15 November 2003 ---JOURNAL ENTRY TWENTY-EIGHT---
Again, this is another short entry for various reasons, one of which is that I'm lazy. Second is that some jackass broke my digital camera two weeks ago and it's demotivated me in the website department. This guy dropped my camera and instead of saying sorry, or tell me how much it costs to fix, he bought me a tequila shot. Gee dude, thanks.
I'm coming home a month from today. I'll be there 18 days and there are so many things that I want to do (and eat!) and see, people to visit, all of it, but most importantly is having at least a few nights just chilling at home with the folks, having something to eat and watching a movie together, the simple things. That's what I'm really looking forward to.
Okay, so, it's a nice day, about 45 degrees and partly cloudy. I want to go for a run today but again, the lazy factor (I just yawned as I typed that) is really hitting me today. It was a long week of work and I want to chill out today and tonight, I've been on the go quite a bit lately. For example, I went to Frankfurt and Strasbourg last week. I went to Frankfurt to see a band called My Morning Jacket but when I got there someone in the band was sick and so it got cancelled. Not knowing what to do then, I went to the hostel, checked in, and ended up hanging with some folks, cruising around an old part of Frankfurt and having some beers. I actually met a young guy who had just come back from Iraq, 20 years old and had already seen things that we as men should never see. He was a bit whacked in the head and all I could do was put my arm around him and tell him that it'll be all right again, and bought him a beer. I hope that helped. After that was Ben Harper in Strasbourg and that concert DID happen. It was incredible and I was close enough (8th row) to really be part of the emotion of the whole thing. I met and hung out with two really cool Americans who live in Munich. We had a blast. But of course I spent twice as much as I had wanted for various reasons and so I'm a bit poor for now, too bad it's Xmas time!!! haha
So, here's the point of this journal entry. I just got an email from my mom which had a little story in it about my grandfather. He and I were very close, had writing and golf in common and spent many hours together. I miss him but when I read these stories, I remember him and then he's with me again. That's it from me today, enjoy the below and remember how fleeting life, how small and unimportant we all are and, because of that, we experience the most meaningful things. peace.
On November 16, 1944 his unit was in the mountains in France. He saw the German soldier who shot him and fired back at him (he did not know if he hit him or not). The bullet went in his right shoulder across his body and out the left side of his back. He lay on the mountain all night until a medic could get to him. When they got him to an aid station, the doctor told him he would have bled to death if it hadn�t been so cold. After he was put in a body cast and kept in Fance a while, they put him on a Red Cross train to take him to a ship for England. While on the train, the train tracks were sabotaged and everyone in the first two cars were killed. Someone had put a bale of wire across the tracks. Marty was in the rear and slumped from his upper berth onto the floor. They were close to a small village and the priest went though collecting brandy for the men. Marty wasn�t a drinking man, but said nothing ever tasted as good. They were all in pain and very cold. He was in the hospital in England for four months. Then we was kept at an air base for limited duty to relieve an able bodied man to fight as the Battle of the Bulge was starting. After Marty died, I [Betty] received a letter from a man wounded on the 15th, who later had to have his leg amputated. He said Marty and two others carried him through a German barrage to get him help. He recommended that they receive the silver star for bravery, but it didn�t happen.
thanks grandpa, I'm really proud of you. I always have been and I hope that wherever you are that you're playing good golf!
