Let us never forget

Seventy-three years ago today, early in the morning, the United States became involved officially in World War Two, through the bombing of Naval Station Pearl Harbor, near Honolulu, Hawaii. Most people alive today weren't around then, and have only heard about this incident through history books and classes, and word-of-mouth. I am one of those people, but as a history buff, I cannot help but be interested, awed, humbled and frightened by that day.

Interested because it's history. Awed by the destruction. Humbled by the courage shown by our brave servicemen and -women that day. Frightened because I have seen similar terrorism against my country in my own time, and understand the feelings of fear and worry engendered by an incident like this.

Pearl Harbor, now Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, after a 2010 merger with the USAF's Hickam Air Force Base, the headquarters of the United States Pacific Fleet, was attacked with little warning. I say little because the American forces had determined that an attack on U.S. soil was likely, but didn't know where exactly. They thought perhaps it would be the Phillipines. Pearl Harbor was a surprise.

The loss at the time was staggering, and comparable to 9/11 of my own time. Nine U.S ships were sunk and 21 badly damaged. Of these, eight battleships were at the dock. Three were horribly damaged and the other five of these were sunk, including the battleship Arizona, which later became a memorial. 1,178 people were wounded, which includes 35 civilians. The death toll was, as I said, staggering. 2,403 dead, including 68 civilians, of which 1,177 were from the Arizona.

But WHY did the attack happen at all? In short, Japan felt constricted and needed oil. Yes, they attacked us over oil. Basically, it all started a little over a year earlier, in September 1940, after Japan took over what was then known as French Indochina, which was comprised of the three regions of Vietnam (Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina), Laos, Cambodia and Guangzhouwan). The U.S placed an embargo on Japan for steel, scrap iron and aviation fuel. In April 1941, the Japanese then signed a neutrality treaty with Russia, so that they could prevent an attack from that direction if they went to war with Britan or the U.S., while still taking a bigger chunk of Southeast Asia.

In June and July of 1941, Japan occupied southern Indochina. Within a few days, their assets were frozen by the U.S., Britain and the Netherlands, preventing Japan from buying oil, eventually crippling their army and making their navy and air force useless. As 1941 ground on, and the Soviets looked to be losing to the Axis powers, Japan tried to seize the oil reserves of southeast Asia. The American people were not willing to go to war to stop it, and the U.S. demanded that Japan leave China and Indochina, though the U.S would have settled for a token withdrawal and a promise not to take more territory. Prior to December 1941, Japan had two potential courses. One was to continue to take the territory they wanted while getting the embargo lifted. The other was to wage war, as they thought the U.S. would be willing to fight, but not very long nor very hard, as they did not expect the U.S. to fight to win. Their decision to bomb Pearl Harbor was both a brilliant success and yet ensured their defeat at the same time.

I can only imagine the feelings of the people as they saw the fighter planes screaming overhead, with the Rising Sun of Japan prominent. They must have been terrified; I know I would have been. In a situation like that, for how can you not be? Our world is so full of hate and fear and so much negativity that bring about more fighting and terrorism. I often wonder why we can't all agree to disagree and just work instead on getting along. I doubt I will live long enough to ever see that day, so in it's place, let us never forget this day. Let us learn from it, so that someday, this kind of thing will forever be a thing of the past.

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Shattered by silliness

It seems we won't have to move or anything after all. Our landlords are moving, and told us that if they didn't get moved tomorrow (Sunday), we'd have to move. Apparently, they are losing THEIR house (various issues including escrow messed up and issues with prior owners), and have to move, but we do not. I wish people wouldn't cause me stress like that and basically lie to me. It irritates the crap out of me. So, in order for their move to go as fast as possible, we hijacked a friend of ours from in town today while we were there and brought him here to spend the night, which saves us the time of having to pick him up in the morning, so we can all go do the darn moving as quickly as possible. This will also allow us to get JJ dropped back off to his folks' place where he lives right now, and us to get back home, get our chores done and get showered for work. Yeah, OUR stuff has to wait to help someone else who gave us no warning other than yesterday, when we have consistently said if they need us to help with stuff, we have to have a week's warning so we can shift our schedules around. *shaking my head*

Still, we are saving up for the eventual temporary shutdown in February, and what we don't need from that will be the start of our kitty for a move or house purchase. Now that we know we are safe here for a while yet, we'll go back to plan A instead of Emergency Plan Z. So all in all, it's been a crazy day and I am ready to settle in for the night. Hugs, all!

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Well, this is interesting

As most of you know, things in this place are not the greatest, physically. The electric isn't all working right and there's no running water. Our landlords, for whatever reason, are moving out of the place they have bought and have apparently completely paid for, and in with her grandmother and stepgrandfather. We have been in this place for just over two years. We have just been informed that if they can get moved this weekend, then we won't have to move. Otherwise, it sounds like they would want us to move so they can move here. Really? Whatever happened to the landlady's insistence a couple of years ago that she "hated" the ticks here and would never, EVER move back? This just is totally NOT good news. I don't need stuff like this happening. Please think good thoughts. I have to work today, the landlords won't do anything about moving until Sunday and won't even talk to us about it until tomorrow at lunchtime. This is not a happy time for us. It all means hubby likely will have to give up his Sunday off to help them move so we can stay here for a while longer. Just GREAT.

What this boils down to is no books today, as I have an emergency to deal with and my head is not in the game. Hugs, all.

Weather's nice

I ended up feeling so bad yesterday by the time I should have been getting ready, I ended up burning that point I just got back. Thankfully, I had it, but man, the pain yesterday got intense. It also means that I spent a lot of time yesterday sleeping it off in order to fight it. So a blah day, but I feel somewhat better today, though still with a bad headache. That will pass eventually, when some stress bleeds off. I'm having TMG issues, hence the neck/head ache issues, as I tend to clench my jaw when I'm sleeping if I'm overstressed.

On the bright side, all that sleep helped a lot of my other pains to go away for a while, and I was able to make a mad dash to the dollar store to get a few things, including an early Christmas present for hubby. I got him one of those "Royal Plush" blankets with a cougar on it. The living room can get a bit chilled, and I want him to be able to cover his feet and legs if he's cool, but I didn't want to wait until Christmas for it, because he got me a new microwave for an early gift; we needed it, though, as the old one was about to die.

Some stitchery and crocheting ensued when I felt up to it. Didn't eat much because I was snoozing most of the day. Wish I could again, but if I get stuff done fast enough this morning, I can take a nap before heading in again. Plus he's driving, so I can doze on the way there! This is a very boring, not a lot of actual homesteading chores, kind of week it looks like!

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Hello, chronic pain

If you have chronic pain, you know what it feels like to wake up from a nice, long, restful sleep, and still feel like you've been hit by a Mack truck. That's this morning. I slept really well but still woke up feeling poorly. I am trying to determine whether or not I will be going in to work. I really want my points down, and just got one back last week, but oh, man, do I ache. Ah well, it's Wednesday, and I might be okay enough to struggle through. I've never been one to take the easy way out, though.

Must be why I homestead despite the struggle. There are all kinds of crappy days, but the getting through them is so worth it. The results end up spectacular. I did move a bit slow getting to the truck yesterday, but it allowed me a chance to look at the garden in winter. It's so BARE. It looks so dead, but I know that in a few short months, it will be bursting with life once again and what looks so awful now will be green and growing. I can hardly wait, because seed catalogs are starting to arrive and in a few weeks, I'll be putting in seed orders a bit at a time from them. I'll also have to get another small tote to put the extras in for storage, because I know I won't get it all done in such a small space. But I want to have plenty of different things on hand for when I do have more space.

Am I worried about germination if I store them for a few years? Yes, some, but I also know that if I store them properly, then sprout them before planting, I'll have much better germination rates even on older seeds. And stuff that will sprout after 5 years packed up is more likely to do well in my climate as well as produce seeds for hardier plants. Goal is to raise up landrace varietals for this area, but have seed available through the internet for others. I will be one of those crazy people keeping old plants and old skills alive through the generations, just because I can.

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Warmer, thank goodness

Cuz I feel like crap. Stupid fibromyalgia. I hurt and still need to go to work. Urgh. At least it is warmer, and that's a good thing. I won't have to freeze or bundle up like an Eskimo to go to work today! I do wish I weren't feeling so darned tired. I want to take a day off to sleep, but no vacation days and I hate using points. Holidays are racing up on me, and I have got everything taken care of other than finishing Mom's gift, which likely will be late. DD's gift will be mailed hopefully this week, if I can find the envelope I got to mail it in! Hubby's is bought last weekend and stashed, though I need wrapping paper (probably just cheat like usual and use the Sunday color comics as they're free from the friends in town who bring their papers to work - I can just ask for the funnies for a couple of weeks from them and have plenty). Time to get hustling along to go make that paycheck since the business isn't at the replacing it point yet. Getting there a little at a time, but not there yet. Crossing fingers. Last month was as good as the previous three months put together, and most of it wasn't stuff that would be for gifts, either.

On the other hand, my mouse needs to quit being stupid. I hate using the touchpad, my wireless is eating batteries like there's no tomorrow, and my wired mouse is intermittently being a butthead and not working. It's going to be THAT kind of day again, I see. I broke both a knife and a spoon yesterday making my sandwich for lunch. I don't need that kind of thing happening again.

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OH, BRRR!!

After yesterday, it is now cold. The vehicles have ice on the windshields, and I'm going to have to be super-careful going across the deck and down the stairs so I don't fall. Basically, it's crappy out. I do NOT want to go to work, but I have to, and it sucks, because I'd rather work on building my business, such as it is right now, instead of building someone else's business, but you gotta pay the bills somehow or another. I did get a lot of small things done over the weekend, so that's good, and I'm making serious progress toward the end of stitching up the lap quilt so I can then go on to working on the mile a minute afghan for the bed while at home. Mostly, though, I'm just exhausted. Too many hours on my feet, freezing, messing with stupid chicken, when I want to be here, ensconsed in a warm house, cozy in my jammies 24/7, and working on what I want to work on. This is NOT turning out to be a good start to the week, mentally.

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