No, not the huge celebrations planned for next July. Many people know June 14th is Flag Day; most don’t know it is also the U.S. Army’s birthday. Well, people know this time because of the big parade and other events publicized. As I was reminded when I found the below site, it is actually the birthday of the Infantry as well.

Wednesday, 14 June 1775

The resolutions being read, were adopted as follows:
Resolved, That six companies of expert riflemen, be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia; that each company consist of a captain, three lieutenants, four serjeants, four corporals, a drummer or trumpeter, and sixty-eight privates.

That each company, as soon as completed, shall march and join the army near Boston, to be there employed as light infantry, under the command of the chief Officer in that army.

That the pay of the Officers and privates be as follows, viz. a captain @ 20 dollars per month; a lieutenant @ 13 1/3 dollars; a serjeant @ 8 dollars; a corporal @ 7 1/3 dollars; drummer or [trumpeter] @ 7 1/3 doll.; privates @ 6 2/3 dollars; to find their own arms and cloaths.

That the form of the enlistment be in the following words:
I ____ have, this day, voluntarily enlisted myself, as a soldier, in the American continental army, for one year, unless sooner discharged: And I do bind myself to conform, in all instances, to such rules and regulations, as are, or shall be, established for the government of the said Army.²(https://www.lineofdeparture.army.mil/Journals/Infantry/Infantry-Archive/Spring-2025/14-June-1775/)

Anyway, with all the current turmoil in the world, it’s easy to forget those who most want peace are men and women of the military. That does not of course include the “death cult” countries/groups, and people who profit from never-ending conflict, but is the hallmark of everyone else. The truth is while I do believe human nature will some day evolve beyond the territorial and other greedy motives at the core of most conflicts, we’re probably 800 or so years from that time. Until then, the reality is a strong military – or in the case of small countries, strong alliances for protection – are needed.

One of the themes of the only overtly political novel I have ever written (To Play on Grass Fields) is about accepting the harsh reality of human nature even in striving to break away from the worse parts. In weaving the story of a king determined to move his country from it’s blood-soaked past, one of the measures is to restructure the military from an offensive force to one of defense and collaborative with stronger allies. Like all the other solutions described in the book, this is grounded in fact. A number of smaller nations have adopted this model.

And so, a day late, here’s Happy 250th Birthday U.S. Army and Infantry!

Okay, the hassle in changing website and email continues. As I have said on many occasions, tech is not my thing and I get frustrated very easily. I do feel badly for my friends who don’t have anyone at home to help and Hubby and I have worked out an arrangement for trying to keep me from screaming too much at the computer. (I didn’t say I had that perfected yet.)

So, despite the fact the Domain Registration and the website and email hosting are through the same company, they are separate. After going through a somewhat painful process I am told yes, the Domain is registered, but now I have to do a different account for the others. In trying to follow those instructions, I did try – honestly I did. I gave up and asked for help before it got too bad. Hubby of course took care of it. Or at least I thought so. Turns out there is yet another step. This time the guy sent step-by-step instructions. Okay, even I should be able to manage. Except step 3 didn’t seem to work. After the third try I decided to click onto the Chat function. Let’s just say it did not go well. I then calmly asked Hubby to come up and explained. He takes the directions and sure enough, it didn’t work for him either. I felt a little better about that. He goes to the chat and gets a different tech. He can also explain better what the issue is and this time the tech acknowledges there seems to be an problem on their end. Well, that helps except of course I have to try again tomorrow. Sigh!!!!

I suppose there has been a level of progress in this transition I have to do with my webmaster retiring. Turns out the first step was only to change Domain Ownership. Even though that and web/email come under the same company (maybe group), they are totally different sections. The guy I finally got to explain it to me via email also sent a recommendation for what package to get. So, okay, I print out the instructions. Except when I go to the site, what it wants me to do doesn’t exactly match what the recommendation is, and there are other terms I don;t understand. Then in trying to proceed, I get a thing that says I can’t have charliehudson.net because it’s already taken. Yes, I am aware, but it’s taken by me. Fine, I will need once again to try and find a human to talk to. Ah, but this is Sales and they only work Mon-Fri, 9:00-5:00 East Coast time. Uh huh. Monday is totally jammed for me, but things are still working and I can try Tuesday afternoon.

Speaking of Tuesday.  As I said, Monday was jammed and I have an important meeting Friday afternoon. That’s okay. Then I get an email with a notice of something that sort of involves the museum which includes a meeting on Thursday. Preparing for the meeting on Thursday might also mean having a meeting prior to that, but I won’t know until I can find and talk to the correct person. Then yesterday afternoon, I get a call which has now resulted in a meeting Tuesday morning which is why I can’t tackle the web/email thing until Tuesday afternoon. Oh, and none of this includes a couple of fairly important tasks I have already pushed into later May because they can wait.

Oops, I almost forgot I also have an issue with one of my prescriptions (actually one of only two I care about) and I guess I will have to tackle that on Tuesday as well since I can’t seem to resolve it through the on-line means. All of this is why I tend to roll my eyes when People say, “be sure and take time for yourself”.

And this was supposed to be a calmer week. Once again, however, a single phone call upended my schedule by dropping a new deadline in my lap. In this case, we have a City event this coming Tuesday. It’s a civic thing, but happens to involve local history. Not surprisingly, I was contacted because of the Town Hall Museum. Except the list of questions involved more than just the history questions. Well, that isn’t strictly correct as technically, each component can be considered history. My initial response was we could cover the primary history part, but not the others. Then I re-thought and knew what was likely to happen. And that would be uncertainty of where to find all the answers and a last-minute come back to me. Now, this is another situation that between the museum, me being the senior writer for the local paper, and my role in Homestead Center for the Arts, I did know where to get all the answers.

So, there were four segments. That meant I had to send out emails, then go and look at some old newspaper articles, plus check a few sites for some more bits. Set up a document to put everything into. Then take all the info, distill it, refine it, and send the responses. I forgot to mention, these particular questions are for a TV spot which will probably take place prior to the event. The crews have to set up early, and if true to form, they want to shoot this piece before the official speeches. Added to the mix was I had to be careful to phrase everything in a way to make sure I wouldn’t contradict anything that would be said from the stage. And yes, I know the main ones who will be speaking and the kinds of things likely to be said. The only remaining piece is if I will be in front of the camera or if another individual will be. I’m completely neutral on that. I’ve been interviewed often enough that I’m comfortable with it, but the other individual might like to be on camera.

And this is exactly why I rarely have a week where I don’t get extra tasks to deal with.

I’m waiting for today’s Facebook posts where son and daughter-in-law express astonishment that granddaughter is 10 today (yes, she was born on a Friday the 13th). I won’t dwell on this, but she is a little pistol and we shall see what the next few years bring. From early on, she has a love of putting things together and her ability to create from Legos is slightly amazing. She has an artsy side too and because of being literally raised in the dance studio, she is now into four types of dance. Hard to know which directions she will ultimately take.

Anyway, switching gears to the opposite end of the spectrum, a dear friend called Tuesday to catch up as we hadn’t talked for quite some time. Her 72d was yesterday and she is dealing with the stubborn insistence of her father that despite an almost revolving door of hospital and rehab stays, he’s convinced he can go home and live independently. Another situation of a guy who has always been active and vibrant and over this past decade, minor things have become not so minor. We covered the usual ground of limited options and the hope everything can be handled in the best way. She has long had my book, “Room at the End”, and was hoping, as we all do, that the hard choices wouldn’t have to be made.

Another dear friend, recently turned 80, is dealing with some unexpected health downturns, but those really should be somewhat temporary although potentially taking the next 8-10 months for resolution. Not surprisingly, how to handle that is proving tricky and our circle is standing by to see what we can do to help.

So here’s to the coming ten years that will no doubt zip by faster than we are prepared for.

One of the cable shows we watch occasionally is, “A Fishing Story”. I don’t recall the exact background of the host, but in having a couple of different careers, to include time as a Marine, he fondly speaks of learning to fish from his great-grandmother. He said for him, almost everyone has a “fishing story”. Most of the episodes we’ve seen are about other veterans, but we happened to have it on this morning and the guest was a member of REO Speedwagon, a band the host has always enjoyed. In the second segment of the show, he asked how the move into the famous band occurred. The guy and a friend had been in a college band together and they went separate ways; the guy on the show playing bars, small events, and such. His friend did get into the big band and one day called. “You’re moving to California,” he said, “You’re in REO Speedwagon now.”

The simple fact is if your last name is Sinatra and you want to sing or Coppola and you want to be in the movie business, you do still need talent, but you don’t have to fight for entrance into the industry. For everyone else, somewhere along the way, an incredible element of luck is involved. The director or producer that sees something with an actor in a minor role, the teen who reads a little known book and says to his best-selling author father,  “Hey Dad, this book is really terrific, you should read it”, or however the right moment in time strikes. For most in the arts though, actually making a living will be extremely difficult and the more likely scenario is either a lifetime of a passionate avocation or a cobbled together two-or three part time jobs/multiple careers. Wait staff who get the extras work, the musician who does the bar circuit, the author who does content writing while working away at the book/play/screenplay. Many who begin with great dreams eventually come to understand this and manage to adjust their definition of success and enjoy their craft of choosing. If not, it can be bitter disappointment.

Okay, some of you already know I decided to use a different publisher for “Shades of Remorse”. At the time I did so, it was primarily because of a marketing package they were including. The trailer they developed is nice, although I’m not sure I’m seeing any effect from it. https://youtu.be/wXUthErPzh0

The essence of my displeasure is the delays in publication. The interior design took longer than I am accustomed to, plus there were some alleged software glitches that caused further delay. Then physical production of the book – which does look nice – took me past the holiday market I wanted. Then the Kindle version took another absurd amount of time and was only made available Monday. That put start-to-finish time from when I sent the file in from Sept 6th to February 10th. They were pleasant enough people to deal with and the cover came back quickly which is part of why I didn’t anticipate these other delays. In truth, over the years I have used seven other publishers. The one I really liked suffered the common situation of successful small businesses. They were acquired by a very large business with the usual line of, “You can operate much as you always have; just as part of us.” Right, that lasted for about two years, then they were completely absorbed by the large entity.

Anyway, the e-book is out and I will have to see if maybe the publisher also did the format for Barnes and Nobles. That doesn’t usually happen and I don’t really expect it as Kindle definitely has the major market share. Ah well, another lesson learned.

It is a known expression and with some of the recent headlines about Big Pharma, lifestyles, etc., this is not about politics, but more about life choices.

Those who follow the blog know I often talk about being overweight and finding foods that are carb friendly. I am not diabetic, although my sister and nephew are. The lower carb issue is for basic weight. In essence I have been a yo-yo dieter since age seventeen which means a lot of years. Back in the day it was a constant struggle with 5 pounds and that amount steadily increased as I aged. Being in the Army was tough because that was an unrelenting thing and yes, after I retired, I slipped up until the struggle was with an extra 10 pounds. Then, for reasons that aren’t important, I really went out of control about 18 years ago. I came back down some, but still need to lose another 30 pounds.

What does that have to do with the above subject? High blood pressure does run on my paternal side and my doctor put me on medication years ago. She added a second one and later a statin for cholesterol. We have these constant one-way discussions about how if I would lose the weight and cut out more foods that I like, we could reduce the meds. Yes, I know that, and yes, I do still work at it. I have an exercise program of six days a week and I have given up greatly on a number of foods I enjoy. The simple fact is I don’t want to go to the kind of diet that I know will work. I did enough of that. Will I someday say, “Yeah, okay, I’ll  do it again”? Maybe. I certainly won’t do so because of lecturing. On the other hand, I am not big on lots of medications, but these are a conscious trade-off for me.