Who gave...for the land

Today we pause to recall the sacrifice of all who gave their lives for the land we love and live in; for the men and women who have served and are proudly called veterans and for those serving in our Armed Forces around the world today.

Our family is proud to call Mom and Dad (USAF) and sons Frankie (USMC) and James (USAF) "Veterans." A grandson, Trey Turner is serving in the USMC.

Anne's Kids - Reunion 2006

On Mother’s Day I left my wife and mother of our five children behind and headed off from Charleston to Maine for a reunion with my four siblings. It wasn’t planned that way but my wife opted out of making the trip and I flew off totally oblivious to what was happening in New England. By Tuesday, after almost three days of rain, the papers reported the area was having the third worst rain storm since they began keeping records back somewhere in the middle of the nineteenth century. In our home town of Lowell, MA, about 3,000 people were evacuated from homes along the banks of the Merrimack River. Only the 1936 flood that caused the Merrimack to overflow its banks and put much of Lowell under water was worst than last week's rain storm.
We gathered in Wells Beach, ME, and had a grand time. One brother, coming by car from Staten Island, was unable to get to the reunion because of the weather. He was missed, and we told him by phone that we faulted him for all our youthful misfortunes. Somehow, although he was only three or four, we said he caused an older brother to fall off the top of a bridge across a canal near our home. Similarly, in his absence, he was at fault when a bus threw a board up from the street breaking a sister’s leg. He accepted all this with good humor, although I suspect when he got to yakking it up later with his friends we would be somehow responsible for his youthful injuries and ailments.
I had planned to stop in on a few friends and e-mail acquaintances unannounced but once on the ground in Maine the weather made all that impossible. Maybe some day soon.
This was the first time we got together since our mother died four years ago. Families get caught up in what they do and times passes ever so swiftly, especially, it seems, as people age. I suggested the gathering last December and it turned out to be a happy time for catching up, reminiscing, updating on the kids whereabouts and accomplishments, and discussing future plans. We ate a lot of fresh fish, especially haddock and lobster. Fresh cold water fish is the best eating, I believe, and difficult to come by in South Carolina. My sisters had some fig squares, also not readily found in Charleston, when I arrived and to take home with me. I ate them in the airports at Portland, LaGuardia and Raleigh Durham. None made it to Charleston.
It was a good time for all and although about 12 inches of rain fell on Wells Beach during the storm we minded it not a wit. After all, we four on hand had survived the ’36 flood.

Fantasy (or insanity)

In a moment of fantasy (or insanity) I was attracted to a car ad in The Wall Street Journal today by the price: $3,995 per month. This is for 35 months at 7.75% APR, one final payment of $215,000 with $42,648 down. The car: A Rolls-Royce Phantom offered by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Miami. My wife came into the kitchen where I was reading the paper and sipping coffee and she broke the spell bringing me back to the real world, "the truck needs to be filled up with gas."

Why I'm in the Gulag

Ran across this old Soviet Union joke earlier today: Three guys in the Gulag are talking about why they are there. The first man says, "I came to work five minutes late every day and they charged me with sabotage." The second prisoner says, "I came to work five minutes early every day and they charged me with spying." The third, "I came to work on time every day and they charged me with owning a western watch."

Wal-Mart Parking Lot

Add this to your list of strange behavior in Wal-Mart parking lots. Someone apparently bought a pair of shoes, sandals, slippers, or some kind of footwear at the Wal-Mart in North Charleston, SC, and changed into them in the parking lot. Evidence: The saddest looking pair of beat up, worn out tennis shoes were set side-by-side in one of the shopping cart corrals. These shoes had more miles on them than hairs on a gorilla. My late mother thought wearing new footwear out of the store was gauche; what would she think of putting them on in the parking lot.

Red Sox Slugger Breaks Car Window; no arrest

Last night (May 6, 2006) at Fenway Park, Manny Ramirez broke the rear window of a sedan parked on a garage roof across the street from the Green Monster when he belted a tape-measure home run in the fourth inning of a game against Baltimore, according to the Boston Globe this morning. (Photo from http://www.RedSox.com)