I have nothing new to write about Memorial Day, so I will link you to this very old post from 2004 about the Boys from Bedford that I wrote for the 60th anniversary of D-Day. My thoughts on these days are always with my buddy Geoff Wood, who didn’t die in combat, but who was one of the greatest guys I’ve ever known. I still think about him all the time. I miss him so much. We used to talk every memorial day, 4th of July, veteran’s day, and the big holidays. I can still hear his voice and his laugh. He was too young to die and in a stupid motorcycle accident, to boot. I just hate those things. I can’t believe it’s been almost fifteen years.
Whole lot of sportsball going on today. I’m currently watching Maryland and North Carolina play for the Lax National Championship, and tonight Game 1 of the Stanley Cup with my beloved Pens against the Sharks, and there is apparently some sort of basketball game tonight, too.
Got a bunch of really nice cod filets that I am going to grill up, and I made an orzo salad with a vinegar dressing (orzo, chives, mushrooms, kalamata olives, artichoke, cannellini beans, cherry tomatoes, red onion, red pepper, and when it is cooled, some feta cheese), have a very nice yogurt/cucumber salad with dill, and got some fresh fruit and some cherry ice cream. Think we might make some sweet potato fries, too.
I picked up some beers for the boys for helping with stuff around the yard, so they’re going to have a couple beers and relax and we’re all just going to take it pretty easy today. Maybe some park action with the dogs.
You all?
Baud
Working, just like on Labor Day.
Corner Stone
Duck Mango wishes you all the best on this Memorial Day.
raven
Worked on the house and yard until it got hot. I had snuck fresh butterbeans in the fridge wanting to surprise the princess for our anniversary with her favorite but she sniffed em out!
Here’s the Virtual Wall site for my buddy Andy.
Corner Stone
In isolation all those things sound really healthy. But piled onto one another they sound like a real gut bomb.
Shell
Sounds like a good dinner line up. How do you keep the fish from sticking on the grill?
Xboxershorts
I volunteered to work today. My shift ends at 4pm. Then my son, his wife and my lovely grand daughter will be coming over for a nice grill out on the patio.
It sucks when people we served with die way too early. One of my best buds from USS Lawrence wound up so depressed with civvie life he checked himself out. We had some amazingly great times on liberty…and I miss him too.
Corner Stone
I liked gnocchi just fine when my ex’s nonna made it. I’ve been thinking about making it myself once in a while. It’s great with a little butter sauce, so meh?
Elmo
Grilled a dozen chicken drumsticks I stole at .69/lb, and then tried grilling two ribeyes from frozen, the way all the cool kids are doing now. Verdict: mixed. Frozen didn’t take up the seasoning the way thawed meat does, so they came out under-salted.
Also a little tough, but that might have been a function of cheap meat. I bought a half ribeye side for $6.49/lb and had it cut into 1.25″ steaks.
So it’s worth trying again, but I’m considering this one strike against. I won’t try it with really good expensive steak – not worth the risk, and I never freeze those anyway. Those are bought on the day of or a day or two before for a special occasion.
The leftovers will be thin sliced and turned into steak & bleu cheese salad, or steak sammiches if I can find ripe tomatoes.
In about an hour I will start the chicken that has been sitting in a salt rub since 0900.
guachi
In military. Enjoying my four day weekend. Know a few people who die or were seriously injured in Iraq. Will probably hunt down some recipe to cook the pork loin I have defrosting in a pan of water/salt/brown sugar/pepper
Corner Stone
Anyone have any thoughts on a food mill, for pureeing sauces or ricing potatoes?
M. Bouffant
I really do not get “Happy” Memorial Day. Are we supposed to be ecstatic about the thousands of American citizens killed by their gov’t. because the President is a pin-dick w/ something to prove, or a fascist jerk in thrall to corporate interests who don’t want to pay taxes or pay for someone else’s oil?
Shouldn’t we be having somber services at the graves of the poor losers, rather than stuffing our faces?
Also could someone once & for all clarify the difference between Memorial Day & Veterans Day? One is for the war dead, one is for desk jockeys & others who served their corporate masters but weren’t sacrificed on the altar of the gawd of war. Can y’all figure which is which?
guachi
@Elmo:
Is the idea to be able to really char the outside while keeping the inside closer to rare?
Mustang Bobby
Binge-watching “Band of Brothers” on HBO, which has become a tradition for me. I was dozing off until my neighbor came back from his snorkeling trip to the Keys with his boys and is now flushing the salt water out of his outboards. Currahee.
Corner Stone
@Mustang Bobby:
I’m guessing you may not know the answer, but any idea where he went snorkeling? We plan on making a four or so day trip to the Keys this summer for snorkeling so just asking.
TaMara (HFG)
Working. But not complaining because I’m taking most of the week off to spend in the mountains. Happy Memorial Day everyone!
schrodinger's cat
@Corner Stone: Too messy to clean.
pat
Got the pump running on the pond outside the screened porch. Summer has officially started.
Now going to sit on said porch to finish Lusitania, an Epic Tragedy by Diana Preston.
I got started on the Lusitania kick with Dead Wake, by Erik Larson, moved on to Lusitania, Saga and Myth, by David Ramsay. Preston has a LOT more detail but it’s fun to compare the different approaches.
laura
A food mill is great but takes up a lot of space. If you need one, check out a used one first as older usually means built to last.
I have my gramma’s mill that clamps to the table top and good for meats especially sausage grinding or making Mrs Craig’s soup *(a ground veggie & navy bean) and a grinding accessory for the kitchen aid, a ricer that’s underused for potatoes and a mill for tomato saucing. I’d only keep the kitchen aid and gramma’s mill if the house was burning down.
Dave’s got ribs started, the Giants are struggling with Atlanta, sharks penguins will be a great series and hoping Golden State gets out on top in game 7.
Amir Khalid
@M. Bouffant:
So what would you wish people? A sombre Memorial Day?
otmar
Working.
Austria doesn’t do Memorial Day. The closest thing we do is the catholic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Souls%27_Day where the war memorials get extra attention.
ThresherK
@laura: A food mill?
I have thought about one but I can’t even make the commitment to some other bits of hardware which are useful and easy enough to care for, given their utility. A mandoline, a 22″ Weber grill, or an heirloom-quality roaster (All-Clad heavy-ass or the like), to name three.
@Corner Stone: To steal from others: Ask yourself, “How clean do I keep kitchen tool X now?” (Or, “do I have cheap and plentiful help to do this for me?)
Got some tri-tip on sale today and it’s sitting with a rub. Will bring slow in the oven and then char the outside. I also heard about charring a frozen steak but don’t trust myself with that yet.
Elmo
@guachi: pretty much. If you sear a thawed steak on a 550 degree grill, you get the sear crust and then a small layer of grayish meat just underneath, while the rest of the steak is rare or med rare. This is to eliminate that gray layer.
But tbh, I haven’t had much trouble with it myself because I only cook steaks to “Pittsburg rare,” which is cool in the middle and seared on the outside. Not much time for the gray layer to form.
Elmo
@ThresherK: I bought a Weber-Q in 2010, and never been so happy with a culinary purchase in my life. I don’t even take care of it, and it just. works. So convenient to fire up the grill for quick asparagus, or a single chicken breast, or whatever. Love it.
Mustang Bobby
@Corner Stone: As a matter of fact, he told me that they were going off Elliott Key, which is the northernmost key in the chain in Biscayne Bay National Park. You can get there from the Homestead Bayfront Park.
Shell
Pretty simple. Baked some chicken thighs with white wine, garlic and soy sauce. Will make chicken salad later when they’ve cooled. With celery and some p pickled blueberries.
Elmo
@M. Bouffant:
I really don’t get the appeal of trolling. Especially about something like Memorial Day, and even more especially on a site run by a military veteran where lots of regulars are vets. Who gets their rocks off coming into somebody else’s living room and dropping trou? Where is the enjoyment in taking a big steaming dump on somebody else’s carpet?
TL;DR: Fuck off, troll.
eclare
@Shell: How do you pickle blueberries? Is it something a novice could do?
Shell
He s also one of those people who write those tiresome letters to the editor about the commercialization of Christmas and how only they know the true meaning of the holiday.
Mike R
Took my mother to cemetery to decorate graves. Been there many times, on the way there thinking of the names of the people that had died in Vietnam, on the way out was absently reading names ran across one of my class mates killed nov 1966. He was born 6 days after me and has been dead for half a century. For fuck sakes he was cheated out of so much life. As a side note note arrived in country 7 months to the day from when he died and was attached to same regiment, fucking small world.
Ruckus
@M. Bouffant:
Memorial day is for those that died in or from war.
Veterans day is for those that served but lived through it. Not all of us that served went to war, even if we served in a time of war. Some drove trucks, some trained others, some sat at a desk in a war zone and typed, some worked on the planes that others flew into combat, some ran the ships that got missiles shot at them by Migs, some served on ships 10,000 miles from war zones, tracking subs………
The military is a rather large organization. Lots of things need to be done besides dying. Decades ago many were drafted into service, but many also joined, went where they were told and did what they were told. Many, many more did none of that. They had something better to do, they had something else they’d rather be doing, they were afraid, they were protesting war, they were getting laid, they were getting an inheritance…….
ETA You do have a point about Happy Memorial Day. I never wish that on anyone. Nor happy Veterans day….. Although maybe we could on Vets day, most of us are happy that our day isn’t Memorial Day.
Divf
Blueberries are coming in with a vengeance now in these parts. But pickling them? Why?
muddy
@Corner Stone: I don’t have a food mill, but I have an attachment on the Kitchenaid that I use to de-seed/skin tomatoes and other things along that line. I have a potato ricer, which I had not used much in years until recently. It’s perfect for getting the extra liquid out of things without having to wait while it drains. If I had a food mill I guess I’d use it, as it is I just use a spatula and a sieve.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: Binge watch “The Pacific”.
raven
@Mike R: I went in November 10th that year.
Xboxershorts
@M. Bouffant:
Just serving is dangerous.
You don’t have too be in a war zone to die in service of your country. But we, the United States and her military regularly do go into war zones to help others who are not war time adversaries but war surrounds them none the less. My entire military career aboard ship was pretty much spent in the Persian Gulf escorting tanker traffic in and out of the Straits of Hormuz which Iran kept mining. While you were just a masturbatory dream of your pappy’s fantasies, real people were sacrificing so that the world wouldn’t run out of oil while Iran and Iraq were blowing each other up.
37 people died on this ship, hundreds of others fought and saved the ship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Stark_incident
The era of Petro energy brought the greatest increase in standard of living to the United States the planet had ever seen.
Sure, it’s long past time for the era of Petro-Energy to end, but that’s for a different thread.
On Memorial Day, we honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country
On Veterans Day, we honor those who were WILLING to make that same sacrifice.
Now, try to have a little respect for the people who sacrificed, some and sometimes all so you could be a jerk in an online forum.
frosty
Not much planned today. We had our big cookout on Thursday when both the boys were home. I finished the weeding and lawnmowing yesterday before the rain, so now it’s hang out, catch up on some work and bill paying, play a little music, take a walk on the NC rail trail. Oh, and another cookout ’cause I know as soon as I smell all the neighbors’ grills fire up I’ll be wishing I was doing the same.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: That was yesterday.
Mike R
@raven: Glad you made it, love your take no shit attitude. Know you were army but here’s to you Semper Fi.
Shell
Its a cinch! Heres the recipe I first used; I added a touch of cinnamon to them as well. They add a nice sweet/savory flavor to green and other salads.
http://foodinjars.com/2015/08/gingery-pickled-blueberries-for-international-can-it-forward-day/
Ruckus
@Xboxershorts:
We looked for a refueler that got blown off the deck of the America by jet wash. In the Med, 1972. All that was ever found was his life jacket. Not a war zone, not in combat, still dead.
Johnnybuck
Damned hot here in West Georgia today. Have chicken parts and burgers for grilling later, otherwise staying cool.
Corner Stone
@ThresherK:
I have all three. I rarely use the mandolin as I don’t usually cook in enough bulk to justify not just chopping my own veggies, plus teaching my son knife skills and awareness. Even if it takes longer. I prefer my gas grill but use my charcoal Weber 22 quite a bit, actually. It’s a nice change up. Almost never use the roaster, not because I do not want to but the volume is too much and it is a righteous pain in the ass to clean up afterwards. I have a first class roaster pan and rack but I probably use it 4 or 5 times a year?
I use a little mini food processor, mortar and pestle and rice cooker probably more than any kitchen tool I have, obviously not including knives. Slow cooker probably comes in somewhere in the top 7 or so.
ETA, my son actually loves using the mandolin but I have to really be on the watch when he does.
Ruckus
@Xboxershorts:
Also have a friend who has almost completely convinced me to explain carefully to trolls. Once. He views it as an opportunity to teach, if not the offender maybe someone not so fucking stupid. I’m giving it a try.
Cat48
The president gave a solemn speech at Arlington this morning, remembering some of the fallen, in a very personal way. It was a touching speech. He said we lost 23 soldiers last year in mostly Afghanistan and a few in Iraq. You should watch it if you have time.
oldster
Boy, the kid in that photo holding the water bottle just looks younger and younger every year.
Xboxershorts
@Ruckus: Yup, I got washed into the stanchions and lifelines once on the Lawrence off the coast of S Carolina. Woulda been dead…
Ruckus
@Xboxershorts:
2 yrs on the Semmes DDG18 out of Charleston.
We had a kid emptying the trash one night under way got washed over the lifelines but managed to grab hold and was hanging on by his finger tips to the top line when someone just happened to peek out the closest door. Hauled his butt back aboard. One lucky sailor. Another minute or even less and he’d of been gone.
Xboxershorts
@Ruckus: Navy was still the greatest time of my life (though I didn’t know it at the time of course) and I would do it all over again….but maybe a bit differently this time.
Thanks for your service.
imonlylurking
@Corner Stone: It would work better if you say: “I, Duck Mango”.
“I, Duck Mango, am about to order a pizza.”
Honus
@otmar: that’s how Memorial Day started in this country. My aunts always called it decoration day. Where you went to decorate the graves. Made you think about the cost of war, instead of glorifying it.
gogol's wife
I know we’re not supposed to say “thank you for your service,” but I just want to say I really appreciate all the vets on this blog, beginning with the host. You add a welcome tone of realism, sometimes cynicism, sometimes sentiment, that makes this my indispensable source for news, gossip, laughter, and tears.
raven
@Mike R: And I share a birthday with the Corps and come from a Navy/Marine family.
Elmo
@Ruckus: @Xboxershorts:
You two are reminding me so much of my Dad right now. USN 1952-1972, made sure to get out at 19 years 6 months and 1 day because that’s the earliest you’re eligible for a pension, but all my life his best stories, and the ones he seemed to most delight in telling, were all of his time in the Navy. After he had a quad bypass in 2010, he wasn’t in his right mind all night and my brother and I sat with him. He kept talking to us like we were his Navy buddies.
He spent more time working for PacBell (1972-1992 but the full 20 years, not 19.5) than he did in the Navy, but if you asked him “Are you a telephone guy or a Navy guy?” he’d have thought the question ridiculous. He was Navy. We were a Navy family, even though he retired when I was six. We shopped at the Miramar NAS commissary. When he needed to go up into the attic, he would wear his Navy flight suit to keep the insulation fibers out. And after my mom died in 1991, he wasted no time heading back to his beloved Pensacola. (She’d hated the humidity and bugs, so they stayed in San Diego after he retired.) He used to say that mankind evolved in the ocean; it’s unnatural to live away from it. And he never did.
Honus
@M. Bouffant: fuck you. A lot of veterans that survived wars are in more pain than those that died.
raven
@Johnnybuck: Hot in Athens too.
Honus
@raven: november 10.
raven
@Ruckus: I have a buddy that got sucked into a jet on a carrier and lost his arm. Great dude with a long line of accomplishments.
AliceBlue
Mr. AliceBlue and I went to the local nursery to get some more herbs for our garden–oregano, lemon basil, thyme and dill. Tonight it’s grilled chicken, corn on the cob, baked beans, cucumber salad and one of my favorite desserts, banana cream supreme pie.
Ruckus
@Xboxershorts:
It was interesting, saw a lot of the world I probably wouldn’t have otherwise, met some great people, still, not my greatest time, although it did get me the VA when I needed it most. And for that I am grateful. I was told by the XO when being discharged that I would be back, my kind always comes back. My reply to him? I have a friend who’s dad owns a dairy with lots of cows. Those cows shit every day, all day and a lot. Someone has to clean up after them and I’d gladly do that, shoveling cow shit every day for the rest of my life rather than work for the likes of him for even one day. As he was speechless and had signed my paper, I grabbed it and left. Can’t say I haven’t looked back, we all do. But I don’t miss it at all.
Hope I don’t offend, certainly no intending to – No need to thank me, I don’t expect thanks, I didn’t want to go but part of why I did was this is my country too. I may have been wrong to serve, not sure about that even decades later. But that’s sort of the deal isn’t it, we are a part of it and we have to do our parts. Mine was at the time to join the navy. I did my time, I went where I was told, I did my work and kept my part of the ship working 100%. I got paid, I get the VA services. That is what I was promised when I signed the contract. 53,000+ American men and women lost their lives, you or I could have been among them. I’m thankful I’m not and I’m very, very sorry that they were. I didn’t agree with that war, I disagree with almost all of them. But that wasn’t my place, at that time.
rikyrah
Meet the First Black Valedictorian at the World’s First School of Dentistry
By Philip Lewis
May 27, 2016
Established in 1840 as the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, the University of Maryland School of Dentistry is known as the first dental college in the world. This past week, the school again made history when it graduated the first black valedictorian in its 176-year existence.
As graduation approached, Tera Poole knew she was among the top five students in her class, but she didn’t know where exactly she ranked. When she opened up the graduation program, Poole saw her name at the top as the class valedictorian. She didn’t have much time to celebrate, however: The young dental student from Ohio gave the commencement speech shortly thereafter.
“Everything, even being valedictorian was a surprise to me,” Poole said in an interview.
……………………………..
Andrea Morgan, a recruitment coordinator at the University of Maryland’s School of Dentistry, was pleased to deliver the good news to Poole, but recalled the sobering history of the dental school.
“The sad part is that the first African-American person didn’t graduate from our dental school until 1972,” Morgan said in a phone interview. “It took from 1840 to 1968 for a black person to come and graduate. That’s my lifetime.”
Honus
@raven: my friend Ricky was born on Veterans Day, day after marine corps birthday. Vietnam recon marine vet. His uncles (all WWII and Korea jarheads) always gave him a raft of shit because with his birthday, he missed a great opportunity to get killed and become a legend.
rikyrah
If you’ve never seen it, you should watch the PBS Series: The Bletchley Circle. It was terrific. Last I saw it, you could get it on Netflix.
Jane Fawcett, British Decoder Who Helped Doom the Bismarck, Dies at 95
By BRUCE WEBER
MAY 28, 2016
Jane Fawcett, who was a reluctant London debutante when she went to work at Bletchley Park, the home of British code-breaking during World War II, and was credited with identifying a message that led to a great Allied naval success, the sinking of the battleship Bismarck, died on May 21 at her home in Oxford, England. She was 95.
raven
@Elmo: My old man was a WW2 Tin Can sailor and took a commission after he graduated from college, a real salt like yours. We visited the Alabama in Mobile and then went to the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola. We knew so much about the ships and planes.
Here we are when I was in the cavalry!
https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3879/14245957077_d147f8deb1_b.jpg
raven
@Honus: Gallows humor! When I went in they started drafting into the Corps. You REALLY didn’t want to be one of those!
raven
@rikyrah: Anna Mawell Martin is great!
SiubhanDuinne
@Johnnybuck:
@raven:
Currently 91° in north ATL suburbs. And it’s still May. I don’t even want to think about July and August.
Iowa Old Lady
I’m getting ready to go out of town again tomorrow. I miss you all when I’m traveling.
Joel
@Corner Stone: worth it. Oxo makes a good one.
Ruckus
@raven:
Supposed to be the most dangerous place to work, in the world. There is little extra room to move around, there are these big monsters that will suck you in and spit you out or burn you up, or run you over or blow up on you or catch on fire. And all this time the ground under your feet is moving in ways you can’t predict. And sometimes you do all of this in bad weather or dark of night. Even if you are on your game 100%, that opposing side can kick your ass. You can’t second guess anything, it will kill you.
Now for the punchline. Those ships xboxershorts and I were on, DDGs? A sister ship got run into by a carrier and the bow of that went right through the work compartment I spent 2 yrs working in, several feet below the waterline. Many crushed and drowned. And still dead.
Honus
@raven: I recall that. Recently somebody said “nobody is drafted into the marines”. I said bullshit, they went down the line of draftees and said “army, navy airforce, marines” and that’s where you went.
It was a different time. 500 guys a week, mostly conscripts, were getting killed. People can’t conceive of that now. And don’t even talk to me about WWII. ISIS=existential crisis my ass. My dad saw more people killed in a week than ISIS will kill in a hundred years.
Keith G
One of the nurses at the hospice brought in brisket, links, chicken and all the fixins. I supplied my home made chocolate pecan brownies.
Spent the morning doing the residents’ laundry as well as a handful of end-of-month cleaning chores. This morning one of our guys died of liver failure. There is a significant overlap of HIV and Hep C in our client population. It blows my mind that as of this year, Hep C has joined HIV as infections that do not have to lead to an unnaturally shortened life.
Another of our residents is a transwoman. She tends to overeat then purge. She was not happy with me when, as per nursing orders, I limited the portions of her lunch. The potions were very adequate for her size and condition, but she wanted more and made me very aware of her frustration.
The last thing I did on my shift was to go to her bathroom and do a clean up. She missed just a bit to the right.
Honus
@Ruckus: sounds pretty much like a coal mine.
Iowa Old Lady
@Honus: I believe the stats show the most dangerous profession in the US is a rivalry between mining and farming.
Mustang Bobby
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s 84 in south Miami suburbs. We never have recorded a temperature over 100, but it’s the humidity that is intolerable from now to about October 15. The AC in the house can barely keep up thanks to 40-year-old single pane windows and a black roof, but this year I installed ceiling fans in the living room and master bedroom, and they’re already making a difference. I’m sitting under one now and it’s noticeably more comfortable.
Johnnybuck
@SiubhanDuinne: 94 here
Ruckus
@raven:
You know the master card commercial, priceless? That was exactly opposite the look on the faces of the 1/3 of the guys being inducted in 1968 that had just been told by a Marine drill instructor when I was getting my draft “physical” that they were his, they were in the Marines today.
Elie
@Elmo:
So let me get this straight. You take frozen steak and just sear it on both sides (assume you season some?) and then its ready? How long for a 2 inch think ribeye would you estimate? I’m always up for trying new things…
Ruckus
@Iowa Old Lady:
LMAO.
Elmo
@raven: KYEWWWWT!!!
But I see shoulder boards, and my Dad didn’t have any part of those. He used to say that he made E-5 three times: twice from the bottom and once from the top.
He eventually got his act together and retired as an E-7. Since I was the youngest of four kids, I have no memory of him as an ordinary enlisted sailor – only as a Chief.
One of my very earliest memories is standing in my crib and being utterly inconsolable – really hideously awful – because Dad had just left for another 9-month Westpac, and I didn’t want Mom, I wanted Dad.
raven
@Ruckus: I think what I like best about “The Best Years of Our Lives” is Harold Russell’s role as a swab who lost his hands.
Shana
@muddy: A ricer would be good if you plan to make gnocchi with any regularity. The trick, such as it is, is to cook the potatoes, rice them, spread them out on a sheet pan to cool completely and dry out before you make the gnocchi dough. Work in only enough flour, not too much.
We’re on what seemed to be a small home fix project. Replacing two outlets in the house that are tied in to the wall switch but have never really grabbed any plugs that go into them. Hubby just went out for the 3rd trip to Home Depot. First time we got outlets that didn’t have enough places on the back to take all the wires coming out of the wall. Second time was to exchange for the correct type of outlet. Hubby’s been doing it so I’m not sure what the problem is now.
I’ve been working on trying to finish the online registration for the cruise we leave on next week. Actually we go to Amsterdam a few days before the cruise to enjoy the city. Then 2 weeks of cruise around the Baltic including 3 days in St. Petersburg, followed by 5 days in London so we can see the two 20th anniversary shows by Belle & Sebastian at the Royal Albert Hall – first show is Tigermilk, second is Sinister. We’re all four almost more excited about the Belle shows than the cruise. We’re celebrating our 30th, one daughter’s graduation from law school and the other daughter’s imminent departure for grad school. We figure this may be the last real family vacation we’ll be able to do.
We’re taking people to dinner at our favorite local italian place tonight to celebrate their having retired. One from unnamed government agency, the other from OMB.
raven
@Elmo: Give him credit for being a Mustang.
Elie
@Keith G:
Didn’t know that you worked in health care. Thank YOU for your service and kindness — and understanding without judgement…. End of life and palliative care — so important. People are just getting more aware HOW important and how beautiful this phase of life can be… Had the honor of being with my Mom her last days in hospice in her home. Will never forget….
Ruckus
@Honus:
Never been in one of those. Or a salt mine. Seen pics and that’s more than close enough. But I have seen a flight deck, empty and in operation. No thanks to any of that. I’ll take my shoveling cow shit as a bad enough job.
schrodinger's cat
@raven: Two handsome guys! Love your horse.
Xboxershorts
@Ruckus:
I’m reminded of my favorite recruiting line….
Join the Navy, see the world (Oh yeah, it’s mostly water!)
Best port call was Karachi, 2nd best, Palma, 3rd best, Port Jefferson, NY (where the XO got busted with a lady friend in secure spaces!)
Elmo
@raven: Oh completely! Tons and tons. No disrespect intended! :)
raven
@Honus: I don’t think the Navy or Air Force drafted during Vietnam. There were so many who wanted to minimize their chances of getting hurt that those services were packed.
And then I hit the google and find a post where a guy said he was drafted into the Navy in 65!
redshirt
That picture of Cole is an apt symbol of the change in focus for the US military that Gulf War 1 signified: Green camo replaced with tan camo.
Tan camo is default these days, I assume.
raven
@Elmo: He resigned when they told him he was too old to go active duty during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Ruckus
@raven:
That was a great movie and he deserved those awards.
At an awards banquet a month or so ago and saw in the buffet line a guy I’ve known for 25-30 years, still has his hook. I’ve never asked how he got it, he had it when I met him. I’ve seen him do things with the hook that are amazing. But it’s still not easy. I can not imagine having 2 of them.
raven
@redshirt: That ain’t cammo it’s OD.
eta, Well, the covers are.
redshirt
@raven: Yeah but green cammo used to be default now it’s tan, which summarizes the shift in focus from the Pacific/Europe to the Middle East.
A Ghost To Most
@Xboxershorts:
Join the Air Force, see Nebraska (my experience). Wouldn’t trade it, though.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mustang Bobby:
I remember visiting my in-laws in Miami years ago. You’d take a shower, grab a towel, and couldn’t get dry — the towel was always full of damp.
OTOH, when I was in Phoenix a few years ago, around this time of year, it was regularly 110-115° every day, but people kept saying “It’s a dry heat,” and I would think “Yeah, so’s cremation.”
debbie
@Honus:
Or, sadly, in a single day in WWI.
raven
@redshirt: Ding. We never got no fucking cammo anyway. LRP’s did but regular doggies just got OD jungle fatigues,
Corner Stone
@Shana:
My understanding is to work egg yolks into the warm riced potatoes and then mix in flour just as needed?
Keith G
@Elie: Thanks for your thoughts. I am a health care volunteer. I give one day a week to a charity hospice for HIV patients.
Years ago, I began doing this to better understand my own impending end. Then new drugs were developed and now as long as I behave, my family’s history of aging into cardio-vascular issues is more of a danger than the virus.
When I first began working with AIDS patients they were predominantly young-ish white males. That is no longer the case. The good new is that like many HIV-specific hospices, we are often not at full capacity. Additionally, we now regularly have residents who are with us as respite care patients, staying with us between being discharged from hospital and being linked to appropriate social services. If they are able to focus on staying healthy, they walk out and we only see them again during an occasional social visit. That is awesome.
NotMax
@Shana
Nice variation (and no extra equipment needed) is to make gnocchi with butternut squash instead of taters.
narya
We’re sitting around not doing much of anything today–went to the Indy500 yesterday and drove home after that (or, rather, I passengered as my friend drove). Watched Monaco this morning, watching the 500 on TV now to catch the things you don’t see in the stands. (We’re in turn 4, in case you want to know.) Some nice tributes at the 500 yesterday for vets. Eventually I’ll make some dinner. And there’s a hockey game on later.
Keith G, it IS awesome, isn’t it? In the early 80s, I lived in a gay neighborhood as HIV/AIDS was starting to hit, and I now work for a CHC where about 30% of the patient population is living with HIV, and it is SO different. We do a lot of prevention stuff, too, and I wish we could do even more.
grandpa john
@Ruckus: Spent 2 years on DD 841 USS NOA back in early 60’s . Made 2 med cruises in 2 years. spent a lot o f time pulling plane guard duty for carrier flight ops. One thing I remember is that who ever was fleet commander would always message to ships captain. ” there will be NO Hobsons under my command. ”
USS Hobson (DD-464) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Miss Bianca
@gogol’s wife: I like that sentiment. I second it.
Miss Bianca
@raven: love the photos!
grandpa john
@raven: @A Ghost To Most: Had a friend that spent 4 years in the navy and never was stationed on ship, he was some kind of Airdale and when the went somewhere they flew
The Sheriff's A Ni-
Memorial Day is when I put on some reflective Knopfler.
tastytone
All respect, and wishes for a beautiful day, ya’ll.
Miss Bianca
@The Sheriff’s A Ni-: This one of Knopfler’s is awesome for the occasion too – you can skip ahead to 3:49 if you want to dispense with all the introductions.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Wanted to pop in and say hi to all of you and especially my fellow vets. My leave has gone well, Mom says that Dad is better this week than he has in a couple of years. It’s been really good.
MomSense
It rained until this afternoon just in time to have a cook out. Bunch of youngs came over and we all just sat outside eating and playing music. Very nice day.
My son was in charge of the grill. Finally had a burger. Delicious. Now I’m giving the kids space to do whatever it is they do when the olds aren’t around.
A Ghost To Most
@grandpa john:
Yea, in four years, the only time I was in a military plane was during a base open house (parked).
MomSense
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
So happy to hear you are having a good visit.
MomSense
@gogol’s wife:
Well said. I am signing on to your statement!
Miss Bianca
BTW, nice work on that original post, John Cole!
J R in WV
Today is in the low 80s here, a little humid. I spent the afternoon working on the farm road, traming gravel from a pile to spread on the road where recent storms had guttered the road. It was passable for regular cars and trucks, but one car we have is low slung, and hasn’t been out of the garage since last fall.
Now the road is passable for most any vehicle… at least until the next set of thunderstorms. We have a geological situation at the mouth of our road where ti connects to the county road up the hollow. Hard bedrock makes it difficult to pass from the farm to the county road with good drainage control. There’s a flat on one side of the driveway road which drains onto our road.
There’s also a culvert between our house and the shop/garage which, when it gets blocked by leaves and woodland floor trash, washes gravel above the culvert away. I’ll clean out the culverts (3-12″ galvanized culverts) tomorrow, I think the spring storms have washed most of the leaves and branches down stream, so that another clog event is unlikely.
I’ve specced out a much larger culvert, a 35″ arch culvert 24″ tall which should pass all the forest debris that causes this, and hope this fall to have that delivered and set in place. The end of that problem, we hope.
Kay Eye
Don’t think of myself as part of a military family, but – father, uncle, great-uncle in WWI; father, two uncles in WWII; cousins in military pre-Vietnam; cousins army nurse and army Doctor Vietnam era. And one grandfather in the Spanish-American War.
My father drove to San Antonio at the beginning of the Korean conflict to sign up – in his mid-50s – You have done your part, they said, go home to your family.
Honus
@Iowa Old Lady: and roofing
Vheidi
@Corner Stone: yes, both. Not expensive, get a ricer for potatoes, food mill for Apple butter
M. Bouffant
@Amir Khalid: At least a thoughtful & reflective one. “Happy” anything is usually as devoid of meaning as “Have a nice day.”
The holiday originated as Decoration Day, when the purpose was to decorate the graves of the Union dead w/ flowers. Now it’s just “Whee, summer’s here. Let’s barbeque!” like Britain’s Spring Bank Holiday, also the last Mon. in May.
M. Bouffant
@Elmo: I really don’t think “Happy Memorial Day” is an appropriate thought for the day. Shouldn’t we be remembering/honoring the dead, if we really think they’re worth the honor, rather than partying?
M. Bouffant
@raven: @Honus: I didn’t say they weren’t.
Honus
@M. Bouffant: ok, but it seemed liked you were relegating Veterans Day to a bunch of REMF which isn’t fair.
ETA like Ron Reagan and john Wayne
M. Bouffant
Let’s put it this way: How’s “Happy Pearl Harbor Day!” or “Happy 9/11 Remembrance” sound?
Or maybe “Happy Anniversary-of-the-Date-Your-Spouse/Child/Parent/Relative/Beloved Pet-Died”?
This is tragedy, not something to celebrate.
Honus
@M. Bouffant: agreed. This isn’t something to celebrate. I don’t want to remember 9/11 either, of for that matter 11/22. They are all very painful. As they should be.
tybee
@Johnnybuck:
the west coast of georgia?
tybee
@SiubhanDuinne:
was 80 here. uncommonly cool spring. i wore a light jacket all day yesterday. temp in the low 70’s, overcast, misting most of the day and very breezy.
normally by this time of year the A/C is on.
The Blog Dahlia
@M. Bouffant:
Hey now, that makes some sense. It shouldn’t be a “happy” day like 4th of July. But calling dead vets “poor losers” and calling veterans “desk jockeys” makes you an asshole.
You’re trolling on Memorial Day. Fuck off and stop being an ass.
M. Bouffant
@The Blog Dahlia: Excuse the hell out of me for being against militarism, imperialism,fascism & all the other -isms that “service” never questions, but only perpetuates.