USMB Coffee Shop III

[alan1]

Got no sleep last night because of the heat but I'm up anyway. Wishing you all a wonderful day!

Hey [MENTION=18645]Sarah G[/MENTION]
There is this new invention called "Air Conditioning", it is like the opposite of "heating". You install this device called an "air conditioner" on your house and it cools the house to whatever temperature you find comfortable. It runs on simple electricity, just like most of your household appliances.

I'm moving at the end of the month and didn't want to put the air conditioner in the window for just a couple of weeks. I kind of wish I would have, it's very warm in here.

It's been warm here also. I haven't used the AC yet, nightime windows open has sufficed for cooling the house thus far.

 

[alan1]

I do believe that this week I wrote the last check for my daughter's wedding. The house on the beach for the wedding party is paid off. If I'm mistaken and it wasn't the last check, I do know it was the last large check. There can't possibly be anything left that would be more than a couple hundred dollars.

June 8th is the wedding, I finally get a son. All the rewards of having a boy, none of the challenges of raising one.

I also got a phone call today from the art gallery. The wedding present I purchased for my lovely daughter and her groom was shipped today. A fine painting from the new-brow artist Aunia Khan. My daughter picked it out, so she already knows she's getting it. Since it is already known, can I skip wrapping it?

My daughter has been pushing me to tell her what song I want for the father/daughter dance at her wedding. I am unsure what song to use for our dance. This past Wednesday we were out for dinner and I mentioned Tangled Up Puppet (see below) as a potential option. My daughter, her fiance and a groomsman all liked it. I'm pretty sure I might cry by dancing with my daughter to that song. Not sure I want to cry in front of all those people.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttI-Ibythls]Harry Chapin - Tangled Up Puppet - YouTube[/ame]

 

[freedombecki]

So, at last night's American Legion meeting we discussed Poppy Day... I got ganged up on. They said that because I am the person who always brings in the most money for Poppy Day I should be in charge of this years Poppy Day event. Swell. Just what I need. I hate being in charge of things. It's much easier to just lurk in the shadows and do you part. I think what I'm going to hate more than anything else is counting all of that loose change we seem to gather up on Poppy Day. Maybe instead of counting up all of that loose change I'll just throw it into my change bucket and write the post a big check. The currency all get crumpled up and you have to almost iron it before you can count it too. Oh well... I shall do my duty and do it to the best of my ability. Anybody want a Poppy?

Yep! I used to stand with my grandma on a corner once a year and sell poppies to a lot of people, all of who were so kind.

Photo Credits: » Flanders Fields Flanders Fields Miracle​

​

​

[ame=http://youtu.be/zZ5lA-pa_LE]"Flanders Fields Miracle" - YouTube[/ame]

​

 

[Statistikhengst]

So, at last night's American Legion meeting we discussed Poppy Day... I got ganged up on. They said that because I am the person who always brings in the most money for Poppy Day I should be in charge of this years Poppy Day event. Swell. Just what I need. I hate being in charge of things. It's much easier to just lurk in the shadows and do you part. I think what I'm going to hate more than anything else is counting all of that loose change we seem to gather up on Poppy Day. Maybe instead of counting up all of that loose change I'll just throw it into my change bucket and write the post a big check. The currency all get crumpled up and you have to almost iron it before you can count it too. Oh well... I shall do my duty and do it to the best of my ability. Anybody want a Poppy?

Yep! I used to stand with my grandma on a corner once a year and sell poppies to a lot of people, all of who were so kind.

Photo Credits: » Flanders Fields Flanders Fields Miracle​

​

​

[ame=http://youtu.be/zZ5lA-pa_LE]"Flanders Fields Miracle" - YouTube[/ame]

​

I wonder how many people today understand the historic significance of the term "Flanders Fields".

Wow. So much time has passed.

 

[freedombecki]

So, at last night's American Legion meeting we discussed Poppy Day... I got ganged up on. They said that because I am the person who always brings in the most money for Poppy Day I should be in charge of this years Poppy Day event. Swell. Just what I need. I hate being in charge of things. It's much easier to just lurk in the shadows and do you part. I think what I'm going to hate more than anything else is counting all of that loose change we seem to gather up on Poppy Day. Maybe instead of counting up all of that loose change I'll just throw it into my change bucket and write the post a big check. The currency all get crumpled up and you have to almost iron it before you can count it too. Oh well... I shall do my duty and do it to the best of my ability. Anybody want a Poppy?

Yep! I used to stand with my grandma on a corner once a year and sell poppies to a lot of people, all of who were so kind.

Photo Credits: » Flanders Fields Flanders Fields Miracle​

[ame="http://youtu.be/zZ5lA-pa_LE"]"Flanders Fields Miracle" - YouTube[/ame]

​

I wonder how many people today understand the historic significance of the term "Flanders Fields".

Wow. So much time has passed.

My grandfather fought in France in WWI. It was a horrible war for everyone concerned. I didn't know he was a war hero until his funeral in which his Masonic Brothers spoke on his honors and his receiving a silver star for retrieving 7 wounded soldiers from a field of battle under heavy fire with no thought for his safety. Miraculously, he was not hit during his retrieval, and he received endless Christmas cards from people our family didn't know up to his death. My grandmother always sold poppies on Poppy day, and recruited me to help several times. I loved it.

This comes from the Arlington Cemetery website:

In Flanders Field, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army​

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below. ​

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields. ​

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Courtesy of Bee MacGuire
Obtained From TheMcCrae Museum of The Guelph Museum
​

McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915. Here is the story of the making of that poem:

Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Major John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.
As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major McCrae, who had joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto, had spent seventeen days treating injured men -- Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans -- in the Ypres salient.
It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it:
"I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done."
One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae's dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.
The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry.
In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.
A young soldier watched him write it. Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant-major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant-major stood there quietly. "His face was very tired but calm as we wrote," Allinson recalled. "He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."
When McCrae finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read:
"The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene." In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915.

 

[SFC Ollie]

 

[Big Black Dog]

Well, I got my annual hair cut, but this time not so short. Kept it above the eye brows and off the collar, but about half way still over the ears. I was worried that I'd look to 80's but, I like it. Might have to get another one sooner though but that's OK.

Happy TGIF to those working stiffs... I know the weekends are all important to you, and I feel your pain...

I like those #1 haircuts myself. Now when people stare at me I know they aren't staring at my hair!

 

[Big Black Dog]

I do believe that this week I wrote the last check for my daughter's wedding. The house on the beach for the wedding party is paid off. If I'm mistaken and it wasn't the last check, I do know it was the last large check. There can't possibly be anything left that would be more than a couple hundred dollars.

June 8th is the wedding, I finally get a son. All the rewards of having a boy, none of the challenges of raising one.

I also got a phone call today from the art gallery. The wedding present I purchased for my lovely daughter and her groom was shipped today. A fine painting from the new-brow artist Aunia Khan. My daughter picked it out, so she already knows she's getting it. Since it is already known, can I skip wrapping it?

My daughter has been pushing me to tell her what song I want for the father/daughter dance at her wedding. I am unsure what song to use for our dance. This past Wednesday we were out for dinner and I mentioned Tangled Up Puppet (see below) as a potential option. My daughter, her fiance and a groomsman all liked it. I'm pretty sure I might cry by dancing with my daughter to that song. Not sure I want to cry in front of all those people.

Harry Chapin - Tangled Up Puppet - YouTube

Why not select "The Hokey Pokey"? Great song to dance to, it's got a nice beat, I like the lyrics. I would buy the record!

 

[Big Black Dog]

I was just sitting here thinking about how good a banana split would be...

 

[SFC Ollie]

 

[alan1]

I do believe that this week I wrote the last check for my daughter's wedding. The house on the beach for the wedding party is paid off. If I'm mistaken and it wasn't the last check, I do know it was the last large check. There can't possibly be anything left that would be more than a couple hundred dollars.

June 8th is the wedding, I finally get a son. All the rewards of having a boy, none of the challenges of raising one.

I also got a phone call today from the art gallery. The wedding present I purchased for my lovely daughter and her groom was shipped today. A fine painting from the new-brow artist Aunia Khan. My daughter picked it out, so she already knows she's getting it. Since it is already known, can I skip wrapping it?

My daughter has been pushing me to tell her what song I want for the father/daughter dance at her wedding. I am unsure what song to use for our dance. This past Wednesday we were out for dinner and I mentioned Tangled Up Puppet (see below) as a potential option. My daughter, her fiance and a groomsman all liked it. I'm pretty sure I might cry by dancing with my daughter to that song. Not sure I want to cry in front of all those people.

Harry Chapin - Tangled Up Puppet - YouTube

Why not select "The Hokey Pokey"? Great song to dance to, it's got a nice beat, I like the lyrics. I would buy the record!

You put the son-in-law in, you take the son-in-law out, then you shake him all about.
Hmm, might work.

 

[Jughead]

I was just sitting here thinking about how good a banana split would be...

Yes indeed. DQ makes good banana splits. Best part is that you can also get a burger there.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Good night, everyone.

 

[007]

Well, I got my annual hair cut, but this time not so short. Kept it above the eye brows and off the collar, but about half way still over the ears. I was worried that I'd look to 80's but, I like it. Might have to get another one sooner though but that's OK.

Happy TGIF to those working stiffs... I know the weekends are all important to you, and I feel your pain...

I like those #1 haircuts myself. Now when people stare at me I know they aren't staring at my hair!

Was out with the John Deere and wagon yesterday doing the annual spring yard clean up, picking up all the twigs and limbs, raking, etc, and as usual worked up a sweat. Well, the hair was in the eyes and stuck to my neck, and I can't stand either so, off to Cost Cutters today. There's one gal up there that does a real good job so I keep going back.

Big auction tomorrow at a farm back in the hills north of here tomorrow so I'm going. I might not even buy anything, but it's fun just to get out and even see these farms stuck back in the hills that otherwise you'd never know were there. Probably be Amish there too since there'll be tools. Sure hope none of them are Amish Mafia. I'd hate to bid against the wrong one...

Time to hit the rack... gotta be up early, early.

 

[Noomi]

Afternoon everyone. I have been busy these last few days with wok, so haven't posted in a couple of days. I hope everyone is well
This morning I gave my dearest Tracy a list of combinations I have been working on. I hope she likes them. It was just random stuff, but I can't very well keep it lying around, I have to show someone!

 

[oldfart]

Yep! I used to stand with my grandma on a corner once a year and sell poppies to a lot of people, all of who were so kind.

Photo Credits: » Flanders Fields Flanders Fields Miracle​

"Flanders Fields Miracle" - YouTube

​

I wonder how many people today understand the historic significance of the term "Flanders Fields".

Wow. So much time has passed.

My grandfather fought in France in WWI. It was a horrible war for everyone concerned. I didn't know he was a war hero until his funeral in which his Masonic Brothers spoke on his honors and his receiving a silver star for retrieving 7 wounded soldiers from a field of battle under heavy fire with no thought for his safety. Miraculously, he was not hit during his retrieval, and he received endless Christmas cards from people our family didn't know up to his death. My grandmother always sold poppies on Poppy day, and recruited me to help several times. I loved it.

This comes from the Arlington Cemetery website:

In Flanders Field, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army​

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below. ​

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields. ​

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Courtesy of Bee MacGuire
Obtained From TheMcCrae Museum of The Guelph Museum
​

McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915. Here is the story of the making of that poem:

Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Major John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.
As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major McCrae, who had joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto, had spent seventeen days treating injured men -- Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans -- in the Ypres salient.
It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it:
"I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done."
One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae's dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.
The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry.
In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.
A young soldier watched him write it. Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant-major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant-major stood there quietly. "His face was very tired but calm as we wrote," Allinson recalled. "He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."
When McCrae finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read:
"The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene." In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915.

I know that I shall meet my fate,

Somewhere among the clouds above;

Those that I fight I do not hate,

Those that I guard I do not love;

My country is Kiltartan Cross,

My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,

No likely end could bring them loss

Or leave them happier than before.

Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,

Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,

A lonely impulse of delight

Drove to this tumult in the clouds;

I balanced all, brought all to mind,

The years to come seemed waste of breath,

A waste of breath the years behind

In balance with this life, this death.


--W B Yeats

 

[FishfaceDeMarco]

Happy fishing opener and Mother's Day, that oughta go over real well.

 

[Sherry]

I was just sitting here thinking about how good a banana split would be...

 

[Noomi]

Last night we had a grading. I didn't attend, but I participated in the regular class and watched the last ten or so minutes of the grading. Only a small one this time, around 20 students. Everyone passed, so we have a good ten new yellow belts, at least six new orange belts, and three new green belts! It has taken our little region several years, but there are more colored belts than white!

 

[Jughead]

Happy Saturday all!