Month: <span>March 2007</span>

Family Stories

Typical Big Box Store
An Empty Big Box Store

All we wanted to do was return a vacuum cleaner.  We had purchased it 5 days earlier, broken it after 20 minutes total use, and decided to get a different model.  By the time we were successful we had involved most of the Wal-Mart’s night shift, provided entertainment for other shoppers, yelled at the store manager and received personal guidance on choosing a vacuum cleaner from the housewares department manager.

All of this only took about one hour.  What a night.

Family Stories

Home Sweet Home
Home Sweet Home

We’re still moving stuff into our new house, but now we’re actually living there.  Last Friday we had the cable guy hook up our television and Internet service.  We moved our venerable futon bed, set it up in the downstairs bedroom, and that was it.

Time to move in!

Family Stories

Flying Mail
Flying Mail

In my continuing series of letters, I’ve had the opportunity to write to columnist Andrew Sullivan. “Andy” is a conservative columnist who writes for a number of publications, including “Time” magazine and “The Atlantic,” both their print and on-line publications. The occasion for my letters was being fed up with Andy expressing shock at the latest public outrage by shock-jock Ann Coulter.

Advisory: Don’t click over the fold if you get the vapors from adult subject matter.

Opinions & Commentary

Home Sweet Home
Home Sweet Home

Winnie and I have been spending the past week cleaning, fixing, and repainting our new house. You’d think that after a year’s worth of rebuilding our Mississippi house, a little painting would be simple.

But I must say, the painting and relatively minor repairs we’re doing feels like “Deja Vou all over again.”

Family Stories

Home Sweet Home - image of a house
Home Sweet Home

We took a big step towards settling down in Virginia.  Wednesday morning, Feb 28, 2007, we closed on the purchase of a house here in Dale City.

For me, the closing was a typical event of crossed signals, missed connections and general confusion.  For our realtor and the other professionals it was an embarrassment of chaos.  So I’d have to guess they’re just not used to doing business the “Charest way.”

Family Stories

The Second Visit

This is the second part of Armand’s story about traveling in Albania. In Part I he discussed his first trip there with a private aid group originating in Naples, Italy. At that time Armand was staying with my first wife and I just south of Naples, while I was stationed there with NATO. Several months after his first trip, Armand went back on his own to perform additional relief work and explore. This is his account of the second trip.

Armand wrote and attempted to have his story, “Eyewitness to 1984,” published about 1997. He did get Part I published in a travel magazine that folded immediately afterwards. As Armand retained copyrights and publications rights, he let me also publish it on a travel website I operated at the time. However, this is the first time the second part of his story has ever been published.

This has been edited for obvious spelling and grammatical errors, and formatted for best presentation on this website. Otherwise, this story is exactly as Armand wrote it.

Chapter One – Ulli

Armand Charest in 2000
Armand Charest in 2000

It was with a sense of apprehension and anticipation that I embarked on my second trip to Albania in August, 1992. I wondered if my mixed emotions were due to the fear of undertaking a journey alone to a strange country. But I considered myself a seasoned traveler and I had been there before. So I had to admit to myself that my hesitation had something to do with discovering that perhaps some of our unfinished projects were just that. I realized also that I looked forward to seeing the lady doctor again. There was only one certainty—this trip would be on a more personal level than the first one.

Armand Charest

Satellite Photo - Hurricane Katrina
Satellite Photo – Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina may be ancient history for people away from the Gulf Coast.  But for the people still living there the after-affects are as on-going as a wound that doesn’t heal.  In New Orleans especially, the sores are wide open and festering.Today, President Bush is scheduled to visit New Orleans to give another speech and photo op.  A local blog, Humid City v2.3, is openly calling for a public rebuke of the President.

Hurricane Katrina Diaries