Author: djibouti.jim

So….there’s this asshole at the gym I frequent.  I can’t avoid him. If I’m there, he’s there.  If I’m working chest that day, so is he.  I can’t escape the guy.  Apparently, he’s always in a good mood….always smiling, always willing to help out if someone needs a spot.  He pretty much keeps to himself…

Yeah, yeah, yeah….it’s been a while.  Y’all can quitcherbitchin….I’m back.  I don’t know if all Master’s degrees require the reading and writing that a M.A. in History does, but for the last couple years, the furthest thing from my mind was reading or writing anything I didn’t absolutely HAVE to.  That’s behind me now.  All…

I was just outside of Lexington, Kentucky, driving west on I-64 in January of 2017 when the phone rang.  It was my cousin (whom I’ve called “Brother” most of my life) Mike, so naturally I answered.  After the customary greetings Mike said, “I need a favor”.  The words “Anything for you, Brother” slid between my…

Alright….I’m back.  Sorry it’s been so long, but if you’ve seen how much I’ve had to read and write over the last six months, you’d understand why I haven’t been able to bring myself to write recreationally.  These old eyes can still count the whiskers on a deer’s chin from 100 yards away….but reading and…

If you grew up on McCoy Heights in the 70’s and 80’s you had to know the geographic markers for the hill.  It’s funny, but when I sat down to start writing this, I had to pull up a map of the neighborhood.  I knew the places I wanted to discuss, but damned if I…

Looking up I could see the circle of light in the surface just a few feet away from my face.  I could see the bright blue sky filled with white clouds and the hills that line the river valley, distorted through the shimmer of the river’s finish.  I could jut my hand through it and…

I’m hurt. I’m pissed off. I need to vent this so I’m writing to keep me from doing something more destructive. Seventeen. It’s one of those numbers that you don’t know how you remember it….but you know why you remember it. Seventeen. On seventeen different occasions I handed a folded flag to a grieving widow…

Okay….SO….A little bit of a history lesson today. I think everyone has seen the images of the Helicopter pulling the staff from the Embassy in Kabul compared to the identical picture taken in Saigon circa 1975. That got me to really thinking about some things. If you take a close look at the late 60’s…

Okay….So….I’m guilty too. I did it. Someone had to call me out on it. I learned from my mistakes. They say a smart person learns from his mistakes, but a wise person learns from the mistakes of others. This is your opportunity to feel wise for a little bit….learn from my mistakes. I never post…

Look at this…..two posts in the same week. Okay…so….I’m not trying to be demeaning in any way, shape or form. An old friend of mine used to say “you only know what you know”, and as simple as that statement is, it says quite a bit. It occurs to me that a lot of the…