Memorial Day 2012

A day to remember those who have fallen to protect our freedoms and our way of life. A day to thank those who have had the courage to serve this Nation in its times of need.

If we have learned anything from the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is how to love the warrior while hating the war - a lesson that we did not understand 40 years ago when our brothers and sisters were returning from southeast Asia. For them there was little "home coming" because most of us at home did not know how to separate their service from the cause. We may have welcomed our own soldier or sailor, but we failed miserably in finding a way to welcome them home as a group.

While today we are doing a better job of welcoming our service men and women home, we are still failing them medically and emotionally. This whole new population of young men and women with traumatic brain injuries is stretching our VA system far beyond its capacity and we are not moving forward to fix that.  The improvements in medicine generally mean that more severely wounded soldiers will survive now, but we haven't found the ways to support them and help them maximize their remaining faculties so that they can lead productive and meaningful lives ... for the next fifty years.  I fear the population of homeless Iraq/Afghanistan vets will make the homeless Vietnam vets seem like just a handful.  As a nation we need to do better. As individuals we need to start doing more. 

At the very least we need to say thank you to those who have done so much for us. Thank you to Lew Puller. Thank you to Les Smith, Jake Smith, John Bane, and Ray Whiteman. Thank you to John Connell, to Ron Stewart, to Keith Hammock, and to Bob Kenney. 
Thank you to Neal Miller, Drew Bowder and the new generation of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines serving in the the desert and around the world. Thank you to the families of them all.

Today is a day to remember; a day to say thanks. "And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave, o're the land of the free and [especially] the home of the brave."

Thanks, Alberto!

 It was a lovely weekend - thanks to Alberto who was trying to form a proper tropical storm off of South Carolina.  

 

It brought us lovely cool breezes out of the northeast, dappled sunshine and mid-70's.  

 

A perfect weekend for working in the garden and sitting on the deck reading - so I did both.

Happily, he failed - Alberto.  Now back to the work world for a few days!

Totally Stolen from Marie

Dessert tonight is Marie's recipe.  It sounded too good to pass by.  

I think it's one of those "recipes" that you can adapt to your taste and situation.  Try it.  You'll like it!

Wednesday Workday

As warm as it's been since early April, I could have - perhaps should have - started on my containers a lot sooner.  But, there is a piece of me that has kept saying "it's too early - we could still get a night that's too cold."

But Saturday I finally journeyed to the local garden center (not a big blue or orange box altho I know they get a lot of their plants from the big national growers) and loaded up on annuals and bedding plants for the pots.

While I don't have a real potting bench, I have created a good potting space behind the garden shed where the two big storage bins are just the right height, and all I have to bring in is the water.

I finally realized that if you get all the pieces parts assembled and ready to go, putting together the actual groupings is pretty easy.  This year, I added a large new pot.  In its last life it was the keeper for a hose, but it just never really worked very well, so I drilled some extra holes in the bottom and added about a zillion cubic feet of potting mix and voila!

Sunday really was the first day that I've spent the entire day in the garden - cutting, weeding, digging, watering, the whole nine yards.  It felt great!