December 7th

If you grew up in my generation or the previous one, December 7th should strike a chord in your heart and cause you to remember that freedom is not free. In the early hours of that Sunday morning Japanese fighters reached the air space of Hawaii from the carriers they had crossed the Pacific Ocean on and, to quote an encyclopedia entry, "... sank four U.S. Navy battleships (two of which were raised and returned to service later in the war) and damaged four more. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, and one minelayer, destroyed 188 aircraft, and caused personnel losses of 2,402 killed^[8] and 1,282 wounded"

The result was declaration of war on Japan by the United States and the declaration of war on the United States by Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy. My dad was a part of the war in the Pacific serving in the Philippines and in Japan. My father in law was a part of the war in Europe serving in Italy and Germany. He was shot in the knee by a sniper who was ensconced in the famous Nürburgring stadium. His life was saved, he believes, by an American tank that came up behind him and circled around to stop in front to provide cover for him to crawl back safely out of range of the sniper.

December 7th has another meaning for me as well. It was 3 years ago today that I lost the last joint to two fingers on my left hand in a table saw accident. My left hand index and middle fingers were permanently shortened effectively ruining my ability to type at speed. There are several functions in which I miss them terribly. One is typing. The other is in nailing, especially with finish nails. It is really hard to hold a finish nail between my thumb and shortened index finger. They also no longer fit in my nose or my ear. I say ear because I never really developed the dexterity to use my left hand in my right ear. Way to much flexibility required for that. And besides, my doctor always advised me to never put anything smaller in my ears than my elbow.

So while many believe I now count in base 8 or octal, I really can still count in base 10 or decimal. I guess I have 9 1/2 fingers since two of them are 3/4 long. I can't even imagine trying to count in base 9.5.  Let's see, 9.5, 19, 28.5, 38, 47.5 ... you get the picture.Or counting from my right hand to my left would be 1,2,3,4,5, 6, 6.75, 7.5, 8.5 9.5. They might not want me on the next inventory crew.

For those who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor on this day 68 years ago, we salute them and are humbled by their sacrifice.