The long lasting effects of War on soldiers

Today has been a very interesting and uncomfortable day so far. One of the guys that sits a couple cubes away from me is moving, and new guy is moving in. The new guy's name gives the indication that he's Vietnamese, or similar. The guy who sits across from me (who is a very nice guy) made a very strange (and I thought very rude at the time) comment this morning something to the effect that if he shot this guy it wouldn't be the first vietnamese he shot. I gave my usual smile then walked away. All morning, the guy has been obcessing about it, making non stop comments abot gooks and the like. This guy sounds just like my grandfather talking about the Japenese.

the way the guy has carried on has been a little wierd. Then he started talking about how he hopes it doesn't cause any flashbacks. He was laughing when he said it, but he had this unnerving look of true uneasyness in his eyes. He mentioned some of the flashbacks he's had in the past. He had one at BCC when he saw a ladder sticking out of a manhole. He had another when he went hunting and heard gunshots. Every time he was smiling and making light of it, but the look in this guy's eyes told an entirely different story.

He truely is dreading having a vietnamese guy sit next to him. I think it has nothing to do with racism or his dislike for them. I think it's fright. He's afraid of his thoughts, and he's afraid of what could occur if they return. I think he's covering his fears by making the off color jokes. I'm really nervous to see what happens on Monday when the new guy gets here.

Let it snow, let it snow, let... it... uh... not snow.

I love snow. Everybody knows that. I get excited every time it snows. As a result, I've gotten excited a LOT this winter. We've had a lot of snow. I still get excited every time it snows, but now snow removal in my yard has turned into such a pain in the ass. My yard is full, my driveway is full, and I really don't have anywhere else to put it. I'm also aggrivated because when we get the snow I spend 1 or 2 nights cleaning up, but thanks to all the frigging rain we get right after every snow storm, half the time I don't get to ride the sled until after the nice new snow gets rained on. Fortunately, I got a couple good days of riding in this weekend, but I didn't finish my shovelling and snow blowing until sunday afternoon.

Just to show how much snow we've got, I took some pictures. Keep in mind that most of north adams probably has less than a foot on the ground, and pittsfield has grass showing. Click on the pictures for a full size version:

This is a picture of the house. Notice the massive snowbank behind the mailbox. Keep in mind that there's a rather large fence that's almost completely burried:

Here's another pic of the fense and the front yard:

Here's the other end of my driveway where my dad pushes the snow. The state has used their loader to push it back, which is why it's so high. What you can't see from the pic is that this mound has basically taken the last 30' of my driveway, and has almost blocked me from being able to get around my garage. This mound goes all the way from the brook at the edge of my property, almost up to the corner of my car port:

Here's that mound from the path I snowblow behind the garage:

Here's the path over to the propane tank behind the garage:

Here are the steps to the house. The mound on each side is above my head:

Here is a pic of the back yard. It's hard to see in the pic, but at the top of the hill is the very top of our septic vent sticking out of the snow.