Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Just Another Day...

This morning, as I was driving in to work, I noticed the flags in Downtown Durham were flying at half-staff. I pondered that for a moment, and then it hit me: today, December 7, 2011, is the 70th anniversary of the attack at Pearl Harbor.

December 7, 1941. Killed: 2,402. Wounded: 1,282. Even though the Japanese had intended it to be a pre-emptive strike designed to keep the United States out of World War II, it actually had the opposite effect. The very next day, the United States declared war on Japan.

And the rest, as they say, was history.

I said a little prayer for those who lost their lives 70 years ago as I passed by the flags.

Not long after I arrived at work, I saw a Tweet that said actor Harry Morgan had died at the age of 96. Apparently, he had been suffering from pneumonia. I grew up watching Morgan portray Col. Sherman T. Potter in M*A*S*H. It was one of my favourite TV shows growing up. You can say I was obsessed. I loved his humour, but most of all, I loved the humanity he brought to the role. He made a really good show even better with his presence.



Admittedly, I'm still trying to catch up with the backlog of stuff left over from October and November. Slowly, but surely, I'll crawl out of the hole. I felt really really bad that the November newsletter for the local section of the American Chemical Society is still not done. I'm getting closer to finishing, though. I felt really bad that there are still some tasks undone for the American Guild of Organists. The task load for that is not as great, but there is still work to be done there. I felt even worse that I've left some authors waiting for a long time for one of the moderated archives for which I admin. Even worse is delaying big time on a couple of beta jobs. With this being Advent, the days leading up to Christmas is full of preparation, especially on the musical end. I'm glad I have a trip home to look forward to.

Tomorrow is another day. It is time to bid good night to this one.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

When faced with what appeared to be an insurmountable task, an old professor once posed the following question:

How do you eat an elephant?

Answer, one bite at time.