"Stay with me. If you find yourself alone, riding in green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled; for you are in Elysium, and you're already dead! "

Maximus Decimus Meridius. Commander of the Armies of the North. General of the Felix Legions.

 

I thought I'd start with a quote from Gladiator, a movie I had thoroughly enjoyed by Sir Ridley Scott. Actually there are quite a few he had produced and directed that I instantly loved. I believe I picked this one due to the content being based around wars of past, and the veterans who had proudly served. Even from more recent wars of past, and veterans I had proudly served with. I wanted to have a blog post honoring veterans from the United States; and someone who I hold dearly in my heart suggested that I tell a tale that involves humor whilst honoring veterans of war. But I couldn't decide on stories from the Iraq War, or the campaign in Afghanistan. So this is something I will have to think upon, and decide which stories I can tell that will convey the personalities of the people in them. Some of these people were lost, sadly. And some I have lost touch with. But nonetheless every soldier deserves to be remembered; not as the boy who had enlisted after chomping at the bit, and not as the boys who thirsted for honor and glory; no, as the men they all had grown into. As the men who found themselves in that desert.

Apparently I have a lot of reminiscing to do. And honestly sometimes I don't like these little trips down memory lane. Then I'm reminded that it is a positive thing to be nostalgic, at least, here and there. This has all been jump started by DAV e-mailing me about a possible influencing campaign involving blog posts.

But what's going on right now? So I had spent some time in Dubai over my birthday, which is back in September. And after that I had returned home weeks ago because, well, honestly, 1) it was time. And 2) I had found a 6 year old Arabian mare for endurance events, but she was located in Kentucky. So I went and looked at her. The trip was uneventful for the most part, until the car that we all had traveled in decided to not start. All due to a fuel filter going sour, which was fine. I wasn't going to stress about it. It got resolved, however, the vehicle's owner was charged at least $600 more than they should've been. Again, not my place. But I did mention that they should call the corporate office of this huge auto repair company, as it's a chain in the United States. And the price should be uniform, not based on location. Or in this case, based on the fact that the mechanics assumed we were stuck (we weren't) and needed desperately to get home (which we did not). But nonetheless, it wasn't right and imagine had it been someone who was in a bind and needed to get home ASAP. And they really couldn't afford to be charged double. That really was unprofessional. Seriously, auto repair company I shall not name, not cool guys, not cool.

The thing that did pull on the heart strings a little bit was the fact that two southern folk actually offered us their truck to use--whether locally or to drive all the way back home to Michigan. Who does that? Surely not many people in the northern states would offer such a thing. But bless them, southern hospitality is a real thing. So my hats off to you, old southern gentleman and southern belle. You may have shown me that there is still hope for humanity after all. I should mention that I also met an Arabian gelding named Fly By who loves to show off. And I have a video of him doing just that, until he slipped and fell into the grass. Then he was embarrassed, which makes the video even better.

So in other words, Fly By crashed into the control tower. Haha!!!

This past weekend some friends of mine painted a mural in honor of Ria. I am thinking about asking Nathan if I can write an article about that and post some of the pictures taken. Phybr (he made one of the logos for my website), painted her face. I believe they added some of her cremated remains to the paint, so literally, she is part of the painting. It's really touching. I knew Ria, but I wasn't close to her. From the sounds of it, she was a pretty spectacular person. However this also reminds me that I need to write a tribute to a friend I considered family. It's been almost a year that Ekot passed, and I've not written anything about it. I know she would've loved to have heard about the horses. And would have wanted to have seen them. I miss her, truthfully.

There are so many things I need to do and write about. I just need to get off my ass and start. The procrastination needs to stop. Maybe I should go watch some youtube videos on ideas involving "How To Stop Procrastinating". It's not even that I am lazy, because, I'm not. I just need drive and motivation. Also, whilst you're there, why not subscribe and like my youtube channel?

Sigh.

Hopefully sooner than later.