Quilts For Veterans

 GOOD MORNING from now FOGGY Central California.  I think we skipped right over autumn into winter.  Though our days have been lovely, our mornings and evenings are now smothered in fog.

It was a lazy day, to be sure.  In spite of having lots to do, I spent a lot of time on the couch with Cooper once again.  He has a small growth on his foot that he wants to chew on constantly.  Boy do I hate this part of getting older.  He's become obsessed with it and now has to have it covered.  I'm pretty sure there is nothing they can do, but I'm calling the Vet today.  

I picked up and cleaned up a bit since my friend is coming to install my flagpole.  I'm a little leery, so I'm hoping it goes okay.  I'm so appreciative of the thought, but I'm not sure of the skills, if you know what I mean.

It didn't take long to get a text message.  Please come to the lodge ... checks to sign, very short on cash.  Ummm that's not good!  And so off I went, not that I could do anything about it.  We are usually slow in July, August and September because of the heat.  Here it is November and folks are not coming back to events like normal.  

The price of everything in California is through the roof and folks just don't have the money to throw away.  Thanks to our Governor, the high cost of fuel tax is adding on to the price of everything.  Inflation, even at 2%, isn't helping.  Our food bills are double what they were two years ago.

Anyway, after an hour of hashing over the same old problem, I needed a drink.  A short glass of wine please.  Here I sit waiting for the folks to arrive for Lodge Night.  You get a New York steak dinner for $20.00.  Steaks the size of your plate, baked potato, green beans with bacon and a roll, followed up by ICE CREAM.  You can't beat that with a stick!!  Oh and add in meatballs and shrimp cocktail for appetizers.

Finally the time arrived to give out the first six quilts.  Three gentlemen were not there, but we held up their quilts and recognized them anyway.  Then came this amazing guy ... meet Glen.  He was the top Commander of the Coast Guard in the U.S. until retirement.  He doesn't look older than 25.  He's just finishing up his PhD in psychology.  One of the nicest guys you could ever meet.

These quilts probably look a little familiar to you.  This is Nick, a sharpshooter sniper who served in the Army.  I almost cried when we gave him this quilt.  He looked at his wife and said "this is gorgeous .. I want to be buried with this quilt".  Ummm yeah ... tears all around.

Then it was dinner time!  I mean look at this ... the green beans and roll are on TOP of the steak.  We don't mess around when it comes to Lodge night dinners ... which happen twice a month.  One time they had chicken, just because.  The backlash was extreme.  As long as we at least break even, it will be $20 steaks for the duration.

The meeting afterwards was anticlimactic.  Thank goodness we were out of there in 35 minutes.  No one really likes that part of the dinner.  Lucky for me, I made an RV reservation for the same date as the next meeting ... totally by mistake of course (that's my story and I'm sticking to it) ... so I will be gone for the 90 minute initiation of new members.  Oh so sad.  Not really.

I'll be whipping up a quick breakfast this morning before heading out to hole digging 101.  The best part ... my friend just bought a small electric auger that will do most of the digging.  Here's to my new flag pole.  Please pray all goes well and we don't hit any sprinkler lines!!!