Birthday Girl!!!!!!

A Whole Year Old!!!

Alright, you knew I wasn’t going to let this day go by without some major crowing about a certain young lady who is entirely too far away in distant California. The First Blog Reader is celebrating her first birthday today! More correctly the rest of us, who’ve gotten to know her over this sublime first year of her existence will be celebrating. She seems to celebrate every day. I wonder at what age we lose that?

Ready to Walk

I’d heard people exulting in how much fun being a grandparent was but I truly didn’t understand it until that day, improbably now a full year ago, when I first met her. I’ve written before that as a first time parent I was too scared, tired, and young to truly understand the wonder and joy associated. Her arrival last year marked a chance to fully understand and revel in the experience despite the vicarious nature. A lot less diaper changing and late night feeding also helped to mollify the impact.

Get Em Next Time

Applauding

When I made my nightly FaceTime call last night she was pushing a recently arrived Amazon box around the apartment. It contained a birthday present from her grandmother and I. Her mother remarked that she’s starting to gain a reputation as a real entertainer, the class clown type. She’s very social and lives to entertain, making her array of funny faces because she knows someone (usually me) is going to laugh.

Helping Dad with Presents

Today is also, of course, Veterans Day, and I pause in my usual over indulgence in my granddaughter to thank all my fellow veterans for their service to this great country. I came in to work at 430am this morning to greet my early arriving employees and give certificates of appreciation to each of the many veterans we employ. It was one of those times where I didn’t mind getting up early at all, though Buddy was mightily confused but nevertheless his usual morning apoplectic self.

I post this every Veterans Day because it says what being a veteran is much more eloquently than I ever could:

What is a Vet?

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service:  a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.  Others may carry the evidence inside them:  a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg – or perhaps another sort of inner steel:  the soul’s ally forged in the refinery of adversity.  Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.  You can’t tell a vet just by looking.  What is a vet?  He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.  He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.  She, or he, is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.  He is the POW who went away one person and came back another – or didn’t come back at all.  He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs.  He is the parade riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.  He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.  He is the three anonymous heroes in the Tomb of the Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.  He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket, palsied now and agonizingly slow, who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and wishes all day long that his wife was still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.  He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being, a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.  He is a Soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.  So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You.  That’s all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.  Two little words that mean a lot, “THANK YOU”.  Remember November 11th is Veterans Day.  “It is the Soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.  It is the Soldier, not the poet who has given us freedom of speech.  It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.  It is the Soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.” – Father Denis O'Brien, USMC

One of the casualties of my new job has been a serious eroding of my reading time. I could usually count on the lunch hour to devour prose and that time is no longer available. I did manage to finally finish off my latest Jack Noble novel, Noble Judgment, by LT Ryan. Jack is drawn back into the black ops world when his former organization is marked for elimination along with all former employees. Jack and his family are soon thrust into a harrowing series of fights spanning three continents and a lot of ammunition. I’ve genuinely enjoyed these books. I was anxious to finish because I knew I had both a Jack Reacher and the latest Michael Connelly offering waiting for me on the Kindle. Reacher won, but you already knew that.

This will probably be the last blog post until Monday as I have some very specific plans for the weekend. It starts with my annual birthday pub crawl back in my hometown of Keene, NH. My Favorite Son as well as a number of the local notables will join me to mark another year (and what a year) expended. I always publish the sequence to insure I don’t wimp out (or get too enthralled with a certain bar). If anyone is in Keene tomorrow and would like to join us, we launch at 1pm and will follow this sequence, join us I you care to quaff a few:  Penuche's Ale House, 91 Marlboro St; Cobblestone Ale House, 151 Main St; Lab'n Lager, 122 Main St; Kilkenny Pub, Cypress St/Eagle Ct; Margaritas Mexican Restaurant, 81 Main St; The Pour House, 44 Central Square; Scores Sports Bar & Grille, Corner of Main And Railroad Sts. See you on Monday!