Weekend Update - Part 2

One consequence of all the rain we received over Memorial Day weekend is that I was unable to visit the Fort Sam Houston cemetery to put flowers on my mother's grave.

Mom is a veteran - one of the early WAFs (Women in the Air Force). She enlisted in the late 1940s, met my father, married him, and a few years later became pregnant with yours truly. Back then pregnancy was a career-ender for military personnel, so she became a civilian and a mother, in that order. She did, however, retain much of her military training and put it to good use in raising my sister and me.

One of the special Memorial Day traditions at the Fort Sam cemetery is the Veteran's Roll Call.

On the first day of Memorial Day weekend, community members gathered to pay respect to some fallen heroes. It's an annual tradition at Fort Sam Houston called the Veteran's Roll Call.

A stillness filled Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery Saturday morning. All that could be heard was the rain pattering and the names of heroes being called. Several American Legion posts and other veteran organizations joined families as they honored veterans who died in the last 12 months.

I couldn't get there because of high water and flooding on the roads. But I had my own private little ceremony at home.

There is an empty place right next to Mom, reserved for my father. He's 97 years old, a retired career military man, and starting to slow down a little (well, actually, quite a lot recently). It won't be long before I'll be taking two bouquets to Fort Sam.
Speaking of the rain, our local hospital put this up yesterday.

It's not that we're ungrateful, God, it's that we've been blessed enough. Please pass the rain on to somewhere else that needs it more than we do.

Amen.

On a related topic, I'm preparing for the next round of rain.

One final weekend note: as some of you know, before I retired I worked in Laredo on the Texas-Mexico border. The cartel violence down there is constant and unrelenting. It also rarely makes it into the news, unless it is something truly out of the ordinary. Like this:

At least 43 people died Friday in what authorities described as a fierce, three-hour gunbattle between federal forces and suspected drug gang gunmen...

Photographs from the scene showed bodies, some with semi-automatic rifles and others without weapons, lying in fields, near farm equipment and on a blood-stained patio strewn with clothes, mattresses and sleeping bags.

In April, gunmen believed linked to the cartel ambushed a police convoy in Jalisco, killing 15 state officers and wounding five. Earlier this month, New Generation gunmen shot down a military helicopter with a rocket launcher in Jalisco, killing eight aboard.

Vehicles burn, that authorities say caught fire during a gunbattle, in a warehouse at Rancho del Sol, near Ecuanduero, in western Mexico, Friday, May 22, 2015. At least 43 people died Friday in what authorities described as a fierce, three-hour gunbattle between federal forces and suspected drug gang gunmen at the ranch. (AP Photo/Oscar Pantoja Segundo)

No, I don't miss it at all...