Remembering the good things this Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time to pause and remember the good things of the year just passed. For sure this old guy’s cup runneth over. Modern medicine and a successful heart procedure avoided COVID (at least so far), a family of grandkids to enjoy, a healthy wife, and a wonderful community in which to live.

A few days ago I heard from an Air Force Retired friend, Colonel no less, who with her husband settled into a “forever retired” home in Colorado Springs. She grew up in McCook which kind of molded her sense of community. Obviously, she has become frustrated with the political direction our neighboring state has steered as of late. This last election topped it off evidently adopting some new initiatives plus recent dictates that she perceives as wrong, wrong, wrong. So they will put their home on the market in February and move to Wyoming. Why not back home to Nebraska? I didn’t ask but possibly our taxes run a little higher than suit her tastes.

I too am thankful for the life of high school classmate Don Schaaf beloved by his family but who died a couple of days ago on the 20th. Six months or so ago he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and his doctor told him that so far no one has survived that disease. Not exactly a sign of hope but more of resignation for what was to come. Now the pain is gone and may he rest in peace.

Don did some interesting things in life. Joining the Army he was sent to an intelligence outpost way up in Northern Japan. Yes, we had those where trained linguists listen to radio traffic in nearby potentially hostile territory. Talk about duty a long ways from home.

Later, after retirement, he volunteered for a year-long stint with the U.S. Forest Service guiding tours in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Don had long been a very thorough student of that December 7th, 1941 battle and it gave him an opportunity to share his knowledge.

A poignant part of that tour is standing on the shrine built over the sunken battleship Arizona. When that great ship was sunk there were actually a few survivors of her crew that went on to serve in other duties throughout WWII. Now when those survivors of that original crew decease they have the option of being buried next to their former crew members still entombed on the sunken ship. The burial ceremony is closed to all visitors except family members and Don told of what an impressive, sober occasion that was for him to witness as part of his official duties.

Being such an avid student of that battle Don, on his own, contracted with a pilot in a WWII era T-6 “Texan” trainer, very similar to the size of the Japanese Zero, to fly the route that the Japanese fighters flew when they commenced the battle on a Sunday morning about the same time the actual battle started. Don recounted how they were coming up the slot, he in the back seat, when an oil line on the 6’s engine broke and dark oil covered the windshield and canopy. Realistic, just like being shot in battle. Don’s airplane diverted to a safe landing nearby—no harm done but talk about a realistic reenactment!

Our son, who works in the information technology (IT) industry observed recently that our system of elections in the U.S. could be vastly improved through the use of modern computer systems with appropriate software. There is no reason that nationwide the results could not be tabulated and released the next day for all to know. No more recording ballots for days on end with the results continually shifting as we have seen this election cycle.

Unfortunately with the welcome speed of computerized voting being a plus there are also minuses. There needs to be fireproof security so that the software does not twist the data and pad or switch the numbers being actually awarded from one candidate to the other. I think that we are seeing that play out with the communist created Dominion software that was used in the recent election in heavily Democrat swing states. Actually, that was a huge coordinated effort by somebody.

They used fear of pandemic to send out huge numbers of unaccountable ballots and then when the count still wasn’t going the way “they” wanted they called a three-hour break from counting tweaked the software and “found” a great number of new marked ballots to again get the desired results. I have faith that the shenanigans will be uncovered and someone, or many, will hang for it.

So let not the results of that (I think) flawed election spoil the happiness of our traditional happy family time celebrating a traditional Thanksgiving. Relax, enjoy the feast and savor the time with your favorite people on earth; your family.

That is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail