Day 22, Year 9: Veterans Day
Date: Monday, November 11, 2013
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Windy with High Around 50 degrees F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
Sam came home from school on Friday and reminded us that Veterans Day is not really just a holiday for shopping. His first grade class had been discussing the real reason we observe this holiday and they were asked to find out if there were any Veterans in their family. What Sam found out was that his Granddad (Mark) was in the National Guard in the late 1950’s and spent 6 months in active duty just after high school in 1960. But that did not make him a Veteran. But Mark’s brother Steve, Sam’s great uncle, served in the US Army in Vietnam in the early 1960’s. So I printed a photo of Steve in his fatigues in Vietnam and of Mark in uniform. This satisfied Sam’s desire to properly observe Veterans Day. And it did make all of us think about those who serve their country to protect us. We are very, very grateful for that.
Jed had all three boys this morning since Monday is his day home. Heather had to go to work, so Mark and I went over and took Sam and Jonah to storage with us. That gave Jed time to be with Ollie and us time to go through clothes in storage to find winter clothing. Sam and Jonah ran the long halls of the storage building running off excess energy while kicking soccer balls around. After a bit, I took down a box with Justin’s old Star Wars figures and a Jedi Village so they could play with that. They had a good time and we were successful in finding the winter clothes we are going to need. When we got back to Heather and Jed’s, we had promised Sam and Jonah we would play baseball and soccer with them in the backyard. Molly and Joey, the kids next door, came over to join us. The ‘king’ of singing The Star-bangled Banner, Jonah, led us all in stirring rendition of the song to start the game. Jonah belted out the words while Sam, Molly, and Joey sang along. When it was just about time to yell out ‘Play Ball’, an older gentleman visiting a next door neighbor came walking into the backyard to listen and then thanked the little ones for singing this song for a Veteran. I’m not usually all that patriotic, but this was a special moment.
After our baseball game with the kids, we headed back to Windbird. We did a few boat chores to get the boat ready for the cold weather coming in this week, went for a late afternoon walk, and then enjoyed dinner theater. This is a nice way of saying we watched a video while eating dinner. Life is good.
