over and you may as well resign. Otherwise, you'll be manning an unimportant desk buried in some unimportant job, while everybody around you knows that you didn't measure up.

On the one hand, I'm happy to see that the Navy is still holding CO's accountable for their actions, and holding them to the same high standards they always have. That's the good news. The bad news is that a lot of CO's right now aren't measuring up. Why? I don't know. But anybody who aspires to be a CO (which, in my opinion, should be every officer) should take a lesson from all these firings. Substandard performance just doesn't cut it.

Groundhog Week

It occurred to me that lately I have written very little about what I've been doing. I can sum most of my waking hours up in two words: job search. That's not a very exciting topic. I search. I find something that looks interesting. I research the company, the position, the location, whatever. I tweak the resume, write a cover letter, and submit an application. Log it into my application records. Start searching again.

Like most of the country, this past month has been unbelievably hot. We've been running 10-15 degrees above normal for several weeks now, and it feels more like August than May/June. That means I do my yard work in the morning, before it heats up, and then do the computer work in the afternoon.

Speaking of yard work, my wife has been bugging me to take the weedeater to several spots in the yard. Since our weedeater is a low-cost low-quality POS that hasn't been used since last July, that meant it needed some maintenance first. So I spent about $40 for parts and six hours in labor to rebuild the carburetor, replace the fuel lines, clean the air filter, put in a new spark plug, and make sure everything was adjusted correctly. And now, of course, it won't run at all. So got out the yard gloves and a pair of scissors and spent about 15 minutes cutting down the weeds that the weedeater was intended for.

With the hot weather come summertime afternoon storms. We've had them nearly every day for a week. One of my dogs, Indy, is scared to death of thunder.

So when the thunder and rain start, Indy's in my lap. As she is right now, as a matter of fact. Makes it hard to type on the keyboard.

The River Arts District Association in Asheville is holding its semi-annual Studio Stroll this weekend. This will be the first time in years that I haven't been participating in it, one way or another, and I'm not going to miss it at all. In fact, I'm going to enjoy it. Tomorrow, I'm going down to the District and will actually do the Stroll. Rather than being tied to my studio all weekend long, I'm going to wander to everybody else's studio and see all the wonderful work that's being done down there. So if you're in Asheville this weekend, go down to the River Arts District and see some great art. You just won't see mine this time!

Veterans Unemployment

A number of articles recently have focused on the disturbing fact that the unemployment rate for veterans is significantly higher than it is for non-veterans. I just read a piece in the Navy Times about it, but the Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times (really good), Yahoo.com, and many more have also published articles on the subject. Young veterans from the post-9/11 world have an unemployment rate in general of over 20%. In some areas of the country, though, it's over 40%. Vets who've been out in the civilian world for a while have a much lower rate, indicating that most of them were able to make the transition and build solid civilian resumes before the recession hit. Those making the transition now, though, are having an extremely hard time.

As everybody knows, the current employment situation (to use a highly technical term) sucks. Unemployment remains high and shows no sign of improvement anytime soon. A new report says that only 54,000 new jobs were created last month. This is about 150,000 less than needed to keep up with population growth, much less recover from the 8,000,000 jobs lost during the recession (thank you, Wall Street). So anybody who's in the job market faces an uphill battle.

For companies that are looking to hire, they're in the catbird seat. They often get over 100 applications for any decent position, so they can specify in great detail what kind of candidate they think they want. And so they do. Most of the job descriptions I see have a laundry list of required qualifications: highly specialized training, certification in this or that field, X number of years experience doing exactly the job that they're hiring for, and so on. Years ago, when I saw such lists of requirements, I could assume with some certainty that they already had a candidate in mind and were just going through the job announcement motions for legal or CYA reasons. Now, though, they'll probably have a number of candidates to choose from.

But are these really the characteristics they should be looking for? Not necessarily. I think that a truly successful employee is successful because of other reasons: dedication, drive, flexibility, perseverance, teamwork, leadership skills, and loyalty, to name a few. Yet these characteristics are almost never mentioned. It seems as if employers are missing the person in their search for a specialized technical widget. In my experience, technical skills can be learned relatively quickly by a reasonably-intelligent person with a reasonably-applicable background. But it's the personal characteristics that will make the new employee a success or not.

Our young veterans have those personal characteristics that civilian employers should be looking for. Just the fact that they successfully completed their service, whether for 3 or 30 years, shows that they have dedication drive, flexibility, perseverance, teamwork, leadership skills, and loyalty. They may not have the latest CISSP or PMP certification because they spent three of the past five years in Iraq or Afghanistan, getting impossible jobs done under arduous conditions.

I agree that much of the onus is on the veteran to translate his/her military experience into terms that a civilian can understand. Over the past several months, I've gotten a lot better at doing that. Still, civilian employers need to be more aware of what it is they're asking for. If all they're asking for are technical widgets, well, be careful what you ask for. If they're looking for people who can do amazing things, then look at the veterans.

I just don't want to see a bumper sticker that says: "WE PROUDLY SUPPORT OUR TROOPS. WE JUST DON'T HIRE THEM."

Thoughts on Bosnia

Good news from the Balkans: a couple of days ago, Serbian police arrested Ratko Mladic. He was the leader of Serbian paramilitary forces during the horrible Bosnian conflict of the early '90's, and the one responsible for the slaughter of 8,000 people in Srebrenica in July, 1995. Even better, the Serbian police forces put down a small protest riot today by ultra-nationalist Serbs who were demanding his release. Mladic will soon be sent to the Hague to stand trial for war crimes. This marks a milestone, a finish line of sorts, to the Bosnian war.

I was in Sarajevo in the spring of 1996 as part of the Operation Joint Endeavor peacekeeping forces. I was part of a small team providing intelligence support to the NATO commander, Admiral Leighton Smith, and a few select senior leaders. Our team had a unique ringside seat to the negotiations and maneuvering between NATO, the various nations that made up NATO forces, the Serbians, the Bosnian Muslims, the Croats, and the UN. This was soon after the ceasefire had been established. The fighting had officially stopped, but peace had definitely not broken out, and keeping things under control meant walking a tightrope.

A great many people at that time were demanding that NATO capture Mladic, along with Radovan Karadzic, the political leader of the Serbians. This pressure began to build, to the point that many, even in the NATO forces, assumed that we were getting ready to mount an operation to nab them. Frankly, it would not have been that hard. Admiral Smith, though, refused to do it. He had good reason. We had a very close call in the spring when a low-level Serbian general took a wrong turn, blundered into a NATO checkpoint, and was arrested. The Serbians were furious and came within a heartbeat of pulling out of the peace process. Somehow, they were persuaded to stay, and eventually were convinced that the general really did just take a wrong turn and that it wasn't a planned NATO operation. But this event showed just how tenuous the whole situation was. Admiral Smith knew that if we gone after Karadzic and Mladic, the peace process would have collapsed and the Balkans plunged back into civil war. His view was that we were there to establish the peace. That came first. Whatever justice was to be meted out would have to wait until it could be done without bringing ruin.

That time is now. Radovan Karadzic was arrested three years ago and is currently being held in the Hague. Now Ratko Mladic has been brought in. Just a few years ago, his arrest would have brought down the Serbian government. Now, though, it just provoked a relatively small protest with a few hundred people that was contained by Serbian police.

When Yugoslavia collapsed, it did so very quickly, and when it went violent, it did so even more quickly. It has taken 15 years to get to the point where the arrest of former Serbian leaders can be done without destroying the country. Similarly, when our government made the decision to go to war against Afghanistan and then Iraq, it did so very quickly, but the process of building the peace is still ongoing nine years later. This has always been the case: wars can come quickly, but the recovery often takes decades.

Food for thought on this Memorial Day.