Dear Fans, Friends, Fiends, Foes and Family,

I will likely be taking down the picture site with the Plogger software and start using Coppermine, which has better spam protection, in fact I have already done it and the new URL for the photo gallery is http://herbthiel.com/coppermine/

 Last weekend was our church’s annual Father and Son Campout and it was really great.  Ben brought Trent and three of the younger boys from the church whose fathers either couldn’t or wouldn’t bring them.  You don’t have to be a member of our church to come along and nobody gets all preachy at people, but the one man is a hardworking man and also very, exceptionally shy.  I don’t know what the other one’s problem was.  Perhaps he’s afraid that, even though no one would preach to him or get after him to get back into church, his own conscience might.

 Anyway, it is always a lot of fun and this year was even greater because Ben and Trent and these few of my Sunday School friends were there.  I have been teaching so long that many of the dads are people I have known and liked since they were in my class themselves.  It’s a fine time had by all, with Ben’s home-made foam swords and boys and young men testing their skill and strength, the camaraderie of a group of men and the beauty of the Pike National Forest.  It’s this beauty I want to talk about and where the stupidity comes in.

Dear Fans, Friends, Fiends, Foes and Family,

We live in a town with five military installations; four Air Force and one Army, and we get to see many feats of flying skill quite often, especially when the Air Force Academy is playing a home game in football.  The Fabulous Thunderbirds are here for every graduation as well.  I have seen a lot of different types of things that fly in the air, but when I see what I saw I saw earlier today, it always takes my breath away.  This was the real thing, baby, uh-huh!  Aerial combat at it’s finest and right in the skies over our fair city.  A large enemy had tried to attack one of the smaller, hidden, out-of-the-way spots to attempt to do who-knows-what sort of damage to it when suddenly, as if out of nowhere came a pair of fierce, screaming fighters.

Dear Fans, Friends, Fiends, Foes and Family,

Thanks for dropping in and visiting, even when I haven’t written anything.  I have been working and keeping busy that way, of course, and most of the time recalling why I like working in a retail environment, although I have met a few who are good candidates for the Not Always Right website.

But really, there has been something other than my normal procrastinationary habits that has been on my mind.  A thing that has needed to be written but is hard, almost impossible.  Yet I can’t never write again so I have to try to frame my grief in words that make sense, if not to you, gentle reader, then at least to me.

I have been posting the repeats under their original dates for the most part, but I remembered having fun with this entry and then I got an e-mail from Larry that included a bit about the word “up” that I wanted to add.  So, except for this first part (I have no way to credit it properly since it came from an e-mail and was hard to look up), this entry is exactly as it was written on 10/15/2004.

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What’s up with this, anyway?

Dear Fans, Friends, Fiends and Foes,

I finally took a shower…well, okay, I have taken more than one since 2004, but the reason this one is such big news is that it was the first one out of the new water heater.

Tabitha heard a strange noise coming from the mechanical room and had Margaret call me.  I was in the middle of going to the bank and then I was going to buy some groceries.  I got the call and came back right away and sure enough, there was a sound like water being poured into a metal pail or large can.  I turned off the water and the gas to the thing and called some friends for advice.  I know zero about water heaters but I do know any noise in any mechanical object that is not normally present is also not normally good.

Dear Fans, Friends, Fiends and Foes,

I want to thank all of you who have expressed an interest in me getting this site back up and running again.  I am often amazed at the number of people who still want to read my writing and think it’s good enough to stop for.  It’s an awesome feeling to have fans and I really appreciate it.

I am always thinking of things to write about, especially when I am screaming at the radio news, but when I sit down to write about something, I forget what I wanted to say.  I do have some personal news, though.  I have found a part-time job.  This guy has just, within a couple of weeks ago, started a new coffee shop called