2022 Life Logs, Day 315: Honoring Veterans
Date: Friday, November 11, 2022
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Warm; High 68, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The morning was spent honoring our Veterans,
the early afternoon was spent helping Ollie do yard work at the Goldstones, and later in the afternoon, I took Sam to Hyannis to meet up with his friend Robert and took my little Fit to Lou’s Custom Exhaust garage to get an estimate on repairing a rusty flange in my exhaust system.
Each year I attend Falmouth’s parade and ceremony on Veterans Day. I started going because the Goldpebbles march in the parade with their Scout troops. I still go for that reason, but I also appreciate setting aside the time each year to give thanks to those who serve our country.
I think the first time I attended Falmouth’s Veterans Day ceremony was in 2016. And my oh my, how the Goldpebbles have changed. Today, Ollie was in the Webelo Color Guard.
In 2016, he was too young to participate, and I have a photo of him sitting on the library lawn proudly holding up a late season dandelion he discovered.
Today, Jonah was also in the Color Guard for his Boy Scout troop.
In 2016, he was a Cub Scout and marched alongside mom, who was also a troop leader.
Today, Sam was the tallest Boy Scout in the parade.
How did that happen?
It was warm today, but there was no sunshine. Tonight, we are supposed to get rain and wind from Tropical Storm Nicole. The clouds are holding the warmth. It is after 10 pm and it is still 66 degrees outside. It was even warmer earlier today. After the ceremony, I stopped by Heather and Jed’s to pick up big bags of leaves to bring home for my soil building project. I wanted to get them before the wind and rain predicted for tonight. Ollie had three big bags ready for me, but there were empty bags and lots of leaves, so I stayed while he filled more bags. I decided to help by mowing the leaves and Ollie emptied the lawn mower bag into the big paper bags.
He also rode his little tractor while holding the leaf blower in order to blow the leaves where he wanted them.
He is quite creative and a hard worker. We ended up with ten bags of leaves by the time I had to leave to take Sam to Hyannis. But Jed reported tonight that Ollie kept working and has more bags that he put in the garage for me to pick up tomorrow.
I picked Sam up from the fire station at 3:30 to take him Hyannis. He and Jonah were at the fire station attending the first in a series of first aid classes. I think he said there are seven more classes in order to get the First Aid badge. I delivered Sam to Barnes and Nobles to meet up with Robert and then headed to Lou’s Custom Exhaust. They can do the job, but I have to return to Hyannis early on Tuesday morning to have the work done. The good news was that the estimate I got this afternoon was $150 instead of the $2,000 it would cost to replace the whole system. Whew!
