Coincidentally, my father's father, Earl Mundy Sr, shared his birthday in history with the date of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was born considerably earlier than the tragic day, so he has first rights to be remembered when the date comes around. Here he is photographed manning his general quarters station, starboard side aft 20mm gun mount. Grandpa was the ship's cook and was stationed in
Alaska aboard his boat, USS YP-92. There's a lot more to a man than the war he served in. What I recall best, aside from his outstanding bowling record, is that he was a very peaceful man in all my visits to his home. On some other computer, I've got a photo of him and my dad and me and my little brother. You can see that we all inherited our handsome looks from our Irish roots!
Also, coincidentally, my dad's birthday preceded the dropping of the Atomic bomb on Nagasaki by exactly 1 year.
Also, coincidentally, my wife's dear mother was born exactly some years prior to September 11th.
I do hope that no other tragedies befall this world on anniversaries of my family's birthdays. Let someone else share the phenomenon! Still, I think we can look at any of these events as being a turning point in world history that lead to much goodness, if only that it united peoples across generations, faiths, ideaologies and political boundaries. The silver lining.
If you want to see what happened on your birthday, or who you share it with, go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_7 and just replace the date in the link with your own.
Kabul is a very dusty and dirty place. When you go outside, the air stinks of exhaust from the diesel generators that power the villas in the neighborhood. Remember that public electricity is only available for a few hours every 2nd to 4th day. At night, now that winter is here, it also smells of wood fires too. Because Kabul is surrounded by very high mountains, called the Hindu Kush, the pollution doesn't float away. It is very dusty here too and most streets are packed dirt. In the 
photos you'll see a boy sweeping the muddy street behind his house. I took that today through my staircase window. He's standing in a very shallow puddle. I suppose his mom sent him out there to clean up a bit. Yuck. The other photo shows my carpet after I packed away my rug, which I shipped home today. That rug only lay there for about two months. I know the cleaning ladies vacuum my room about once a week. Extra Yuck.
