Two Taliban mothers are sitting in the cafe chatting over a pint of goat’s milk. The older of the mums pulls out her bag and starts flipping through pictures and reminiscing…”This is my oldest son, Mohammed. He would be 24 now”.

The other mum replies, “I remember him as a baby.”

Mum says, “He’s a martyr now.”

“Oh, so sad my dear.”

Mum flips to another picture. “And this is my second son, Kalid. He would be 21.”

“Oh I remember him. He had such curly hair when he was born.”

Mum sighs, “He’s a martyr, too.”

“Oh gracious me ,” says the second mother.

“And this is my third son. My beautiful Ahmed! He would be 18”, Mum whispers.

“Yes,” says her friend enthusiastically, “I remember when he first started school.”

“He’s a martyr also”, Mum says, with tears in her eyes.

After a pause and a deep sigh, the second Taliban mother looks wistfully at the photos and says………..”They blow up so fast, don’t they?”

Got up early (as usual). Went to the property to move dirt around. Stopped by the new Lowe’s and picked up 30ft of a nice heavy chain. Now if someone hits it with their truck it WILL cause some damage.

Stopped at the Sheriff’s office in Belfair to see if I could swear out a complaint about the guy that dumped his garbage on my property Monday. They said I had to have 3 (three!) pieces of paper with a name on them. Damn! But, the Deputy did look through his system and found a “Steven Barrick” local and said he’d call and tell him to pick up his garbage. Of course, he can’t guarantee that this Barrick will actually go out and do it. I’m still going to look him up and give a call if I find a number…

Reasonably nice day out once the sun showed itself. Got a LOT of dirt moved. Made my ’canyon’ a bit wider and used the dirt to shore up the edges of the road.