How it's going

 The separation is official.

After forty-odd years of playing by the rules and doing my best to be a good man, good husband, and good father I'm typing this alone in a shitty apartment on the not-ironically-named Independence Day.

I don't really know what I can say about that except, well, shit.

At this point there's not much I can do except tuck my chin and drive on and hope the shit-rain will stop falling. I'm already lonely despite the kind offers of companionship from my friends. Let's face it; when you're married - if it's a good marriage - your spouse is your companion and best friend. 

So when they kick you to the curb? That kinda tears out the heart of your social life, too.

That leaves me to contemplate the work of rebuilding my life in my late sixties, and that's a pretty ugly thought.

While all around my the nation I grew up in grows ever smaller and meaner, less forgiving, more rapacious and greedy. The New Gilded Age Project advances daily, as We the People debate whether it's okay or not to throw people, rich and poor alike, in prison for stealing bread and sleeping under bridges.

It's hard for me to be optimistic.

I used to call myself an "optipess"; happy in my own life while grim looking around me.

Well, that happy life lies in ruins about my feet, so the landscape is looking pretty fucking grim as far as my eyes can see. And it's increasingly likely that a plurality of shitpokes and the antiquated structural flaws of the First Constitution will hand me an openly fascist America First nation eighty years too late for that old Nazi Charles Lindbergh.

 Well.

There's nothing I can do but, as I said, fuck it and drive on.

What does that mean for this blog?

Well, first, my long radio silence is over.

For months I've had nothing to say outside a string of curses at the unfairness of life. Well, divorce, like hanging, occupies the mind thoroughly but once it happens, well, it's over. The griefs remain left behind, but the sound and fury dies down, and the still small voice can be heard again.

Mind you, fuck-all if I'm gonna write about politics. That shit's worse than ever. 

No, my plan for the summer is to work up to a series of posts about The Battle of the Frontiers, 1914.

My focus is on the reconnaissance and security aspects of the battle(s); specifically,
1) What were the requirements for intelligence, from tactical up to strategic intelligence, (that is, reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance) for the opposing sides plans to succeed. Or in simple terms, what did each commander need to know about his opponent (and need to deny his opponent knowledge of) to achieve their operational objectives?,
1a) Which implies at least a brief discussion of the opposing plans and objectives,
2) What resources were available to the commanders to perform these recon and counter-recon tasks?
3) What recon/counter-recon operations were planned to use those assets in ways to accomplish those tasks, and
4) How well did the opposing organizations and commanders at crafting those plans, and carrying them out?

I'm still working up a frame for this. My guess is that it will include:
a) a post on the general conditions leading up to August 1914
b) a post on the German Army and the Revised Schlieffen Plan
c) a post on the French Army and Plan XVII
d) a post on the recon elements of the opposing forces; cavalry and air assets - number, composition, organization, training and doctrine
e) a post on the opening days of the war - from 1 AUG 1914 to about 21 AUG and the performance of the recon/counter-recon elements during the opening phases
f) a post on the actions on the central portions of the front (Battle of the Ardennes), 21-23 AUG
g) a post on the actions to the west (Mons/ Charleroi) 21-23 AUG, and
h) a post on "The Great Retreat" and the lead-in to First Marne, 24 AUG-5 SEP.

That's gonna be a big task, and I hope to have everything lined up ready to go by next week.

Thoughts?