Paul's Down-Home Page

Original poem by Michael Marks:

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
my daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree, I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep
in perfect contentment, or so it would seem.
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
But I opened my eye when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
and I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
“What are you doing?” I asked without fear
“Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts,
to the window that danced with a warm fire’s light
then he sighed and he said “It’s really all right,
I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night”
“Its my duty to stand at the front of the line,
that separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ‘Pearl on a day in December,”
then he sighed, “That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.”
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘Nam
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red white and blue… an American flag.
“I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home,
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat,
I can carry the weight of killing another
or lay down my life with my sisters and brothers
who stand at the front against any and all,
to insure for all time that this flag will not fall.”
“So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright
Your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”
“But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
“Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
For being away from your wife and your son.”
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
“Just tell us you love us, and never forget
To fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone.
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
to know you remember we fought and we bled
is payment enough, and with that we will trust.
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”

When I get super busy, the first thing to go is the Xbox 360; the second is this blog. That explains my relative silence. I’m trying to finish up a large project at work before the end of the year; last week I was in Seattle and Toronto, plus we had a major power outage in Redmond that slowed my progress down considerably.

Plus, let’s not forget, it’s the Christmas season! That means lots of evening time spent wrapping, shopping, going to chorus concerts, and so on. I have a couple of book reviews to post, but I probably won’t get to them for a few days. In the meantime, Merry Christmas to all!

Last year, I made a bet with some folks over at Ed’s blog:

@5: I’ll take that bet, Bill. I’ve got $20 that says MS will only ship 64-bit production versions of E12 (although they will probably ship test / demo versions that run on 32-bit hardware). If I’m right, you pay Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans $20; if you’re right, I’ll pay the $20 to a charity of your choice. In fact, I’ll take up to 5 identical bets. Ante up!

Today Microsoft released Exchange 2007 to manufacturing, which I’d say counts as “shipping” it. As I predicted last year, they’re only shipping 64-bit versions; there will be a limited-use 32-bit version that is not licensed for use in production, but MS hasn’t announced how or when they’ll make it available. By my lights, that means that Ed, Mike Lazar, and Bill Buchan each owe the New Orleans chapter of Habitat for Humanity $20.