Of Veterans Day
Firstly, my deepest thanks to those who said something to me in my earlier post about the mid-air collision. As you can understand it's had a pretty big affect on the Coast Guard as a whole. Did you know that there are more New York City police officers than there are Coasties? So yes, even one death affects us greatly.
Still, today is a day of celebration, introspection, activism, or nothing special, depending on who you are. I got to march in the Veterans Day parade here in Petaluma, CA, alongside my students and the Commanding Officer of the TRACEN. We actually headed the parade, and lead a group of 140 other agencies/entities in the parade around a route that lasted about a mile. We were dressed up in our Service Dress Blues, and man, did we look good. Not to mention it felt really good marching down the streets choked with people cheering and clapping and saying all sorts of uplifting things.
Afterward I picked up selasphorus and we went out to Applebees, where they gave me a free meal. Not surprisingly I met up with a bunch of my students, some of whom discussed the positive qualities of sweet tea along with the wife. (It was silly, but you had to have been there.)
Other aspects of the day involved taking advantage of some sales at Kohl's, and picking up the Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection (the first 3 MGS games for $20) for the recently Metal Gear Solid obsessed wife.
There's a chance that I will be heading over to a co-workers house tonight to drink some beer and do some character creation for a tabletop RPG of his - there's also the chance that I'll relax with some rum and contemplate episodes of The Twilight Zone. Either way sounds fun to me. :)
Still, today is a day of celebration, introspection, activism, or nothing special, depending on who you are. I got to march in the Veterans Day parade here in Petaluma, CA, alongside my students and the Commanding Officer of the TRACEN. We actually headed the parade, and lead a group of 140 other agencies/entities in the parade around a route that lasted about a mile. We were dressed up in our Service Dress Blues, and man, did we look good. Not to mention it felt really good marching down the streets choked with people cheering and clapping and saying all sorts of uplifting things.
Afterward I picked up selasphorus and we went out to Applebees, where they gave me a free meal. Not surprisingly I met up with a bunch of my students, some of whom discussed the positive qualities of sweet tea along with the wife. (It was silly, but you had to have been there.)
Other aspects of the day involved taking advantage of some sales at Kohl's, and picking up the Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection (the first 3 MGS games for $20) for the recently Metal Gear Solid obsessed wife.
There's a chance that I will be heading over to a co-workers house tonight to drink some beer and do some character creation for a tabletop RPG of his - there's also the chance that I'll relax with some rum and contemplate episodes of The Twilight Zone. Either way sounds fun to me. :)