Romey's Ramblings

So the last few days have brought about a few random thoughts, but first I’d like you to give an update on everything that’s been keeping me so busy…

• House-hunting/Moving – Well after making a few more calls, going to see a few more places that really weren’t all that great, and then looking ahead to my calendar, I have come to the conclusion that I will not be moving at the end of the month as planned, and I have renewed my lease for another 6 months, so that I’ll be out around Christmas time.  This may prove to be more than I bargained for, as I’ll actually be out of town over the new year for NCSC Conference, so I’ll probably have to end up moving out SUPER early..  Oh well.  This feels a lot better though, and the stress level has been lowered…  This may actually be an opportunity for me to buy as well.  We’ll see how things go…
• NCSC Colorado Visit – Booked flights for Erin & Maureen to come   I’m excited that all that has been taken care of.  Looking at the numbers I think we’re going to go ahead and have everyone at my apartment…  It actually should be pretty cool, but now I’m devoted to having my place SUPER clean in less than a week!  So I’ll be a cleaning fool this weekend.  In all actuality, the downstairs is fine, but the upstairs more than makes up for it.  Hmmmm
• NCSC Western Retreat Planning – I need to get in gear for this one.  Luckily I now have all of the information I need, it’s just a matter of delegating and getting the ball rolling.  I think it should be pretty cool though.

So with that out of the way, some things have happened that have triggered some thoughts…

I fire up my RSS feed of ESPN this morning, only to find this story:  Nationals acquire OF Wilson from Rockies

What?!?  DAMMIT!  Would it kill the Colorado Rockies to actually keep a good player for a year???  I am so tired of the Rockies dealing anyone who has a batting average over .300.  "Uh-oh, he’s too good for the Rockies.  Time to deal Preston Wilson!".  Arggghh…   I’m sick of this stupid "We’re rebuilding, we’re looking for prospects.  Please be patient with us." spin they always give us. They’ve been telling us that for three years.  Now I understand that you guys can’t contend for anything at this point, and I’m willing to accept that.  But as a Rockies fan (and first off what’s wrong with me??) would it be too much to expect that we have at least one good player on your team??  I don’t want to pay $10-15 for a ticket, $6 for a beer and $5 for a brat to come out and see over glorified high school players out there.  I might as well just go down to Rolland Moore Park here in town and watch the Little League teams play – at least it’d be more competitive.  The Rockies also dealt Joe Kennedy as well.  He was struggling lately, but he had a really good start and was good prospect, but nope… I guess he’s too good for the Rockies!  And what the heck is a trade for cash??  I need to go get a keyboard for work tonight…  Maybe I should go into Office Depot and say "I’ll trade you your keyboard for a first-round fantasy baseball draft pick for next year and CASH." I could say the same thing.  Rockies, you freakin SOLD Wilson.  Argggh…

You know it’s only a matter of the time until they ship Helton’s butt out of there..  Maybe I should give the Rockies an offer…   I’ll give them a 2nd round fantasy football pick in my league, a minor league prospect (me) and a 40 pound bag of dog food for Todd Helton. Done!

Sticking to sports, we just got word that the NHL and Players Union have reached an agreement (in principal) and that we’ll now have hockey next year.  FINALLY…  I have to admit that I’m STILL pissed and skeptical about this whole thing.  I wasn’t a rabid hockey fan, but I was pretty darn passionate.  In the last 3 years I had been to about 10-15 Avalanche games in person (including 2 playoff games), and I always did plan my schedules around the Av’s play-off runs.   I have a Patrick Roy jersey actually got to go to Roy’s # retirement (that was cool!)…  So that’s where I sit…

But like I said, I’m still not sold on this.  I’m bitter that the players and owners took a year to come to an agreement, and didn’t really seem all too concerned about cancelling a season.  They don’t seem to realize (or care) that they’ve pretty much set the sport back 10 years by doing this, and it’ll be a long time before the casual fan comes back around to this sport. 

My only hope out of this whole ordeal is that THEY LOWER TICKET PRICES!  We’ll see…  Supposedly now that there’s a salary cap, players’ salaries should be lower which means we should see lower ticket prices – SHOULD is the key word though.  I’ll tell you what though, with the Av’s gone last year and Joel and I always going to Nuggets games, I’m just as apt now to go see the Nuggets as I am the Avalanche… And Nugs tickets are 1/4 of what it costs to go to a hockey game!

What’s exciting is it looks like they’ll be getting rid of the Red Line, as well as making the goalies wear smaller padding – hopefully this will result in a more fluid game with more goals (and more amazing performances by the GOOD goalies).  It also looks like they’re changing the way they do Overtime – 5 minutes of 4-on-4, 3 minutes of 3-on-3, then a shoot-out.  That’s awesome!  I can’t tell you how many games I’ve gone to that resulted in ties.

Also last week Bethany and I went to go see War of the Worlds..  I have some thoughts on that, but will get into them later

Okay, so I don’t mean to get all political on here, but I ran across something earlier this weekend that really set me off…   Regardless of your feelings about the way we’re fighting the War on Terror & Iraq, I would like to hope that people would have a general respect and appreciation for our armed forces, and those who give of themselves, and at times, their lives in service to our country, protecting our freedom.

It frustrates me when people not only take that for granted, but have a general disrespect for the very people who are protecting them.  Take this letter to the editor that appeared in the Arizona Republic:

Complaint: A wake-up call from Luke’s jets

Jun. 23, 2005 12:00 AM

"Question of the day for Luke Air Force Base: Whom do we thank for the morning air show?

Last Wednesday, at precisely 9:11 a.m., a tight formation of four F-16 jets made a low pass over Arrowhead Mall, continuing west over Bell Road at approximately 500 feet. Imagine our good fortune!

Do the Tom Cruise-wannabes feel we need this wake-up call, or were they trying to impress the cashiers at Mervyns’ early-bird special?

Any response would be appreciated."

Wow…  That’s not really disrespectful by any means…  But here’s the best part – the awesome response from Luke Air Force Base:

 he response: Regarding "A wake-up call from Luke’s jets" (Letters, Thursday):

On June 15, at precisely 9:12 a.m., a perfectly timed four-ship of F-16s from the 63rd Fighter Squadron at Luke Air Force Base flew over the grave of Capt Jeremy Fresques.

Capt. Fresques was an Air Force officer who was previously stationed at Luke Air Force Base and was killed in Iraq on May 30, Memorial Day.

At 9 a.m. on June 15, his family and friends gathered at Sunland Memorial Park in Sun City to mourn the loss of a husband, son and friend.

Based on the letter writer’s recount of the flyby, and because of the jet noise, I’m sure you didn’t hear the 21-gun salute, the playing of taps, or my words to the widow and parents of Capt. Fresques as I gave them their ,son a flag on behalf of the president of the United States and all those veterans and servicemen and women who understand the sacrifices they have endured.

A four-ship flyby is a display of respect the Air Force pays to those who give their lives in defense of freedom. We are professional aviators and take our jobs seriously, and on June 15 what the letter writer witnessed was four officers lining up to pay their ultimate respects.

The letter writer asks, "Whom do we thank for the morning air show?"

The 56th Fighter Wing will call for you, and forward your thanks to the widow and parents of Capt. Fresques, and thank them for you, for it was in their honor that my pilots flew the most honorable formation of their lives.

Lt. Col. Scott Pleus, CO
63rd Fighter Squadron
Luke Air Force Base

Lol, way to show him..  In all seriousness though, it really pisses me off when you have people like this who are constantly second-guessing our military.  When times are dire, we must realize that we need to put trust into the hands of those who are trying to protect us. Granted they are human, and like everyone, does make mistakes from time to time – but there is a system in place for the citizens to monitor and manage the armed forces.  Ultimately I think that self-centered and arrogant people that are skeptically second-guessing our military (like the letter-writer above) are undermining our country in the War on Terror… 

And in the end, what are you complaining about being woken up at 9:11am?  For all of the sacrifices Capt Fresques and his family made, I think it’s worth waking up a few people on Saturday morning to show our respect and admiration. It’s the least we can do.