Oh what an appropriate title...

Most Americans know about the Battle of Gettysburg. 3 days in July, sweltering heat in wool uniforms, thousands dead or dying. Jenny Wade only civilian casualty of the battle, (stray bullet). Picketts Charge, Devil's Den, The Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard...yada yada yada...

That's only one side of the 'burg.

Now aday's you have other battles.

1. The Park Service wants to close the park at sundown, to prevent drunks, druggies and ghost hunters. {sarcasm} They don't want those weirdo's in the parks. {/sarcasm} They actually did put Ghost hunters in the same category as the rest. Ooh. That set off a battle. Their have been letters and congresscritters and all sorts of newspaper articles invovled in this battle. Why don't they just issue Permits to Ghost Hunters, say $5 permit for the year. You don't have a permit after dark, you get the fined.

2. More about ghosts. In the last few years Ghost Walks have sprung up in town. During the peak of the tourist season you can walk down town with out dealing with a crowd of people standing around some person in period clothes telling stories. They are everywhere. Now we have "Official" Walks, and the Unofficial walks. There is one group who want's to get exclusive rights to do the walks, killing the competition. Hmm, I'm not sure whick side of this I'm on.
      a. 1 company = less hassles around town
      or
      b. 1 company = anti-competetive practices

I don't care about gouging the tourists. If they want to spend the money, let'em.

3. Townie's vs the Torons.
        I just want to go home, and the fricken toron went the wrong way around the Square (turn-about, circle...whatever you want to call it). Or, It now takes 30 minutes instead of 5 to go from the Wheatfield back to work. (I know you city folk may scoff at my traffic issues, but it sucks to me.)
I like the quite reverence the Battlefield exudes, except when 15 fricken Motor Coaches try to pull up on Little Round Top. (love them diesel fumes!)
The infra-structure of this town really can't handle the amount of tourist's that come to visit.

4. The People vs the Local Government. Taxes...go figure. What isn't owned by the Park Service is owned by the College (Gettysburg College) The remaining remnants is divided up by the actual inhabitants of the town. Here's the problem: not much taxable land...therefore tax the hell out of the land you can tax. Property taxes are outlandish. The College doesn't pay them, neither does the Park Service. oof. Not good for the little people. I actually live about 12 miles away, my taxes are high, but not G-burg levels.

5. Wow they just keep coming... The "National Tower". Back in the 70's I think, a huge tower was erected on the outskirts of the Battlefield. It gave visitors an amazing view of the whole area. But it was deemed an eye-sore. It stayed open till a few years ago when the Park Service bought it. They promptly tore it down. It was quite dramatic, they had cannoneers fire their guns, the tower buckled and fell. You would think this battle would be over, but no. For the past few years since the demise of the tower, a court battle has been going on dealing with the price the tower was sold for. Was 4 Million or 7? was it a fair amount? blah blah blah. The people who sold it still have not received any money from the sale. (suckers!) I'm thinking it could be a while yet.

6. oh damn forgot the biggie...Casino's in Gettysburg? Not in the town proper, just outside in an adjoining township. The county commissioner's were all for it, till the public cried foul, now they're back peddling a little. It's pretty unlikely that the Gaming Commission will approve a license, with all the people complaining about it.

How do I feel about it? We'll the site they want to build on is right on my commute to work. So I know I don't want the added traffic.

Also the area is home to a cool Ground Hog that I see on occasion. I'll be driving by, he'll be out munching on grass or whatever it is he eats. I like groundhogs, nasty as they can be.

The Daily Show did a 5 minute stint on this issue, surprised the hell out of me that they picked it up.

I could keep going but I'll stop for now. As you can see though, the Civil War is still going on here. Some where in this town some one is fighting some one. Maybe not with rifles, but they are still fighting.

Sean D.

Since the last entry we've heard a faint heart beat, received tons of clothes, bought stuff at yard sales. I'm guessing this is typical.

Damn those hormones though...sheesh. And the fact that she is in between sizes, kind of maternity but not full maternity, it takes her about 3 to 4 outfits to look at or try on every morning till she's either given up or found something adequate. I do appreciate the added cleavage though. A temporary benefit, it's the least that God could do for me I guess.

But seriously, all seems to be going well. She has her next appt Friday, no ultra-sounds yet, so we're still in a holding pattern of sorts.

Other than our growing anticipation, nothing much else is happening here in ol' Gettysburg. (except for maybe the arrival of the Tor-on's).

Gettysburg will possibly be the topic of a secondary journal...much to discuss...

Sean D.

Yesterday we received the official report from the OB/GYN...Yes, there is a baby in there, and it's about 5 1/2 weeks along. We thought it was only about 3 weeks, so we were a little surprised.

That puts us at Dec 3 as a initial due date, according the nurse.

Sean D.

OK, at the first entry, we had taken (well she had taken) 1 test. Now we are at a total of 4 tests, all positive. So she made the call to the Doctor.

Today we shall have an official report, however, as stated before, it's too damn early to be excited. Anyway the changes have started.

Talk has begun about disposing of my prize possession, my 1998 Firebird V6, 62,000 miles, Very Good condition. Luckily I do have a champion that has steped up to save my car before it becomes "Used Car" material. Of all people, it's my In-laws.

My father-in-law said he'd "buy" from me, store it, in one of his many out buildings, and provided that there were no expensive emergencies I could "buy" it back later on down the line. Sounds great, all he's asking for is help laying concrete in the building that would be it's new home. I can do that.

Snag: Wife, "I don't really want my parents buying it..." arghhhh...she worries to much. We will see how this plays out.

At any rate, I'll probabaly end up with something "more practical". I'm aiming for a Tacoma Xtended cab. NO mini-vans. I flat out refuse. I keep throwing in the RX-8 as a possibility, "But Honey, it has 4 doors!"

Sean D.

Ok, rarely if ever do you see me put something down in a journal. Well, I'm going to try something.

For the next 9 or so months, I'll try to describe our baby adventures. I'll try to do it on a regular basis, but who know what "regular basis" will mean.
Please excuse the spelling/grammar errors.

OK, here we start:

0 hour...

We were thinking something was up for the last week or so. My wife has been off all her meds for the last 2 months and it had been hell. Then all of a sudden, a good week. Mood happy, no issues, and this was suppose to be a PMS week. Odd. We at first thought, "Maybe your body is finally rid of the meds?". Then came, "I'm late", and finally last night, the little digital display said "Pregnant". My first instinct was "oh shit, now what", even though we have been planning this. When my Mom was pregnant for the first time, my Dad must have actually said that, he's still paying for it today, 40 years later. So I didn't say it.

But now while I'm happy, I'm also little scared. I do have baby type experience. When I was 11 my sister had her first kid. I was the primary babysitter. My niece and I are more like siblings, so we fought like siblings at times. My nephew came along when I was 19, so things were a little different with him. I was never positive about the kid thing, whether I wanted one or not. It wasn't until my wife and I declared, "No Kids!" that I realized we could be making the greatest mistake of our lives.

My wife and I do have strong relationship, been married nearly 5 years, no doubts, or trust issues. We're very lucky to have what we have, compared to how our friends marriages have gone. Even without children they had issues, and then the children, through no fault of their own, exacerbated those issues.

I'm hoping and working so we don't fall into that situation.

Well anyway, now what? I guess we call the doctor, get official confirmation. The nursery is already decorated, previous owners did that, "Classic Pooh". I just need to get all the crap out of it.

I get the feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Sean D.