Jack MacDougal

Old men make wars, and young men fight them.

[Warded to Lydia]
I can't help but feel sorry for the fact that he wasn't in it long enough to find out his war was bullshit just as much as mine was.

Kids that age are a bunch of damn fools. They go out and they do what they think is right because it's what somebody brought them up thinking, or what their friends think, or what somebody in authority tells them to think, but it's not the people who taught them that pay the consequences. It's the kids who don't know any better who pay the price.

And maybe that kid wouldn't have figured out the right of it for himself. God knows I saw enough of them who just got addicted to killing and their hearts just slipped away. I can't know which way he would've gone. But I look back at myself at that age, and where I was, and I can't help thinking it's a fucking waste. Because you don't see their "Dark Lord" out there taking on Aurors, do you? No, it's the kids. It's always the kids. They fill them up with these big ideas of glory and honor and serving their country and protecting their families and friends, and tell them that there is no greater honor than to die in the line of duty, so they go and become Death Eaters and Aurors and they fight and die wherever somebody in command tells them to.

It's days like this I miss drinking. Thank Christ I'm off tomorrow.
[end ward]

I'm considering just setting up a cot at Hex Mex and living there. Or volunteering to wait tables on my off days just so I can smell their salsa all the time.

Or maybe I could just buy about 10 gallons of their guacamole, eat all I could stand, and just bask in the sweet holy glow of whatever remains.

Victor Ketteridge, you are a goddamn hero. If you can find someone who's as good at this as you are to make me a barbeque restaurant, I'll spend the rest of my life campaigning to get you made a saint.

Nice service at Hogsmeade Presbyterian this morning. I was glad to be able to be there. All my girls looked beautiful, and the Easter lunch afterward was great. Lacey was ruthless in the egg hunt, and it paid off. She found the golden egg and got a big chocolate bunny for a prize.

She's taken up an interest in comic books lately, and I'm sad to say that most of my old issues are still back in Texas. Ain't that the truth. Have we got anybody around here with backissues of Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, Batman, or the Justice League that they'd be willing to loan out to a little girl? I can get her all the new issues she wants, but the older stuff is harder to find, and I can promise them returned in the same shape we got them in.

[Warded to Accident & Emergency healers/mediwizards]

Any word on the girl we brought in with the sedative potion OD last night? She looked too young to know where to get stuff like that.

Anybody know where a guy can find a pick-up quodpot game in London? Never had any luck in Scotland, but I'd think there's enough American and Canadian immigrants in the big city that somebody has to be playing. If I can find burgers and Peanut Butterflies, I can find quodpot...right?

Basically, I quit drinking a long time ago, and if I keep using nothing but cigarettes to take the edge off the stress I'm going to kill myself before I'm 40. I'm open to any other suggestions people have got for stress management on a mediwizard/father's schedule.

[Warded to Lydia]
Got a letter from Tommy. Says he's safe, doesn't say where. Probably best that way, not putting it down in writing.
[end ward]

My baby girl got baptized this morning. After the attack on Hogsmeade this week, it was good to see everybody in church. We've got all kinds there - Pureblood wizards, halfbloods, Muggleborns, folks somewhere in between, different races, all ages, but they all come together for love of something bigger than themselves, bigger than this world. Every Sunday morning that I make it down there does some good for my faith in humanity - and God knows I need it, with all the people out there trying to wreck it.

Man, I miss hippies.

I didn't always like hippies. For the longest time, I thought they were pretty much just lazy and full of shit and smoked too much dope.

I got a chance to spend some time with hippies here and there, though, and they were alright. Crazy as shit, but more often than not they were good folks. Made some good music, too.

You don't see many of them around anymore. I didn't get how anybody could believe in the power of peace and love back then. Still don't, I guess. I just kinda got to like seeing them around.

[Warded Private]

You are the crown of creation
And you've got no place to go


Finally got a day off and I still can't sleep for shit. Watching my back all the time, watching the doors, watching the windows. Like being back over there. But it's funny how having more to lose will keep you grounded. I was responsible for my boys in Nam, but they all had their own guns, too. Lydia and Lacey and Morag don't. It's a whole nother world.

[end ward]

[Warded to TommyTom]

Hey. How's it going?

[end ward]

[Warded to Catie McKinnon, slightly later]

Hey, babydoll - when've you got a Friday night off that you might wanna spend watching a couple of little girls? I'm trying to take Lydia out for a belated Valentine's Day, since I was on night shift last night. I can pay you, or offer you a free dinner and dessert where you can complain about your life and your problems can be the biggest ones at the table.
[end ward]

Man, working opposite shifts from your wife just blows.

Sometimes being young seems so far away that I'm not sure I ever was.

[Lydia]
Let's see if we can find a sitter and take the bike out Sunday afternoon. I could do with a ride through the country.

[Warded Private]
Hey.
Lydia said
So I hear you're in England
I heard my wife
How are you?
You probably don't want to talk to
I'm sorry.
I wish I'd
Want to
How do you like England
[end ward]

[Warded to Tommy MacDougal]
Hard to find the right thing to say here. There's probably not a right thing to say. So if you don't say anything back, I guess I'd understand it. I'm hoping you do, though.

How are you?
[end ward]

Added approximately ten minutes later:
[Warded to Lydia]
I did it. Said something to him. He's probably gonna ignore it.
[end ward]

It's a little late coming, but one more big thanks to everybody who came out to the Wednesday Basic Healing workshop at St. M's. Y'all were great to work with. Anybody who hasn't been yet, show up on Friday for Flo and Wally to put you through your paces. You can't ever go wrong knowing a few extra healing spells.


And yes, as my sweet baby niece Catie has informed you all, I finally broke down and got a bike. I haven't had one since in years, and it's exactly as much fun as I remember it being. Even without being a carefree teenager.

Most of the time I do fine making the changeover from a day shift to a night shift week, but every now and then I just blow at it. I'm trying my damnedest to stay awake late enough that I get some good sleep before I go in, but I'm having a hell of a time at it tonight.

Since I'm trying to stay up, I figured I'd talk at you people. So what do y'all wanna hear about? My daughter's crawling skills? My wife's cooking? St. Mungo's stories that will convince you to never apparate drunk?

The things a man misses on night shift. But I guess I can't be too surprised. Folks up top make the rules like they want, and the folks on the ground fight and die by them.

For New Year's Eve, it was a pretty slow night. Only two cases of alcohol poisoning the whole night, so I'd call that a victory. Here's hoping it stays nice and quiet.

( And who was wrong? And who was right? It didn't matter in the thick of the fight. )