Tongy Gold

Tony is nearly settled in his new temporary home: Kabul Afghanistan. It was an arduous journey with his final destination within Afghanistan not quite decided yet. The choices are narrowed down and one seems to be as miserable as the next. Flip a coin, they all suck!



Before Tony left, I set him up with his own blog using one of Blogger’s competitors, Wordpress. For any of you thinking about creating a blog for yourself, Blogger is much more user friendly initially, but does not offer as many bells and whistles as Wordpress.


For Tony, photos and videos will be a big part of his blog; blogger does not have video link capability yet so the decision was an easy one regarding which service to use. Mikey and I bought Tony a Flip camcorder for Christmas and it will lend itself well to this venue. We're looking forward to him utilizing that application as well as Flicker for his still photos.


Until Tony is a bit more settled and can find a little “down time”, I am managing the blog from KC. I have already posted a few short posts and today Tony sent his first lengthy entry in an email, which I cut and pasted to the blog. So for all intents and purposes, “Tongy Gold” (the name of Tony and Kat’s Honey business run out of their home in Tonganoxie, Kansas) is up and running!


Check it out, bookmark it to favorites, comment often, and pass it along to any friends who might be interested in following Tony on his journey. I promise you this… it will always be informative, it will come from a unique perspective, and will never lack entertainment value; Tony has a way with words!

http://tongygold.wordpress.com/


Enjoy

God Speed Tony

Kansas City to Chicago. Chicago to Frankfurt.  Frankfurt to Qatar.  And finally, Qatar to Kabul, Afghanistan; the ass print of the world.



Try as we might, our family could not stop time. Tony, Mike’s brother, left at dawn this morning for Afghanistan, where he will spend the next three hundred and thirty five days. Tony goes as a civilian this time; he spent a year in Iraq as a Lt. Colonel for the U.S. Army just a few short years ago. Suffice it to say we were thrilled when he returned safe and sound, and even more so when he retired from the army and took a civilian job with a defense contractor. “Safe at last”, we thought.


Now he and two of his buddies have been given an opportunity to put their unique and highly sophisticated technical skills to excellent use, which will no doubt contribute greatly to the safety of all military personnel in the region.


But a year is a long time. Especially when:


You have two teenage sons back home, one just learning to drive, and the other new to navigating those tricky 2 lane county blacktop roads.


Your wife is left to manage the household, this particular one on 20-plus acres.


You have aging parents and stepparents facing health issues.


You yourself no longer walk in a young man’s body; Tony turned fifty years old last fall and the creature comforts of home traded in for a cot in a tent will surely be missed.


And the list goes on.


But as we turned out the lights last night and went to bed, Mikey’s words hit me the hardest. “God damnit… I’m really going to miss my brother.”


And there was nothing I could say to ease his pain and worry.


God speed Tony; stay safe and come back to us soon.  We love you.