The only wasted day is a day you don’t learn anything – and, what a revoltin’ development this is! You may be aware of some of this information but some of it was new to me. How the conversation started may be the subject of another column. Marching came up in the discussion and I learned that just learning to march is one of the first disciplines that you learn in the service. Marching is not just a way of walking. Marching is an organized method used to move a group of people from where they are, to where they need to be. I heard of one person who was released from the service because he couldn’t march.

Did you know marching columns go into a break step when they cross a bridge? This avoids vibration caused by rhythm, which is believed to have contributed to the collapse of a bridge. Mythbusters were unable to confirm this could happen.

This paragraph was generated by Martin on the sitcom Fraser. The boys had to hire some work done because they didn’t know how to do manual labor. Martin said, “I hope there is not a national emergency.” I thought back to several columns I have done on being unprepared.

I’ve started making paper lists in notebooks of the important information contained in my computer and on my back-up drives. I might lose pictures and columns when the computer fails, but I will have papers to rebuild – or use in the event of an electrical failure, at least during the day, or as long as my flashlight batteries last.

Jerry Riley comments for the News Bulletin. He is a retired telecommunications supervisor.