My son gave me a delayed birthday gift – a special bottle of wine with a motorcycle on it.
I renewed my driver’s license for my birthday. I think it was an improvement on my last photo.
Friday I left my cell phone on my desk at work. I really felt naked without it. I guess I’m getting prepared to go cold turkey without it while on vacation. After work I went to the opening ceremony for the Illinois Gathering of the Guard at the state fairgrounds. I stayed until about 8:30 and I was getting tired. Saturday morning I went to the bank to see if my Euros were there. They were not in the safe so I went back for the PGR meetings. Col Tony Libri was among the guest speakers. After his speech, Tony Libri received the Legion of Merit, in part, for his National Guard work helping to bolster the Afghan National Police in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Since Saturday afternoon with the Gathering was mostly local rides to the memorials that were nothing new to me, I focused more on my out-0f-town friends, the Red Knights. I had dinner with them at their fundraiser at the Route 66 hotel. They had auctioned off 3 special helmets.
I dropped my 30 plus flags off about 7AM at the Sangamon Co Reception Center but Less and Pat had to put them up because I needed to run off and get on my motorcycle to meet my fellow Red Knights at 8:15 to head off to Halls Harley Davidson for the Ride to Remember to the IL State Capitol's memorial. It's the only memorial on the grounds and not funded by the state. The weather was perfect. In the past I recall heat stroke like weather and 2 years ago there was a monsoon like weather that called it off. Hopefully you can hear the podcast for this event at:
http://stationcaster.com/stations/wmay/media/mpeg/A_Ride_to_Remember_9_11_09_11_111315832548.mp3
I find it odd that our local tabloid radio station that had commentaries about 911 going overboard and used politically would share such a wonderful ceremony. Perhaps it was to ire their listeners.
After the Ride To Remember, the club was going to eat but at a restaurant I was unfamiliar with so I missed it. All was well because my sons had made Papa John’s Pizza. I was hungry. So I switched my vest from the Red Knights MC to the American Legion Riders vest. I needed to be there by 1 PM for the 2PM ceremony so we could practice. We practiced the posting of colors and the 21 gun salute. The honor guard was made up of members of the American Legion, VFW, Chatham police and Chatham firefighters. The posting of colors went well. I had hoped to be in the middle of the firing line up so I could watch others out of the corner of my eye. They said we were to line up by height. While waiting for the 21 gun salute, our police officer was called to duty regarding a potential suicide call. Another veteran was quickly put in his place. Let’s put it this way, our post has been losing a lot of members (well it was also a guard weekend) and they have to be pretty desperate to put me in there. It was not a bad one to cut my teeth on because the audience was indoors and would not notice if we fired together. Now it'll be a diff story Veterans/Memorial Day on the Square. After the ceremony, we set loose about 400 red white and blue balloons. I did this side by side with Bret and Jerry, our local gold star parents. He wrote a name on the balloon he released so I grabbed a pen and wrote my husband’s name on my balloon. Before we released our balloons, we all said “Let there be peace on Earth and Let it begin with me”. After the ceremony, I rode the motorcycle home to trade for my SUV to pick up the flags. I convinced my 2 sons to take a break from football and to come and give me a hand with the flags. Bret and Jerry insisted on helping me roll up the flags and pick up the stakes. That was more than kind but they wanted to do that. Les, who, was picking up the Springfield rifles had the sacks that I use to store my flags in. He brought them from across the parking lot. When he approached me, he saluted. I felt so humbled but instinctively I returned the salute. Les has done so much for our veterans as have I so he recognized the mutual respect.
I shall leave the flags in the car for the following 2 days since I will be taking them to the Honor Flight Homecoming on Tuesday night.
I told the news camera man not to video me because it was my first time firing for the 21 gun salute (at 1:05 on the timer). I hoped he just focused on our bugler.
http://www.wics.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wics_vid_4549.shtml
I feel that the media misses our local WW2 female veteran, Jean Goretski, and now focusing on me. I wish Les go the attention. Maybe if we got him to lose some of that belly.
That evening, I was sewing up the edge on the flag that flew on my bike while watching news about 911 tributes in NYC. How meaningful these two went together.
So my brother calls me Monday night to ask me for help (long distance) on how to change his password in Yahoo because his account sent out a spam message. This isn’t easy when I can’t be there over his shoulder. Well I get him to a certain point in the process where he's asking me "who his favorite author is". My help has ended. I told him to click on the live help (which is off at the time) later.
I saw such a full moon at the end of my cul-de-sac while walking the dogs.
Attached is newspaper article about a special adoption dated May 20, 1976. Michael happens to be my cubical mate.
