CrowMac Creek

       I hate seeing the way we are leaving Afghanistan, but one thing is true. We need to leave. There is no more benefit in remaining. It's too dangerous a place to send our men and women, and there is little reason spend another American cent on a country who has never enjoyed peace.  Now with members of the Afghan army and police officers abandoning their posts, there is a terrible rush to leave; a rush to leave after spending millions and losing thousands of our men and women in uniform. And know that the schools we developed and the new culture elevating women's opportunities we helped create will vanish before the dust settles on an Afghan sunset.      We need to leave. There's little reason to stay anymore. We can't bring the lives lost back, and we can't un-spend the billions we've spent. But this won't be pretty. Many will die and who knows what punishment the Taliban will lay on those who helped us, and believed in our mission. We still...

          Well, it's all but over. We will finally be leaving Afghanistan, but it is just another one of those wars where we leave the country broken. As I write this account ISIS is running through the country destroying everything in their path. We will hang around and protect whatever we can, relying on the Afghani Army to protect what they can. But they won't last long. I'm not saying that we won't launch a few missiles, drones and artillery, but it will have little effect, and ISIS  will continue.            This has come at a heavy expense. The BBC estimates about 3500 coalition soldiers have been killed, 2312 of whom have been Americans, and Afghani Security deaths are estimated at 69000. $530 billion has been spent in the process.           What is probably the worst of this is that many knowledgeable voices, voices who understood the peril into which we were sending our troops, w...

 Please note this requirement: Depending on any feedback I receive, I may try to publish this as a short story, so by reading this story, you have agreed that this story is my property, and that you will not plagiarize this work in whole or in part. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, April 3, 2024   Back to Arizona and to Nature     It's been a long while, too long since I had access to the back country, but I have returned. Don't get me wrong though. I enjoyed my life in Kansas. I met and enjoyed sharing time with Linda Taylor, Mike Kudlac, Dwayne Joe and many others. I met and fell in love with Laura Mikels, but my time with her ended with her untimely death at age 45.     I have long been complaining that I had nowhere to go where I was far enough away from civilization ...

                 Howard sat down at the desk, moved some pens around, tore a page from a tablet, and then looked at me. “You’ve been missing around here.” Howard scanned my face, then continued. “A lot has been happening here and you have been missing in action.” Howard stopped, stood and turned so that he could look out the window. He seemed to be drawn away from his conversation with me, and did not speak. After a lengthy silence, Howard announced, “Isaiah and Michael left the paper.” “What happened, Boss?” I had known that Howard had given them an assignment where Michael and Isaiah would address an issue from two sides, Michael from the left and Isaiah from the right.” I could guess what had happened. Though Michael was a moderate, he still wouldn’t be able to discuss many of the hot issues that have been tearing our country apart. I had never been at the Chronicle when Isaiah and Michael were discussing their assignment, but ...

It’s been hot here is CrowMac Creek. The temperature peaked at 96 humid degrees and the sky was unusually overcast. The previous high of 90 degrees occurred in 1995. I have to admit that I’ve been grumbling to anyone who will listen about the warming trend, and that I’m angry about what our politicians are doing about it, which is nothing. But in CrowMac Creek, there are many who still do not believe that humans have anything to do with this, and they grumble more loudly than I can, so as it is said, the  I started my day, as usual, walking Cheyenne. When I got off the roads, I unleashed her, and she  bounded up the trail, down the trail, and then, busting through the brush, she found that old skunk who responded by giving her a good shot. She ran back wildly, snorting and pushing her snout through the sand and dust. I let her know just how I felt, which was just the same as in the past. On went the leash, and we didn’t communicate the rest of the walk. Ther...

CrowMac Creek and Summer’s End Ever since Gary arrived in CrowMac Creek, I have been overwhelmed with friends wanting to visit, and I am very happy to have the company. There are so may things to do around here. We can head up the Mogollon Rim for hikes to overlooks, drive to Strawberry for a nights of entertainment, or even to the Natural Bridge just south of here. Sometimes I wish my father had purchased a larger cabin for my mother, but this is my home and it always will be.

       This is a story, very much fiction, but a happy tale about Gary coming to CrowMac Creek. All family and friends of Gary are invited to visit and to leave their thoughts. I will, as long as I can, share news and events of Gary and others at CrowMac Creek. In CrowMac Creek, anything is possible. Magic At CrowMac Creek It was in mid July of 2018 that Jim Haynes sent a messenger text to me informing me that Gary Heil had passed away. The immediate feeling of sorrow washed over me like a wave, and I knew that a large part of my life had been lost in its sweep. I couldn’t have been more shocked, as after countless unsuccessful attempts of finding him, he finally showed up on Facebook. I had shared some posts with him, and he had responded with hearts and thumbs up icons, but that was all that I had seen. Then, two days ago, Gary Heil showed up at the cabin, and I’m sure I saw him, saw something, I’m not sure which. My thoughts were reluctant a...