Well today is Groundhog Day and Punxatwany Phil has predicted another six weeks of old man winter. This is something that does not surprise me as I expect to be “chilling” at Harbor Park the night of April 8th when the Tides play the Bulls in their home opener. Back in 2005 the temperature was 38 degrees at game time with winds gusting to 40 mph blowing in over the center field wall. Since we have already had a massive snowstorm this last weekend and may get another bout of winter weather beginning Friday I know the cuddly furball is right. Every day I wake up thanking God for global warming as I can’t imagine how cold it would be without it. So winter is here to stay for a while and I guess my short cargo pants have to wait until opening day to come back out. Anyway while at back after trudging back to the office after my 0715 meeting I ran into one of our other chaplains in the hallway near our small Navy Exchange. I went into the exchange to pick up a bottle of water and some apples and after waiting in line left the exchange to head back to the officer where I ran into the same chaplain in almost the same location. I asked “didn’t I just see you here?” Since I had just passed him and he was going the other way I thought it was déjà vu all over again. I followed up my question with the comment “well it is Groundhog Day.” So once again though not waking to the sound of I Got You Babe I was confronted with the reality of Groundhog Day in the flesh several hundred miles from Punxatwany Phil. C’est le guerre.
Not today’s picture but still fun
Tonight was the tapping of the new Gordon Biersch seasonal brew, a “Keller Heller.” The Abbess and I went there with our 80 plus friend Eileen who is here on her annual trip from Brooklyn back to North Carolina. Eileen is a good Irish Catholic who remembers bar-hopping with her late husband. She had a blast and folks loved her. Some of the regulars were calling the Keller Heller a Heller Keller when we first tried a version of it at our Stein Club Christmas dinner and voted on the next seasonal. When I heard “Heller Keller” I automatically started calling it “Helen Keller” because if you drink too much of it you’ll go blind. We tasted brew master Allen Young’s version at a Stein Club get-together last week and it is well worth it. The hops are from Germany and have been used in the making of the Czech Pilsner Urquell for many years. They are a bit pricy from what I understand and Allen got a metric ton to do the brew so this seasonal should be around for a while. According the Allen only one other American brewery has used them. I can attest that the “Helen Keller” is great and well worth the effort to get it. Of course if you don’t live in Hampton Roads or happen to travel here during the time that we have it you will miss a very good beer. On a side note the Abbess was inducted into the Stein Club and Greg, a recently retired Navy Medical Service Corps Officer and I provided back-up to the back-up singers at the tapping party. The good thing was that the music was ‘50s retro and “do-wops” and other such lyrics are not hard to do. The best part was when we helped out with “Jailhouse Rock” and yes we were dancing to the jailhouse rock, actually kind of reminded me of the Blues Brothers. I guess that there is nothing like a couple of old Navy junior officers to have some fun at something like this. So anyway if you are in Hampton Roads and want a great beer come down to Gordon Biersch at Town Center. Do I get extra Passport Points for the plug?
So anyway, since I am just kind of rambling right now here are links to my “Top 10 World War II Articles.” I have left off articles that are more composite and only included some Second World War material.
The Ideological War: How Hitler’s Racial Theories Influenced German Operations in Poland and Russia
D-Day- Courage, Sacrifice and Luck, the Costs of War and Reconciliation
Operation “Dachs” My First Foray into the Genre “Alternative History”
Mortain to Market-Garden: A Study in How Armies Improvise in Rapidly Changing Situations
“Revisionist” History and the Rape of Nanking 1937
Unequal Allies: Lessons from The German’s and Their Allies on the Eastern Front for Today
The Paradox of Conflicting Doctrine: The US Campaign in France and Germany 1944-1945
Ein Volk Steht Auf: The German Volksturm, Ideology and late war Nazi Strategy
The Battleships of Pearl Harbor
So as Groundhog Day 2010 ends and we live our own Groundhog Days over the coming year don’t fear, find the humor in it all and remember that somewhere and somehow in this primordial mess that we live in that the Deity Herself still loves you and that God will never leave you or forsake you, even if you seem to be stuck in some hellish place where one day seems just like the last and the last and the last before the last or even the one or one hundred day that was just like it before that. Did that make sense? If not I think what we have is a failure to misunderstand each other.
Peace
Padre Steve+
The Inglorius Padre Steve's World 