Today was Veterans Day and I found a great picture of Pop, John Henry Arrington Jr.,  that I just had to post remembering he was a WWII veteran. I have a lot of pictures that I downloaded to computers that I have lost as there was no hard copy of them. This is one I’m glad I found a copy of even though I had another with his famous smile on it I was at least able to find this one!

Well John Henry Jr has been gone now over 2 months and he is sorely and deeply missed by many but especially me. Pop and I shared a Friends and Family AT&T phone account for over 8 years and I just can’t bring myself to delete his number from my phone book. I had to close his account and transfer my number from his account to my own and it was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I have often pulled out my phone in the past couple of weeks and out of habit started to hit the speed dial, just to check on him, only in mid act to remember he is no longer among us the same way he was.

I pray my father is looking down on me and watching over me as I will forever miss him and his love and support. He always seemed to call when I was at my lowest and either inspire, challenge or even infuriate me in ways to make me do better.  I am however once again looking for work or my next contract as the contract I was on was not renewed for fiscal year 2009. I hope he knows though that this time I tried very hard to stay put and that it is my desire to finally do what he wanted of me for so many years and stabilize my life in one spot. Unfortunately at the moment that does not appear to be possible where I am in Baltimore or even on the east coast as all the more serious employment contacts I seem to be making are all in the central Midwestern area & Great Northwestern coastal part of the US and it looks as if I will be hitting the road once again. As I have spent a lifetime on the road this is nothing new to me. Of the past 20 years I have spent 16 of it traveling, away from home, on travel or moving from city to city and following the work. Who knows maybe the next move will be my last but wherever I am know that I am always watching and listening and I am always family. I ask that everyone pray for me and send John Henry Jr a little word while you are at it that, “Joel is OK and keeping a really good attitude about the twists and turns in his life.” Amen.