Three Guys, Two Girls, and A Car Battery

No it's nothing sick and twisted. Just kind of sad and humorous.

I'll start it off with a joke: What do a public relations director, an automotive technician, and an aircraft technician have in common? You might at first say, "well, that's a weird combination."

Throw in an automotive battery and a 33rd birthday and you've got an average Wednesday night in Greer, South Carolina.

Yesterday happened to be my wife's birthday. The day had gone pretty good. We were having dinner at church (birthday dinner at church?, you might ask.... well, the celebratory dinner is this weekend. we do church activities on Wednesday as a routine) and my wife said, "It's been a really good birthday."

That thought didn't really last much longer. After our programs, we walked to opposite ends of the street and got in our respective cars that we had driven from our respective workplaces -- and then I get a call from her.

"My car won't start," she says.

Great. So I went to her car and tried to start it. No dice. Went inside and pulled a friend of ours who is an automotive technician off the Praise Team drum kit and asked for his help.

We tried to jump the car. With two different sets of jumper cables. No dice.

Great. So my wife and I take my car to the AutoZone down the street and I run in to get a battery. They have two people working the store, a line eight people deep, and are getting phone calls every two to three minutes. Everyone seems to want parts looked up in the computer, so it took forever just to make it to the counter.

"Battery, 03 Honda Accord, 4 cylinder, 2400," I rattle off. Guess what? --- they have ONE in stock. Fine, I'll take it. What's the damage? $90 plus tax.... WHAT? "Well sir, it's a three year battery and its our Gold level...."

"I've got your *grumble grumble* Gold level...."

And I walk out the door with the most expensive battery I've ever purchased.

Get back to the church. Fumble around BOTH cars for a wrench or socket that will fit the stupid terminals on the old battery, and all I could find was a pair of pliers.

After some creative ways of trying to get a pair of pliers to turn some very tight terminal screws, I threw the pliers on the ground.

"Honey, we gotta go to the house and get my tool set," I say. She refuses to leave the car. "It's parked at a church. Nobody's going to do anything to it." She refuses to leave the car and stays in it at the church.

So I went 15 minutes home, got my tool set, and went back. By the time I got back, everyone remaining at the church was on their way out. Our friend the automotive technician and his wife, along with another friend, an aircraft technician, are all outside talking to my wife.

I break out the tool set, and all three of us guys proceed to fumble through it by the light of a cell phone flash (the remain on until you press the button again flash is a great feature on my phone) for the right sized socket. We each take turns finding one and trying it and don't have any success.

At which point the girls decide to take another car and shine its lights at my wife's car for some added light.

I'm still not sure what size socket the freaking terminals take -- all I know is that the aircraft mechanic took an adjustable wrench, and with some brute force, finally got them to turn, all with the tips of the wrench gripping the very top of the terminal screws.

Then some more fumbling with the phone goes on on in trying to get light down the side of the battery, as I'm trying to fasten the battery restraint back on. Finally, everything went into place.

From start to finish, the whole ordeal took and hour and a half. I took the old battery and put it in the trunk. When I walked back to the front of the car, the aircraft technician is sitting on the ground organizing my tool kit which had been a mess when I opened it up.

And we followed that up with a 9:45 pm trip to Denny's.

Needless to say, now I've got an organized tool kit, a double cheeseburger in my system, an old battery to take in and get $5 for, a mess of jumper cables in my car trunk -- and my wife got a $90 battery for her birthday.

Not exactly the gift she had in mind.

Is She? Could She Be?

I case you haven't noticed it by now on the right hand side of your screen, I would just like to take this opportunity to highlight a blog post by my former Political Science professor Chuck Dunn ---- "Is Sarah Palin the Next Ronald Reagan?"

This is a very interesting post - and Dr. Dunn brings up some very interesting points comparing Reagan and Palin's backgrounds, personalities, and beliefs.

Nothing in this world is certain. Something can happen at the very last minute to throw something out of whack. But if anyone has their pulse on what will or has a high likelihood of happening in the political arena, Dr. Dunn is one of the people whose opinions I respect the most and would look to first.

I had two political science professors at Clemson that really invigorated my political beliefs and thought processes. Dr. Dunn is one of them; Dr. Dave Woodard is the other. I would tend to believe either of their speculations, predictions, what-have-you, over any of the major political analysts we see on the national news. (Granted, both have been called on from time to time on the national arena for their expertise).

So to read Dr. Dunn's post and the tone in which he writes it -- I'm thinking his money is on McCain-Palin taking Obama down in the end.

I like Sarah Palin - alot. I really think her vice-presidency will do a lot to reinvigorate the Republican party. I hope it does anyway. She may very well end up being our first female president.

There are a lot of politicians in America. But the term "statesman" has only applied to a select few people that have served in the halls of Congress or in the White House. It's a very exclusive group and it's not one that you can really buy your way into. You might argue that from the perspective of who has the biggest campaign wallet, one can certainly try to buy their way into that club.

But being a "statesman" is not something tangible. It's just something that someone just naturally exudes.

Ronald Reagan I think was our last true statesman. A man of the country, a man of the people, a man of his word, and a man of principle. Is Sarah Palin or will she become our first true "stateswoman"? Only time will tell.

Even if McCain doesn't win this election, I don't think we'll be counting Sarah Palin out anytime soon. The fire has been lit......

Fighting the Fight

It didn't really hit me until I was on my way into work today.

I knew it was coming up, but in the rush of work and other things, I didn't realize that the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks was today until someone on the radio station I was listening to mentioned it.

Where were you that morning?

My wife and I were in the car on our way to work, listening to the radio when one of the DJs announced that an commercial airliner had just struck a tower of the World Trade Center. We listened as they were reporting what was coming over their wire.

Nobody knew what was going on - even when I got into work a few minutes later.

You would think at a TV station where people are supposed to be on top of things that someone would know what was going on. But things were happening so fast.

We watched as the second plane struck the second tower; as reports and video came in of a plane hitting the Pentagon; of another plane crashing in a field in Pennsylvania; and then as the Towers collapsed.

All you can think is "My God. All those people."

Throughout the morning false reports of bombs were flooding the national airwaves; phone lines and cell systems in New York and DC were overwhelmed.

When I heard of a suspected bomb at the State Department, my first thought was "Where's Tim?"

A good friend of mine who works (in Argentina right now) for the State Department was working in DC at the time. I hit the phone and started dialing. I kept trying to reach him all day. "Gotta find out if Tim's OK."

I finally talked to his wife around lunchtime and she said he was OK and that they were both at home, safe. Thank God. That was one of the biggest weights ever lifted off my chest when I heard her say that.

In our newsroom, you could see the reactions -- how people felt -- on their faces. But we had a job to do also. We did our job. We reported on how this tragedy was affecting our area of the country, our counties, our towns, our schools, our churches, and families --- how shocked, hurt, and angry we were.

All those emotions compounded on top of each other -- after the tears and holding your loved ones, watching the same footage over and over, you can't help but feel numb.

I felt that way for days afterwards.

They say each generation has one day that will define them. Some have more. For my parents' generation it was the day JFK was assassinated. I would venture to guess that the day we first set foot on the moon was one also.

For years, I thought that Jan. 28, 1986 would be the one that defined my generation - when the Challenger exploded. I know it had a tremendous impact on my life. I still don't like to watch that video.

Sept. 11 was defining moment in history - not only for the the youth of this generation, but for every American and the entire world.

We saw more flags, more patriotism, more support for one another, and probably the largest outpouring of sympathy and community that this country had probably seen since the attack on Pearl Harbor. I wish that all that would have continued on as strong even to now. But alot of the flags have since become faded or torn or put up in a closet; many of the yellow ribbons have been taken down or lost.

A few weeks later my wife and I were at a NASCAR race. Halfway through the race, they just stopped it.

Over the loudspeakers, the announcers say that it is being reported that our military forces have begun a bombing campaign in Afghanistan. You wouldn't believe the volume of cheers, applause, and screaming of "USA, USA" that was going on. Then President Bush came over the monitors and loudspeaker as he addressed the nation. And afterwards, more cheers, applause, and screaming of "USA, USA".

I will never forget Sept. 11, 2001. It still hurts us though. Some people don't want the hurt to remain. Different people remember and honor in different ways.

I noticed a few quotes in an article on FoxNews this morning that kind of struck me.

• "We've kept it alive, and perhaps kept it alive too long," said Charles Wolf, whose wife, Katherine, was killed at the World Trade Center. "How many times do you reopen the wounds?"
• "The remembrances have to continue; for how long, I can't say," said Barbara Minervino of Middletown, N.J., whose husband, Louis, died in the towers.

A former supervisor of mine has a daughter who watched from a nearby office tower as the World Trade Center burned, people jumped from windows 100 stories up, and the buildings collapased. It had such an impact on her that she went into counseling afterwards.

I know people and have friends that have fought in the desert of Iraq. I have never heard them question why we are there or what their mission was. Our mission is clear: Protect our way of life. Protect those who can't protect themselves. Foster Democracy in nations that have never known such freedoms.

I stand behind each and every one of our men and women in uniform. I support them; I love them; and I want them to come home. But at the same time, I know they are there for a purpose.

We can second guess our government all we want. That is our right. We can say that McCain will be a better president for this reason or Obama will be a better president for that reason. That is our right.

They can call George Bush every name in the book for all I care. They can complain about our military and our intelligence community's methods and tactics all they want. People can sit back and bitch about the Patriot Act all they want.

We can say that the War on Terror was justified -- that our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq have been worth it. You won't ever catch me saying they have not been. We can speak out against it. That is our right.

But it is our responsibility to remember the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001 and the families and victims. It is our responsibility as Americans to make sure that never happens again. It is the cross we have to bear.

We need this country to be secure. We need to keep the future our of country and of our children in mind at all times. We need to continue to fight to preserve our way of life.

A wise Vulcan once said, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

Your may think, "Well I need a 47-inch wide screen TV, or I need a gas guzzling SUV or a pair of $150 pair of shoes. I need to go out tonight, dress like a skank, and party with my friends. I need to go yell at a referee and act like an obnoxious ass at a little league game." You don't really NEED to do any of that. It's your right as an American to do any of that; and that right is being protected by men and women in dark holes of the Pentagon, on the streets of Baghdad, in the warden's office at Guantanamo Bay, and in the mountains of Afghanistan.

If it keeps my family safe - if it keeps my friends safe - if it prevents my neices and nephews from growing up in a world where they worry about planes falling out of the sky to hurt them, then I don't care the lengths that our government has to go to in order to keep this country safe.

One of my all time favorite quotes was on the very last episode of Jericho: "That is the responsbility we've got here... Because that's how things get better and people stay free."

So let's go forward, remembering those who died on Sept. 11; remembering and honoring those who have died for us in the line of duty since then; remembering and honoring where we were, what we've learned and how we've grown; learning from our mistakes; and continuing to fight the fight that needs to be fought.