Friction and Harmony

I guess since Mrs. Who posted about Buck’s mission with the Young Marines at Barrancas National Cemetery, I should also mention that I participated as well.  We are, after all, a patriotic and thankful family!

I rode with the Gulf Coast Patriot Guard – a fine bunch of folks with a lot of great stories.  While I didn’t carry a camera myself, it looks like the local FOX news affiliate was kind enough to do the job for me.  (In fact, you can see me riding at 22-24 seconds in the clip.  I’m the one with the largest head — go figure.)

The Mobile, Alabama ceremony was smaller than the one Mrs. Who and Buck covered in Pensacola, but it definitely had a very personal feel.  All the Patriot Guard Riders (with the exception of yours truly) were retired, former or active military.  At the cemetery, we were joined by three members of the Vietnam Vets MC.  Soon, a Korean War Veterans Color Guard (the gentlemen in the light blue jackets in the video) joined us, and it was amazing to witness these generations of warriors past and present as they shared an intrinsic bond.  To my humble amazement, I was enveloped in their circle as they traded stories and of course, some good-humored rivalrous jabs, steeped in a warmth that was undeniably the Brotherhood of Service to a truly Great Nation.

We have a new mission before us – one that I won’t get to participate in firsthand, but will endeavor to support in whatever way I can.  My adoptive father was a WWII vet, and I would have given just about anything to have been able to send or even to escort him on an Honor Flight.  Our PGR unit has been asked to escort Mobile’s first Honor Flight in May, 2009.  (We’ve also been tasked with helping raise money to cover the costs of transporting elderly vets and their escorts to the WWII Memorial in Washington DC.  If you feel inclined to donate to such an honorable and worthy cause, please do so at gulfcoastpatriotguard – dot – org. or with your local Patriot Guard Riders.)

So there I was, browsing the interwebz for a Christmas gift for Mrs. Who, when I came across this image:

A tattoo!  It’s the perfect gift!

But given our ages, and the fact that it would be a Christmas gift, I’m thinking, put a little Santa hat on the stick figure, and swap the lawnmower for…  Yup, a snowblower! 

My aunt sent me this video with the comment, “You have to see this, it’s AMAZING!!  You may even want to watch it twice (or more!).”

Uhnhuh.  I think I’m going to have nightmares.  Made me think of another show that I saw as a kid that totally creeped me out.  Don’t know what about mimes made the association – maybe it was the “parasite” factor:

Mimes. Tony Curtis. Great. Now I won’t sleep for a week!

(Shamelessly stolen from Little Green Footballs.)