Today was another 350 mile day. my travels carried me through Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The major event was testing a couple more battery banks at my station in central Mississippi.
Those are good people there. One of them is the guy that rescued my youngest cat, Ding,and for an older blue-collar type, I didn’t expect it, but he asked how Ding was doing. I had to give the full update. Ding acts like he’s the king of the roost. Size doesn’t matter to him. He still the smallest, and he still has the most attitude.
Two banks of batteries: one consisting of 72 cells, the other consisting of 60 cells. For people that know about industrial batteries the tests included specific gravity, cell voltage, and cell impedance. For those who are not familiar with industrial batteries, we tested the crap out of them. Results of testing is that half of the 72 cell bank is, to use an obscure phrase, “pining for the fjords”. And now all I have to do is figure out where to get 20,000 dollars to replace them.
While I was having breakfast this morning at the hotel, I was talking to a fellow traveler. Asked what the hell is going on with Mississippi:I’ve been to Mississippi twice in the last two weeks, got snowed on both times. It was snowing in Cleveland, Mississippi this morning. No, it’s not that heavy snow that you folks up north are used to, but down here in the deep South we tend to get excited if it’s more than a few flakes. At any rate, by the time I finished battery testing, the snow had stopped. And as I continued my drive, the clouds broke the sun came out but it turned out to be a nice day.
While driving around on December the seventh, the thought crossed my mind that this is the seventieth anniversary of Pearl Harbor. I wonder how many kids today know the significance of December the seventh, 1941. I’m of the generation whose fathers fought World War II. Growing up, every kid my age had a daddy or uncle or whatever, who was a veteran of World War II. The daddy of the kids up the street that I used to play with was a World War II veteran. Pacific. Had a Japanese rifle and a samurai sword.
I’ve told you many times about my own fathers exploits. Navy. Pacific. Never saw combat, but during the course of the war he went from being a ship fitter to the coxswain of a landing craft. It is my opinion, to this day that the atomic bomb saved my dad. Truth is, the Bomb saved a whole bunch of people’s dads.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor caught a bunch of people by surprise, people in high places, people that should’ve known better, people whose jobs it was to be watchful.
Can we be surprised again? Is there a “Pearl Harbor” waiting for this generation? Too much of me is fearful that there indeed is.
Furthermore, in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, America came together with, as Admiral Yamamoto said, “the great resolve.” Today. I wonder if an attack of that magnitude would have similar results. Worse, would attack with 10 times that magnitude, on the order of a small atomic bomb in a major city, with that trigger the great resolve? Or would it cause our leaders to engage in more apologies, more appeasement, and further weakening of America’s strength.
