If I had a gun for every ace I have drawn, I could arm a town the size of Abilene;

Don't you push me baby, 'cause I'm all alone; And you know I'm only in it for the gold

I'm spending tonight in Abilene, Texas before heading to Roswell, New Mexico tomorrow.

My last few days in Dallas were fairly uneventful. I met a new friend, I ate things, I played video games. I didn't want to ride all day before I had a new radiator cap.

There I was in Dallas (technically I was in Irving) waiting on a cap that would show up on Friday, when a friend of mine from High School who recently enlisted in the Army starts talking to me on facebook. Turns out he's stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Also turns out he's deploying to Afghanistan in about 2 weeks.

Fort Polk is only 300 miles from Irving and I used ride that long on my little Honda 250 every weekend. So hell and damn yes on Saturday I am going to hang with my boy before he ships out.

Then it turns out there's some huge party the night that I'm getting there. Ok...I'm going to party with a bunch of soldiers who go to war in a week? Now I was thinking it's gonna be a hell of a night and not in the good way. I can't party that hard. I'm too laid back, but I'm going anyway, and gosh-darnit I'm gonna have a good time.

Well, someone apparently worried they dropped the ball mentioning the party, not knowing if my friend was invited or not tried to cover themselves by saying it was a birthday party for the host's son. That made my friend think it wasn't worth going to and we ended up just chilling out in the barracks, drinking, playing video games, and watching movies. Just like old times but with more alcohol!

Here's to you, Private Ochman.



Here's the center plate for his body armor.

I thought it was all pretty cool.

We hung out, we had fun, and the next morning I was miraculously up before noon and back to Dallas because I was scheduled to be in Abilene tonight.

Of course, they didn't want me to leave: ["Did I remember to be adorable today? I think I did...better keep being adorable just to be sure."]

And by "they" I mean the cats because now there was finally a human who had the same schedule they did.

Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Abilene.