{"id":1812,"date":"2012-05-26T04:00:23","date_gmt":"2012-05-26T08:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=1812"},"modified":"2019-04-10T07:24:55","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T11:24:55","slug":"service-memorial-day-and-no-rolling-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=1812","title":{"rendered":"Service, Memorial Day, and No Rolling Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy Saturday! Unofficial beginning of summer here in the good ol’ U.S.-of-A! Memorial Day weekend, and all that. And summer it is, with temperatures forecast to hit 90\u00b0F (32\u00b0C) or higher today and tomorrow!<\/p>\n

Lots going on here in Greater Suburbia of Worshinun*.
\n
\nI began this holiday weekend by taking off work on Thursday and yesterday, to carry out a major remodeling of a house for a disabled Korean War veteran. Pete is a cool guy, with lots of good stories and a great sense of humor. He and his wife live in a small house near me. He had a bad fall earlier this year and has learned that he has recovered about as much as he will be able to, so he needed some changes to his home to make it more liveable. He and his wife can’t afford to sell it and move somewhere else. Plus, it’s the only home they’ve known since they have been married. Raised their children there; they are very attached to the area.<\/p>\n

For the last month, I had been working with a general contractor (who I have been friends with since high school) and we got plans drawn, permits issued, and twisted the arms of donors so the building materials required to remodel Pete’s house were donated. I raised funds through donations to cover the hard-dollar costs — which was mostly for permits. Damn, they’re expensive!<\/p>\n

Over the past two full days, professional friends (carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and other contractors) and I gutted the first floor of Pete’s house (I just love to swing a sledgehammer!), and built a new first-floor bedroom, bath, and accessible kitchen, as well as wider hallways and doors and a stair-free entrance. (I’m pretty good with a nail gun, too!) We worked 12 hours on Thursday and 10 on Friday, though my aching body thinks I’ve been doing this work for a month or longer. Pete and his wife moved right back in, but the big “presentation\/welcome home” event actually will occur next Thursday when elected officials in our county are available to thank the donors and volunteers at a ceremony I arranged.<\/p>\n

What a fitting Memorial Day project, which coincides with Pete and his bride’s 50th wedding anniversary. <\/p>\n

This is what I mean by “service.” It’s one thing to go fly a flag and shake the hand of a vet. It’s something else to do something<\/i> and see results of your actions. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I took a couple hours yesterday morning early (like 4:30am!) to walk a couple miles to a large Catholic cemetery where my father and eight of his brothers are buried. I placed a small U.S. flag at each grave site, and thanked my Dad and his brothers for their service during World War II. We should pause to remember what Memorial Day is all about — not about the hot dogs, apple pie, and opening of the swimming pool, but about remembering those who were or are in the military and served our country. Okay, okay, I won’t go all patriotic, but know that I have not forgotten what this holiday is all about.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tomorrow, the “Ride to the Wall” or “Rolling Thunder” is scheduled. It’s the largest motorcycle ride for a cause anywhere in the country, so I’m told. (More info here.) Gazillions of bikers, bikettes, and biker-wannabes gather at the Pentagon parking lot and…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>… get fried for hours under hot, unrelenting sun. They wait, and wait, and wait some more — as long as 7 hours — for the ride to slowly get going and end up in DC. I rode on this ride for several years in the mid 90s when it was smaller and less difficult to deal with. But with the number of participants they are expecting, the hassles and discomfort aren’t worth it. It’s a good cause, and all that, but with tens of thousands of people participating, they won’t miss me. <\/p>\n

Many of my biker buddies will be riding in this event, or helping to stage it, yet other of my buddies have said, “no way, too much hassle, let’s go get crabs!” Well, to each his own. Choose to participate or do something else, or in my case, give service. <\/p>\n

Whatever you do — ride to remember POWs, MIAs, and honor those who have served, or provide service in another way as I am, just remember:<\/p>\n

Life is short: your actions far more describe who you are than your words.<\/p>\n

*Worshinun: that’s \u02c8w\u0254r – \u02c8\u0283\u026an – \u02c8n\u0259n … what the locals call the city of the capital of the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Saturday! Unofficial beginning of summer here in the good ol’ U.S.-of-A! Memorial Day weekend, and all that. And summer it is, with temperatures forecast to hit 90\u00b0F (32\u00b0C) or higher today and tomorrow! Lots going on here in Greater … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motorcycle-ride"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}