ehowton ◾ Honoring Those Who Served. (Reply)

Thursday evening in the city forum a thread came across announcing ehowton and drax0r Appreciation Tribal - Fri Night - Victory Party. My wife was initially reluctant to attend due to the short notice, but once she discovered it was the Tribal Council throwing this shin-dig, she became enthusiastic. We were the first ones there. The founders of the Tribal Council appeared to me like royalty that night. They had set aside their two best chairs for Tony and I, with a ribbon-topped ice chest between us. One half was filled with

drax0r's favorite beer, Texas' very own Shiner Bock and the other half was filled with my drink of choice, Kronenbourg 1664. Once everyone arrived, there was a 20-glass toast to us with champagne. What an honor! As always, they went above and beyond and it was sure a nice time, and a nice turnout. Thank you all!

Saturday afternoon was Cub Scouts. We arrived shortly after 1500 and my boy ran off to play with his friends while the wife and I set up our tent. There were no tent stakes in the tent bag. Nonetheless, we set up and loaded up the tent. My wife left us there (which turned out to be approximately one linear mile from our house) and the games began. There was tug-of-war, and capture the flag, the lighting of the fire, magic tricks, songs, hot dog dinner, stories of the Great Indian Chief Wannahockalugie, and yes, I was bored the entire time. I think my son was too. He kept wanting to retire to the tent so I could read his book too him and we could go to sleep. All the other kids (about 80 I guess, though en mass it sounded like a thousand) seemed to be having a good time. I set my chair apart from everyone, hidden in the shadow of a tree, put my iPod on, and lit a cigar (I didn't see any other parent there smoking). Suddenly, it was bliss. I was comfortable, enjoying myself, watching the world in front of me unfold without being a participant. There was a flag decommissioning ceremony about halfway through the evening. They asked all veterans to step forward to participate. I enjoyed that and Honest John who was there in a supervisory role. Without him, it would've been bust. I doubt my son will join again next year, but we have a full year ahead of us to find out.

Sunday I worked. 28GB memory upgrade on a Sun V490. That too, wasn't without its issues, but I was in and out within 5-hours. Due to waking up in a tent that morning, and breaking camp having just downed a Java Monster, I was exhausted by the time I got home from work. It was 1500. It felt like 1900. It really wasn't much like a weekend at all.

This morning was my son's 'Bring a Vet to School' day for Veteran's Day. I didn't know what to expect. The parking lot was ringed with flags, there were chaperone's at every entrance, guiding us to our places. Having arrived at exactly the appointed time, I found 50 other veterans there. Some old men and women, some young kids in uniform currently serving. A couple of other (what I assumed were) retired men in full Class A's. The Cub Scouts posted the colors, we said the Pledge of Allegiance, some lady sang the National Anthem, the 5th Graders did an above average job singing the Armed Forces Medley (did that bring back some memories, I hadn't heard the Air Force fight song in some time) and yes, I got all choked up. I never thought I'd be one of those old men who got all weepy-eyed when the flag passed by in the parade, but there I was. Embarrassing, really. I guess at the same time I was angry that all these young school children were extolling something in which so many people had died. Its a double-edged sword.

At any rate, they'd obviously dedicated a lot of time and energy to this and I couldn't believe how well they pulled it off.

I got to work and there was a very large banner draped on the outside of the fence announcing, "WE HONOR OUR VETERANS." I found out exactly how later that morning.

We each got a piece of cake.