Sorry to all who care for not being regular in my updates here. Truth be told, I’ve just not had much to say. I’m into a comfortable routine these days of going to work, playing pool, darts, CIV, and reading other people’s blogs. Which may not sound like much of a life, but it seems to be working for me. I guess sometimes you just have to embrace the simple pleasures and not think too much about what you are missing. At least that has been working for me.

I’ve been feeling alright physically, so who needs a physical, right? Truth be told, it is just too much of a pain in the ass to get treatment at the base hospital. You have to pay up front and bill your own insurance. And I guess if something is seriously wrong with me, I don’t really want to know. Ignorance is bliss and all that. And I do know that my attitude about that is in fact ignorant, ok?

I’ve been having a blast in the dart league. I’m too inconsistent to call myself a good player, but I’ve been winning. I’m ranked in the top third of my division and my status on the team has gone from fill-in to being counted on. I’ve not had a competitive outlet since I retired from playing softball, so I’m really enjoying that aspect of the game too. Not to mention, being old and fat doesn’t affect your game. HooAh! I’m going down to the Blue Frog tonight to play in the doubles tourney. It’s mostly “A” calibre players (I am in the “B” division) but they do a blind draw so if I hook up with someone good, who knows, I might get lucky and win some money. Worst case I get some practice in throwing under pressure.

I am playing pool with more confidence and competence too. Still losing mostly, but not losing ugly. Actually, our team has been playing well but we always seem to get snakebit with bad luck and lose close games and matches. Ah well, its a good group and we don’t get down on each other when things go wrong. Some of the teams in the league are just ugly to each other. Win or lose, we have fun and that’s what its really all about.

Work has been busy but not so much as to be a problem. Arcelia left last week and I already miss her tremendously. She was a good comrade. She wasn’t able to sell her car so she left it with me to sell. It was a pain in the ass, I had to get an exception to policy (only one vehicle is allowed) which let me park it on post. Had to insure it, and register it and all that. She brought if over from Japan so it is right hand drive, which made it more difficult to sell. But sell it I did yesterday. Which meant some more hassle with transfering ownership and all the associated paperwork (took two hours of my day), but it is done. I mailed Arcelia a check yesterday. She wound up with quite a bit less than she was asking, but what she is getting is considerably more than nothing. Which is what she was facing before I stepped in. So, I did my good deed, although I kept a couple hundred for my trouble. (Ah, did you really think I was a nice person?)

Not much else to report. The weather is starting to warm up so I will soon be able to get out and about a little more. Even if it is just a hike up Namsan or along the Han river it will be good to be a little more active. Carol is talking about coming in May for a visit and wants me to take her to China. That’s something to look forward too.

Kevin asked me what I thought of the entire Dubai ports deal. You know, I’m just having a hard time getting worked up over politics these days. And that whole fiasco was pure politics. Cripes, America has been selling itself for years. If I was going to get incensed it would be the sorry state of our merchant marine, that’s a real national secruity issue. Port security is a joke, but that has nothing to do with who is managing the terminals. Hell, the Chinese and Koreans own the west coast operations, why doesn’t Congress care about that?

I think what is really happening is that Americans are waking up to the fact that a certain percentage of the followers of Islam are insane. After weeks of rioting over cartoons, is it any wonder that perceptions are changing? My thinking is that the Muslim extremists are to be more pitied than feared. They are like rabid dogs. Now, you don’t get angry at a rabid dog. You just kill it. It’s the only sensible thing to do. A day of reckoning is coming, and I don’t believe its going to be pretty. Americans are not big on nuance. If we feel threatened we will strike. I think its gonna be real interesting to see what we do about Iran. I wouldn’t want to be investing in infrastructure there these days.

In other news, the State Department just screwed us over big time this week. We were getting a 5% premium on our pay called Post Differential. It was basically extra pay for dealing with the hardship of living in Korea. The State Department decided that life here is not all that hard. Well, honestly I have it easier than most, what with commissary and post exchange privalages. But on the other hand, we are forward deployed and Mr. Kim, Jung-Il has a bunch of chemical artillery shells (and maybe nukes) 50 miles away and pointed right at Seoul. I think living with the risk of almost certain death should war break out is worth a 5% bonus. That’s a lot of beer!

Oh well, as I say its all good. Thanks to all for your kindness and support. I will try and stay in touch on a more regular basis.