Memorial Day

Pigeons Cooing -- in Southlake

We spent Memorial Day in moving stages ... We drove past the exit for the National Cemetary for DFW soldiers. I wonder whether some of my students lie there. The WOLF pulled out many OSE country songs dealing with the sacrifices sometimes required to preserve our freedom ... and my students are so la-di-da about it. I'm not sure that we were quite so blase. After all the late 60s and early 7os marked the beginnings of the Viet Name protests.

Of course, they played "Have You Forgotten?" by Alan Jackson; it reminds people of why the US went after Osama bin Ladin ... Another song took the POV of a fallen soldier -- you don't realize that he's observing his own grave until he describes how he saw his grandfather's grave when he was 8 years old ... and now his grandfather greeted him when he enters the cemetary. We shall see how July 4 goes -- Neither family decided to decorate the graves (and Dad's a WWII vet) or to get together today ... Jon's family took Mom and us out to lunch since Adrianne's uncle & aunt came up to celebrate her graduation next week. (4 down and 1 to go!)

The apt is a tad smaller than the house ... but there's not so much stuff around, so we have more room to walk -- when the two black labs don't decide to get underfoot. Bird cages stand along each wall of the bedroom and living room ... and Cheri's 5 cats live in the other bedroom. I shall be traveling light in the pet dpt: a friend will shelter Lola and Skittles -- and maybe the kitten Zasu. The 3 "biguns" have to go to one of the shelters in the area ... There's enough open country around the house that coyotes could sneak up and snatch one of them off the porch or out of the back yard. Joy heard an owl last night ... she swears it was checking out the new white birds on the dining table.

This week begins the final week of the 2010-11 school year. I have so much to pack and move -- and we have luncheons two out of four days! To make matters worse, these are the kind of mandatory meals that you don't want to miss if you want to keep the powers-that-be happy. At least teaching doesn't require this kind of social activity very often ... Business people (and college professors) seem blessed with these events much more than teachers. Are we having fun yet?