Installment three

[Guest guest]

It was Merry Christmas time.....and we were at their new apartment for

Christmas...it was very cold up there...us cajuns are not used to cold.

We brought my navy daughter's yorkshire to her and my son in law's new

cat that he never met. My younger daughter had saved a kitten from her

cats litter and bathed and took care of max each day for my son in

law...He had a cat in Ohio at his mom's house...this was his first

dog...It was Christmas Eve and my navy daughter had watch on her

ship...me, my younger daughter and son in law...did the Christmas Eve

thing...baked cookies and cooked..etc. We had to get used to the jets

flying overhead...well...on Christmas morning i looked outside of the

window...it was snowing....I woke my son in law and younger daughter up

screaming. My younger daughter and I went outside with the yorkshire

screaming at eight am....I had on my tweety bird jammies and slippers on

but I did not care...We danced and made snowballs etc...and my son in

law could not believe that we were doing that...he knows snow...we do

not...even the yorkshire was hopping about...We did not care that the

cars on the street that were passing by were blowing their horns...hell

we were cajuns in the snow....what more could you want....

For dinner, we met my navy daughter on her ship, the USS Cole....the

pier was so cold...it seemed like we walked forever to get to her

ship...I remember meeting her topside and wondering how they did

this...i was actually getting sea sick and the ship was still docked at

the pier...hehe....word of advice...never use the " head " aka as the

toilet on a destroyer...that thing scared me to death when I flushed

it...lol...

She brought us down this long hall that led to the messhall....we went

down the messhall line and got turkey, cornbread dressing, sweet peas

etc. We then went into the messhall and sat down. My youngest daughter

is very tall and both of my girls are very pretty...My navy daughter

told the sailors to put their tongues back into their mouth that it was

her sister they were lusting after...The captain came up to us and

introduced himself and told us to have a Merry Christmas...of course,

the dinner was horrid...but after that we got a tour of the ship...

I got to see her rack where she slept and met some of her shipmates...I

even got to go to the bridge and jump up and down to try to see over the

equipment that was there and put my hands on the wheels...I got to go

thru tiny holes with ladders that were straight up and down the

wall...one of those door slammed on my right shoulder and bruised it...I

could not keep up and started yelling for help....another sailor came

and found me and wanted to know what I was doing there...I told him who

my daughter was and he came with me to find her....boy those halls on

those ships look the same....

I remember the floors....they were so shiny...I remember it being so, so

cold inside that ship's belly...I remember the post office and the

ship's store...I remember the doc's office and the long hall that led to

it...everything I remembered...would come back to haunt me...in a most

unpleasant and cowardous act...

I just never dreamed that one of the most horrendous days in my life to

come, would happen in this same messhall....

Installment four to come later on...this is the hard one...chippy