Monday: Mystery, Murder, and Manuscripts
...and Memorial Day
Okay, it's Monday and Mondays are reserved for...well, you know. But it's a holiday. A rather important holiday. So I'm making an exception and sharing the following.
I went to church Sunday morning, as I usually do. At the end of the service, our Pastor directed the congregation outside where he led us in a short Memorial Day ceremony. It wasn't a big production. A small color guard of Scouts lowered the flag to half-staff accompanied by the playing of Taps, and we all sang America the Beautiful.
But reflect a moment.
The freedom to worship in the church of our choosing.
The freedom to stand in the sunshine and honor our flag.
The freedom to sing songs of praise for our country and afterward to leave there and go wherever we wanted.
Freedom isn't free.
Someone picked up the tab.
For us.
We need to remember.
We need to say thank you.
"A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America' for an amount of 'up to and including my life'."
Thank you.
Groaner of the Day: A sailor was caught AWOL as he tried to sneak on board his ship at about 3:00 am. The chief petty officer spied him and ordered the sailor to stop.
Upon hearing the sailor's lame explanation for his tardiness, the officer ordered the sailor, "Take this broom and sweep every link on this anchor chain by morning or it's the brig for you!"
The sailor began to pick up the broom and commence performing his charge. As he began to sweep, a tern landed on the broom handle. The sailor yelled at the bird to leave, but it didn't. The lad picked the tern off the broom handle, and tossed it out of his way. The bird left, only to return and light once again on the broom handle, and was once again tossed overboard.
The sailor went through the same routine all over again, with the same result. He couldn't get any cleaning done because he can only sweep at the chain once or twice before the blasted bird returns.
When morning came, so did the chief petty officer, to check up on his wayward sailor.
"What in the heck have you been doing all night? This chain is no cleaner than when you started! What have you to say for yourself, sailor?" barked the chief.
"Honest, chief," came the reply, "I tossed a tern all night and couldn't sweep a link!"
