After a wonderful hamburger dinner with our daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons we were on the way home. We had some nice South Central Texas afternoon thundershowers; their remnants left this beautiful sunset. This was taken with my cell phone from the southwest end of our street. A good thing to see at the close of Memorial Day. My thanks and prayers go up to those who died that gave me the freedoms to make it possible for me to see such a sight, record it and share it.
BillB
Today, May 29th, 2023 is Memorial Day. Remember all of those who gave the “ultimate” sacrifice to preserve Freedom. It is unfortunate this year that the sacrifice they made is being erased by power hungry psychopaths and sociopaths who want to take away the God given Freedoms we have enjoyed.
Pray for those that made that sacrifice. It is my belief that God is outside of time as we experience it and any prayer said now, He will apply it to when they died.
Memorial Day was first celebrated as Decoration Day beginning in the 1860s immediately after the American Civil War. The graves of those who died in that horrendous conflict were “decorated” with flowers or other decorations. The very first such action is attributed to freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina. They exhumed the bodies of 257 Union Soldiers from a mass grave at the Confederate Prisoner of War Camp at Washington Race Course, gave the remains proper burials on May 1st, 1865 and decorated the graves with flowers. The holiday became more formal on May 5th, 1868 when General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic (an organization of Civil War veterans), made a proclamation to celebrate Decoration Day on May 3oth of each year. The transition from Decoration Day to Memorial Day began in 1882. It was not until 1967 that it officially became Memorial Day by the passing of a Federal law. The celebration moved to the last Monday in May upon the passing of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in June 1968.
Some more images for you to give thought to on Memorial Day:
Not all heroes are human.
And sometimes that loyal companion that is left behind morns the loss.
This song is from the 2000s, written by Dustin Evans during the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, it is still applicable and dedicated to those on active duty who are watching over us.
Please on Memorial Day take time to remember and pray for those military people who died in the line of duty whether it was in a conflict or training, for their sacrifice was just as great in either situation.
BillB
Back again to posting. I started to create a post back on the 29th of April but was overcome by preparations for a short vacation we were going on. So I decided to post on that excursion and the current happenings. I guess I am paranoid and don’t drop vacation plans here on the Internet before the fact.
Mrs. BillB and I needed a little time away from the home station and all the goings-on here like laundry, house cleaning, yard work, etc. etc.. We decided a little beach time on North Padre Island in Corpus Christi would be in order. This was a couple of months ago that we made that decision but booking a place to stay had to be done that early. We wanted to miss Spring Break for certain, and we scheduled for the 1st through the 4th of May. We stayed in some condos that we had stayed in before that were about 1/4 mile from the Whitecap Beach. Now we are back.
It was an enjoyable time. I got to fish. Mrs BillB got herself some time on the beach. And we got to eat some good food. We found a neat restaurant just a mile or so from where we stayed the previous time we were there. It is named “The Angry Marlin” with accompanying decor such as full size marlin sculptures and a sailfish sculpture that looks a taxidermy mount. On the second day, ae had lunch there noshing on their mahi-mahi fish tacos.
Those were huge. I had my two and had to finish 1/2 of one of Mrs. BillB’s tacos. They are a little exotic with dried banana breading and chipotli aoli.
And beach time was great with seeing the shore birds and enjoying the sunshine. There were numerous “squadrons” of brown pelicans flying up and down the beach with an occasional loner diving into the water a 100 yards off shore to catch something. I have seen 10, 20 or more pelicans in this “in-trail” formation at other times.
And then there were the Laughing Gulls. There call is really that close to some human laughs.
And I got to surf fish! Five years ago, I went surf fishing at Sea Isle Beach on Galveston Island and the only thing I caught was an infection in my big toe. This time was more productive but all I caught was some Hardhead Catfish. And the last slimy little booger finned me as I released it. They have a toxin in their mucus coating that probably won’t kill you but it hurts and makes it swell up. My best catch was two at once.
After we got back it was catch-up time at The Last Frontier.: laundry, house cleaning, lawn mowing, cleaning up in the shop and the ham shack. The night I got home, after we picked up the doggies at the kennel where they vacationed, I ran off to the Hill Country Amateur Radio Club May meeting. I am secretary for the club and needed to get into that mode. But the best thing was all of the rain that came. As of 16 May we had around 4″ of rain in the last 10 days. I hope that moves us out of the Exceptional Drought condition we have been in for months now. The Last Frontier is located about where that little dot the arrow is pointing at is.
Best wishes to all!
BillB