Veteran's Day here in the US, for starters. As I mentioned last year (click on the link for some of my favorite words and images), between Himself and me, we have a goodly number of veterans and active duty service members among our family and close friends. I also have the privilege of personally knowing a WWII veteran who helped to liberate several concentration camps and then attended the Nuremberg Trials....a wonderful man. He speaks to the eighth graders at our school on Veteran's Day every year.
Petunia is just starting to get the idea of what it means to be in the military. Himself's best friend is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Marines, and our children know him and his family well. Petunia came home from school today and made several drawings for him that I will mail tomorrow. This was one of them:
She actually did a remarkable job with the camo for a 6 year-old. Not sure how much fighting with old-style cannons he does (he's a helicopter pilot), but the thought counts for a lot. And in case you might be wondering why the cannonball in the cannon has a face on it--I felt compelled to ask--our young artist doesn't yet know the difference between a cannonball and a bowling ball!
This date also marks the start of our eleventh year in this house--we moved in exactly ten years ago today. Himself and I closed on the house on the eighth, and then he promptly left on a business trip to England...my sainted in-laws helped me pack up the apartment and then supervise the movers at the new house over the next few days. Considering that Thing One was an infant at the time, there's no way I could ever have managed it without them, so I always give thanks for them on Veteran's Day as well. Both had the long weekend off that year since they were civilians who worked for the Army at the time, as it happens.
Finally, today begins our third year with our beloved rescue dog, who came to us on 11/11/11. In honor of the occasion, I stopped up the corner at the feed store (really...) on my way home today and bought her the biggest peanut butter-filled bone I could find.
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| This is her trademark "OK, just take the picture already and quit hovering..." face. |
On a completely different subject, today's NaBloPoMo prompt was another one that didn't really speak to me: "If you had to be trapped inside a movie for 5 days, which movie would you pick?" I can hear my husband and mother (and probably some friends) laughing when they see that, since I really don't like movies in general and they know it. I don't understand why anyone would want to watch violence or cruelty on purpose, and awkward situations (the hallmark of EVERY rom-com etc) make me want to run out of the room...perhaps an overdeveloped sense of empathy?? At any rate, I initially dismissed the question out of hand, but in considering it later, I decided that my answer would probably be The Quiet Man, purely for the location and scenery!
Spent most of the day today at home waiting for the plumber to arrive. We've been having problems with the water pressure and something was clearly very wrong with some element of the well apparatus (oh, the joys of living in the boonies!) I was not at all happy by the time he finally arrived, and even less happy about the amount of money necessary to set the problem to rights, but it is in fact set to rights, at least.
Oh well. Small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, especially on Veteran's Day. But nevertheless, a favorite poem popped into my head sometime this afternoon, and apropos of nothing other than the fact that it made me laugh, I share it here.
Frustration
If I had a shiny gun,
I could have a world of fun
Speeding bullets through the brains
Of the folk who give me pains;
Or had I some poison gas,
I could make the moments pass
Bumping off a number of
People whom I do not love.
But I have no lethal weapon-
Thus does Fate our pleasure step on!
So they still are quick and well
Who should be, by rights, in hell.
--Dorothy Parker
On to the 12th...
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