My Senior NCO, SFC Rueda, is a first-generation Mexican-American and devout Catholic. So, doing his duty to look out for me, he hauled me off to Mass today. It was held by the St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Community in the Enduring Faith Chapel (a nod to Operation Enduring Freedom?). A pretty good-sized crowd, over 100 people were in attendance ... mostly military. Mass ran about an hour, including one of the better homilies I've heard in a while.
So here's the weird part ... all the guns. Here we are singing and praying about love and justice and peace, and everyone in uniform is toting the obligatory rifle or sidearm. Magazines loaded, no rounds chambered, but it was still a slightly surreal experience.
I don't get to church often, so I had to be reminded of one of the things I like least ... all this new hand-shaking thing. Yeah, yeah, peace be with you and all that, but why do I have to touch these people? Can't we just go back to the old, pre-Vatican I way of doing things? I like the Mass in Latin, with the priest facing the altar,his back to the congregation, the whole old-school treatment.
But I digress.
Sunday is also the day before Monday. Duh! It also being the day before Independence Day, I have the privilege of caring for and carefully thawing a big-ass ribeye roast in my room. We got a loaner grill for tomorrow, and I'll be cooking it via the indirect heat method. I'm hoping to be able to borrow an instant-read thermometer, as I have no idea how much this beast weighs, and I certainly don't want to overcook it. A couple other folks are working side dishes, but I'm the Man with the Meat, as it were, and male pride and deployment bragging rights demand I do this right.
Follow-up tomorrow, with pictures.
So here's the weird part ... all the guns. Here we are singing and praying about love and justice and peace, and everyone in uniform is toting the obligatory rifle or sidearm. Magazines loaded, no rounds chambered, but it was still a slightly surreal experience.
I don't get to church often, so I had to be reminded of one of the things I like least ... all this new hand-shaking thing. Yeah, yeah, peace be with you and all that, but why do I have to touch these people? Can't we just go back to the old, pre-Vatican I way of doing things? I like the Mass in Latin, with the priest facing the altar,his back to the congregation, the whole old-school treatment.
But I digress.
Sunday is also the day before Monday. Duh! It also being the day before Independence Day, I have the privilege of caring for and carefully thawing a big-ass ribeye roast in my room. We got a loaner grill for tomorrow, and I'll be cooking it via the indirect heat method. I'm hoping to be able to borrow an instant-read thermometer, as I have no idea how much this beast weighs, and I certainly don't want to overcook it. A couple other folks are working side dishes, but I'm the Man with the Meat, as it were, and male pride and deployment bragging rights demand I do this right.
Follow-up tomorrow, with pictures.
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