Odds - N - Ends

The follow up to last Friday's entry concerning the General's stay at Camp Sweaty Scout is uneventful, primarily due to the fact that the General was a cranky beast for most of the weekend, prompting us to send him to bed for multiple naps until he regained his humanity. He was awake long enough to join his Cub Scout den at a flag retirement ceremony yesterday afternoon. The General's Boy Scout leadership position is Den Chief to the Major's Cub Scout den.

On our way out of church services yesterday the Den Leader, who is also an elder in our church, told us about a flag retirement ceremony being held by the American Legion in a parking lot in downtown Leavenworth. He had just learned about it from one of our other elders who is an American Legion member as well as one of the riflemen for the nine gun salute while the flags were burned. The General, the Major, and I joined the Cub Scout den for the Flag Day ceremony. The boys were able to carry the old, worn flags to the Legion officials for inspection, and then bring them to the staging area for the burn. We lined them up and they watched as each flag was dipped in kerosene and placed in a burn barrel. This is a six-year-old's dream - helping create large flames. They particularly enjoyed watching the paint bubble and burn off the side of the burn barrel after the fire tender splashed kerosene on the side of the can. Of course, the elder rifleman had the weapon that jammed during the salute. His first volley fired, but when he pulled back on the bolt the rifle discharged the remaining two bullets, so he dry fired the final two shots. This lead to a few comments about shooting blanks and premature ejection, all of which he took good naturedly while promising to clean his weapon before the next ceremony.

This flag retirement ceremony was a first for me, but it will not be the last. I was able to make contacts in the American Legion. I should be able to get advanced notice of events like this one and arrange for a larger turn-out of scouts.


I'd like to point your attention to the newest blog on my sidebar. "Beautiful Feet" is a blog written by a member of our church who is leaving on an 18 month missionary trip to Latvia. Kathleen will be documenting her experiences at http://kathfeetinlatvia.blogspot.com/ I expect that it will be interesting reading.


From the Spread-the-Humor department, hop over to Treasured Chapters and read If [they] only had a brain... and Posted Memo . Kathleen posted two entertaining entries on her attempts to show and sell a house with four wonderful children assisting her every move.


Lastly, I am starting to experience the pay-off for dropping a pound or two. I'm down to two chins instead of three, and a formerly too-tight-to-fit pair of pants slid easily over my rotund derrière yesterday, with a little room to spare. I might not need to buy new clothes as I shrink. I might just rediscover some old friends hanging in the recesses of my closet.