The land of the free

Once again I must apologize to my loyal readers. It has been a long time since my last post. I haven't been feeling real creative lately, so my comments tonight are pretty much limited to a catch up of everything that has been going on...

Both my aunt and uncle are having heart challenges. Aunt Ann is recovering, Uncle Arney is about to have a bypass.

My Dad has now purchased a new Chevy Impala equipped with On-Star and is very proudly driving around talking on his new hands free On-Star cell phone. Mom continues to cook.

My nephew Steve just bought his first house. By now, he should have his belongings in place. In just a few weeks he will make his first mortgage payment ( on a loan I set up for him ). Welcome Steve to the world of having a mortgage, which I believe is a word that actually means "death grip".

My kids all went to Macinac Island for the weekend. I hope they at least bring me back a cheap T-Shirt!

I attended a WMD/Haz-mat/know your terrorist training class at the Columbus Police Academy. The class was pretty good, but the best part was the tour of their state-of-the-art facility.

Robin planted our garden yesterday; tomatos, 4 types of peppers, zucchini, beans, and various herbs ( the legal kind ). I found a potato in the basement when I was looking for beach towels. It had quite a long root on it, so we planted that just for yucks.

My friend Todd just got a really great promotion. When I spoke to him about it, he paid me a wonderful compliment. Todd had worked for me at one point, and he told me that I was by far his best boss ever. That really meant alot to me.

Stefanie graduates from college on June 11. Then she will start grad school. She will not be coming home as we had thought. But she will be closer to home this summer than she has been for the last 3 summers. She did bring her truck home with about $3,000 worth of damage. It seems a brick sorority house broadsided her.

I opened our pool this weekend. The filter pump was dead so I had to buy a new one. It also seems that a family of mice took up residence in our "molly brown" floating raft. Neither us or the mice will be using it any longer.

New cars, damaged cars, college, surgery, new jobs, gardens, vacations, mortgages, and etc. All possible because somewhere in a distant part of the world, men and women sacrificed their lives so that we could enjoy the freedoms that we have. Lower your flag to half staff tomorrow until noon. Then raise it high. Take time to say a prayer for those brave souls that gave the last measure of courage. You might even sing The Star Spangled Banner.