Taking a Leap/Captain Hair

Can't really say I ever remember a February 29th....at least not where anything special has happened....just another day in this miserable weather of late winter 2007-08. More snow last night, just a couple of inches, which it appears will turn to slush as the temps rise into the mid 30s. Looking at the extended forecast for western Ohio, I see nothing that looks like a hint of spring, except maybe this coming Sunday, when the prediction is mid 40s and partly cloudy skies....the rest of the 10 days calls for snow/snow showers and temps from highs in the upper 20s to upper 30s. Calling Al Gore..."Where the Hell is Global Warming when you need it?"

Have been visiting Buck's site:

http://exileinportales.blogspot.com/

And Buck has been posting some old black and white photos from his Air Force days, including some that shows the various hair styles he sported. I was pretty much a crew cut type of guy back in the late 50s and early 60s....even after the Beatles, came around I stuck with short hair until my Junior year in High School, then I let it grow....finally giving up the close cut short hair, until I was shipped off to Basic Training at Amarillo AFB, Texas. There, 40 years ago this summer, I got my last buzz cut.....for the next 4 years it was a constant battle with the Air Force, all over hair.

After returning from Vietnam and getting hosed out of my MAC Law Enforcement assignment at Griffiss, AFB, NY...I became a dyed in the wool trouble maker for the next 20 months....much of that was dedicated to keep as much hair, mustache length, and sideburns, as I could....I really didn't care, I just wanted to buck the system, and piss off as much brass as I could. It all seems rather silly now, but it was a challenge and fun back then....I'm sure if my former Flight Chief "Taco" Joe Gomez is still around, he wouldn't be laughing, even today...Ol' Joe tried to slap me with an Article 15 for refusing to get a haircut....problem for him was, I had gotten one, and went to the on base legal beagles for advice....bottom line, I won, Joe lost, and a month later Gomez was shipped off to Germany....sorry Joe!(not).

These days, my hair is about the same as my AF days....except in the summer, when I cut it a little shorter, as the old saying goes, "I may be old, but thank God, I've still got my hair"!

Sam headed up to Elkhart yesterday, picked up his RV for delivery to southern California, got a couple miles out of town and had to take it back....same fuel line problems he had with the one to Vegas last month....so he spent the night in Goshen, Indiana, and will try again today....I think he's ready for baseball season....Hoosier Transit called me and asked if I would take one to Cleveland...."nope", was my answer..."but next week, if you've got one to Vegas or Florida, I'll give my back a try" I just don't want a long return in the Jeep....If I can get a decent flight out of Las Vegas or a warm climate, for a decent price, I'll pick up some extra cash for beer and cigars, why not?

So we will see what happens with that.

photos-my Military ID Card, with buzz cut from Basic Train in early July 68, love it 5' 9" and 140 lbs. I actually think I was 135 when I joined up, by the time I shipped off to Vietnam, one year later, I was 5' 11" and 180..... the "all dressed up photo"is from Dover, early 1969 before shipping out to Nha Trang....my hair would get nothing but longer from this point for the rest of my tour...other photos, My College ID photo....didn't come out great, but the "shadow" behind my head is really hair, looking like some kind of far left radical from the weather underground, nothing was further from the truth, I was a right wing nut, even back in 1975 at the age of 26...and the photo from my Celina High School yearbook, Senior mugshot.