Thank You - Mike Thorneburg

I have not visited my blog in quite some time.   In fact it has been so long that they have changed the format and I forgot how to log into it.  Except for small snippets on Facebook, my creativity repository had run dry.  I have not been inspired by anything worth sharing with my handful of readers.  That changed  today.

When I checked my mail this morning, I found along with my daily Geico and heating and airconditioning offers, a greeting card  sized envelope.  I could not imagine what it could  be as my birthday passed two months ago without any such envelopes.  Upon examination, I found that it was from my friend, Mike Thorneburg (a real friend, not Facebook imaginary friend that I will never meet).  After Skooter drug me through the neighborhood ferreting out squirrels and a public works  crew (of  which one member mistakenly thought he could pet Skooter), I sat down on the couch and opened the card.  This is the card I received:  

I hope Mike will forgive me for sharing his private message publicly.  Who am I kidding?  My blog is hardly in the public domain.  There is little chance of it going viral or even neighborhoodinal.

I can imagine tears  welling up in Mike's eyes as  he thought of his dad  I am very proud that he put  me in the same paragraph as his dad and grateful that I am one of the people that comes to mind with the arrival of Veterans Day .

That being said, I have never considered my twenty years of military service as a hardship or a sacrifice.  If it had not been for the military I would have probably never left my little northern Idaho village and would have spent my life taking my turn at town drunk and/or village idiot.  The Air Force allowed me the  chance to see much of the world and get paid for it.  My children benefited from their experiences in foreign lands and different cultures.  When I was in school a field trip meant going to the post office or fire station.  My kids  would  go to London, Berlin, or Paris.

The Air Force paid for several useless college degrees and has provided me a pension and health care, so that I will probably never be homeless, not even during another Obama administration.

I have now been retired for almost exactly 20 years.  My time in the Air Force was almost exactly one-third  of my life.  I have got to say that it was the best third of my life.  I am not one to sit around and tell stories of my exploits (much of which I can't talk about.  Not because of the secrecy, but I am not sure of the statute of limitations in foreign countries).  Some of the tamer events I have shared on this blog, but for some things it is better to just keep them to myself and smile.  What happens in Taiwan, Thailand, Britain, Germany, Italy, Greece, Korea, the Philippines, and elsewhere stays in Taiwan, Thailand, Britain, Germany, Italy, Greece, Korea, the Philippines and elsewhere.  Oh, the sacrifices I have made.  Sounds like a title of a Dr. Seuss book.

I wanted to thank Mike semi-publicly for thinking of me.  I am not a greeting card guy but I can't express how receiving that envelope today brightened an otherwise dismal day.