Every Muscle in My Body Hurts

Hamstrings and glutes are screaming at me. They aren't happy sitting. They aren't happy standing. They REALLY aren't happy moving. While six plus hours of gardening yesterday wasn't a big cardio workout, it was clearly a muscle workout.

For some reason I thought the bags of tulips I had bought were bags of 50, not bags of 100. I also got five flats of pansies, which was just enough! So in total, I planted almost 400 plants yesterday. OMGoodness! I didn't think it was going to take me all day either. Now, I know. I still have to spread mulch down the side garden but as it was getting really dark by the time I planted the last of the pansies, I decided I'd do that today. I hope this spring it will look glorious!

I have planted pink and purple (really dark pink) tulips amid lavender, purple and cream colored pansies. I am hoping for a look like this in the spring:

I am also hoping that by planting pansies on top of the tulips and then putting cedar mulch on top, that the squirrels won't be able to find the bulbs. Two years ago, I planted around 100 bulbs and the darn squirrels dug each one up, took a bite out of them and threw them aside. I replanted only to have the darn squirrels dig them all back up again. Oh and this year I sprayed the bulbs with something that the garden shop recommended. It has some bitter taste so it prevents squirrels from eating the bulbs. It also smells like skunk and the vapors leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Fingers are crossed that by the spring all turns out beautiful!

So this is what my yard looks like now:

The side yard. In the spring, early summer, I want to plant hydrangeas under the bay window and crepe myrtle to either side and then a bunch of different perennial flowers

I hope that I don't get a nasty gram from the HOA about putting up path lights along the side of the house. It is so dark along the side of my house. This is what it looked like last night after I cleaned up everything. I HATE pulling my trash bins up the side in the dark. I usually turn on the patio and the deck lights but as you can see, they don't provide much to the side yard. I do also turn my dining room light on. Its just dark and scary. I do worry about some person jumping out at me from the shadows. These at least provide a little more illumination. Not much.

I just have to share a photo of this glorious tree in the neighborhood. I love trees that turn either really bright yellow or really bright red. I'm not so much into the brownish yellows and reds. It is turning brown at the top but the lower branches are still beautiful yellow!

Final thought, I was so looking forward to the extra hour of sleep. Really excited. As usual, it took forever to fall asleep and then, as usual, I woke up four hours after I fell asleep and couldn't fall back asleep. The only difference was that I woke up an hour earlier than usual. GRRRRRRR. So, I've been awake since 3 a.m. It wouldn't be so bad if when I woke up I was alert and ready to go, its a groggy, non-functional, awake and I doze in and out of sleep the rest of the night, never reaching that REM deep sleep. The blood tests came back on Friday. Everything is normal. No sugar, anemia, or thyroid issues. Its a good thing, but its frustrating because I don't know why I can't sleep.

Gracie's Adoption Events

Gracie and I attended her second adoption event last night.

These are very stressful for her and she hides under the towel most of the time. The cool thing about last night, we met a gal who is interested in adopting Gracie. She was really nice and I think Gracie would really love having her as a "mommy". Gracie will definitely get more attention.

So, I'm posting some video of Gracie that I took so her future mom can see how Gracie acts in a 'non-stressful' environment.

Oh but first, I have to share the first adoption event experience. That is Gracie in her crate. This little girl kept coming out to pet Gracie. It was really sweet.

This is a picture the little girl drew for Gracie. She was so sweet. Now, the interesting thing, I'm there with just Gracie. How did this little girl know I had three other cats, Gracie making four? Good thing is we all have smiles on our faces. I put the picture in the crate with Gracie (you can see it above). This little girl just was in love with her - - but her parents weren't interested in getting a cat.

O.k. Now for the video. She has such a loud purr.

http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t241/RangersGirlDC/?action=view&current=DSCN8051.flv

This is quite a bit longer with lots of playing. Gracie purrs the entire time with cuddle breaks in-between the playing.

http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t241/RangersGirlDC/?action=view&current=DSCN8053.flv

Team Semper Fi Makes A Pre-Marathon Visit

They had such a good time visiting us last year that Team Semper Fi made a return pre-marathon visit on Saturday.

Below is the group that I gave a tour to.

It was funny when they told the team to pick their tour guide. One of the Marine's in my group made a bee line right for me saying "I'm picking you because I think you'll be fast."

"What do you mean by that? Do you think I'm a light weight or something?"

"No, we just want to see everything and I think you can get us through the museum quickly."

"O.k., if you want fast, I can give you guys fast."

Well, I usually get people through in about 1.5 hours and that is through all of the galleries. I was right on target. I hope my group enjoyed my visit. I joked with the Marine who picked me because I looked 'fast' that he was obviously a good Recon Marine because he was able to size us all up and pick the guide who would allow him to accomplish his objectives -- get in, see it all and get out.

When A Sgt Major Asks, "Are You Ready For What Your Going To Get Hit With?

I'm learning slowly, that when any NCO or officer says something like this I should consider running.

Its Sunday morning. Quite day, usually. I spent 12 hours at the museum yesterday, my feet hurt, I was tired. I asked that I not get stuck back at Iwo Jima in the morning because, according to the schedule, I was the only docent at the museum in the afternoon and I'd be stuck back there all afternoon. I don't mind doing 4 hours back there - - 8 hours - - different story. So, the two men I was working with this morning split things up as such, one did the tour the other took the flag and I was the wanderer.

There was a gentleman with a Marine standing in the middle of the atrium this morning. I thought they were just a father with his Marine son. Well, the Marine walks over to me and asks, "Are you prepared for What You are Going to Get Hit With?"

I looked at him like a deer in headlights. "Um, got no clue what I'm about to get hit with."

"Really, you don't know?"

O.k. the Marines at the front desk probably knew, but for some reason, none of us Docents asked them to tell us what was on the schedule. We weren't expecting anything as today was the Marine Corps Marathon.

"Your about ready to get hit with about 400 Marines in half an hour."

Oh, nice. We've had that happen several times over the year so it didn't really phase me.

They came in like a flood! It was a bit nuts there for a while. Made the morning go really fast. The cool thing, when regular guests came in, they were so impressed to see all of the Marines. I even had a few people come up and tell me that they were so excited to walk into the museum and see the place full of them. I noticed older veterans speaking with groups of the younger Marines in the different galleries. I wished I had my camera.

The Marines don't know it, but they are as much the attraction here as the artifacts.
I will share a negative. I had a veteran get upset with me about "magazine" and "clip" when describing the Rules of Engagement of the Marines at Beirut. "Its not a magazine, its a clip." He said. O.k. -- I told everyone I wasn't in the military, I sometimes mess up the jargon. He replied, "well, I was and was a Marine and its a clip." and he walked off, away from the tour I was giving. O.k., no problem. So anyway, I run into him again with my tour group and he walks past me and under his breath says, "Get it right its a clip, not a magazine." He didn't say it under his breath in a nice way either, it was as if he was disgusted.

I'll be honest with you, this messed with my brain the rest of the tour - - I just dreaded running into him.

So I've been here at home trying to find the difference between a magazine of ammo and a clip of ammo. Does anyone know? Is a magazine a big box full of ammo and a clip just a few rounds?
I have been corrected in the past on the difference between a tactical withdrawal and a retreat and shrapnel and fragments. I now know the difference and I have made those adjustments to my vocabulary As a non military person - - we use what we hear most often - - and that most often is on television and we know how often TV gets things right.

Follow-on Post to Remembering Beirut Posting

In addition to the panel display at the Museum, the Marine Corps University has put together an interactive web sight regarding the Marines in Beirut. This site includes audio and video footage. I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in learning more about this event.

Marines in Beirut

Remembering Beirut - - 25 Years

Its hard to imagine that the bombing of the Marine Barracks occurred 25 years ago. Has that much time really gone by since then? For the families of 241 U.S. service men, 220 of them Marines, they are forever frozen in time. Forever 19, 21, 25. Forever, they will be young men full of life, never to grow old, to have families, to realize dreams. In an instant on the morning of October 23, all of that was snuffed out.

It was a typical Sunday morning, by all accounts. Most of the Marines were still asleep, formation wouldn't be until 0630. At 6:22 a.m. a vehicle born IED, as we call them now, broke through the concertina wire that surrounded the Marine compound at the Beirut airport. The 19-ton construction truck, packed with compressed gas canisters, wrapped in explosives barrelled past startled Marine sentries at their posts as they struggled to load their weapons (they weren't allowed to carry loaded weapons, this was a peace keeping mission, after all). It smashed into the lobby of the boxy, four story, concrete structure that served as the barracks for Battalion Landing Team 1/8. Its detonation was the largest non-nuclear explosion ever recorded. FBI investigators later reported that even if the truck had exploded on the access road, outside the compound, the blast would have still leveled the building.

Across town, French paratroopers stood on their balconies watching the black mushroom shaped cloud rising from the the air port. A few minutes later, another explosive laden truck would explode outside their building, leveling all nine stories and killing 58 French soldiers.

Those that survived the blast at the Marine barracks would be dubbed "The Chosen" by the chaplain.

On Saturday, October 18th, some of "The Chosen" mingled with family members of the lost at the National Museum of the Marine Corps for an evening of remembrance.

They viewed the new panel display honoring the men who served in Beirut. I spoke briefly with the parents of a Marine who was killed in the blast. Their son was 19. His mother expressed her disappointment when the museum opened that there wasn't anything more than a mention of it in the time line in Legacy walk. She liked what she saw in the panel display and wanted to know how long it would be up. It will be up for at least 1 year. As you, my blog readers know, gallery space for post Vietnam will be part of Phase 2, for which they are in the midst of fund raising.

In October of 1983, President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation after the blast and shared a story that Commandant of the Marine Corps, General P.X. Kelley had shared with him. Kelly had stopped at the hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany, to award the Purple Heart to survivors. When Kelley came to a Marine that he said had more tubes going in and out of his body than he had ever seen in one body, the Marine, Lance Corporal Jeffrey Nashton, reached up and grabbed Kelly's collar to feel for the stars to make sure Kelley was who he said he was. Nashton signaled for a pad of paper and wrote "Semper Fi".

When Nashton was recovering at Bethesda Naval Hospital, Kelley paid him another visit and presented Nashton a plague with the Marine Corps emblem, Kelley's four stars and the inscription, "Semper Fi". Kelley said at the time that he felt like those stars belonged to Nashton more than to him.

Saturday, amid flashes and video cameras, Nashton and Kelley met again.

After cocktails, everyone headed up to the mess hall for dinner. In addition to General Kelley, General George Flynn, Commanding General of Training and Education Command and retired Army General, Julius Becton, were in attendance.

I sat with three very nice gentlemen, who unfortunately got a much longer answer to one's question of "What do you do?"

After dinner there was a panel discussion moderated by Major Bob Jordan (Ret) who had been the Public Affairs Officer in Beirut at the time of the blast. On the panel from left to right: Jordan; Claude Salhani, the United Press International (UPI) Beirut Bureau Chief at the time of the blast; General Kelley, then the Commandant of the Marine Corps; Col Tim Geraghty, commander of the Marines in Beirut; Lt. Col Paul Roy, in 1983 he was a Captain and Alpha Company's commander; General Alford Gray, First Marine Division commander; Lt. Col Larry Gerlach, who had been the Battalion Commander.

One by one, they told of their reaction to the event and what they thought had led up to the attack. It was emotional for some on the panel. Lt. Col Gerlach was asked to speak to the preparation of the BLT prior to deployment and how they maintained their readiness. He held up a copy of the pamphlet his intel officer had put together to educate the Marines in the BLT on who and what they would encounter in Beirut, his intel officer died in the explosion. Gerlach himself, had been blown out the window of his second floor office and was partially paralyzed. He emphasized that the Marines were well trained and that they performed perfectly before and after the bombing.

LtCol Roy recounted how he had just graduated from Amphibious Warfare School (AWS) and was excited to be taking command of a company. He shared, pausing to reign in the emotions, that the realization of his responsibility was driven home when the parents of one of his Marines said to him prior to deployment, "Good luck, bring our boy home." As a parent of three children, he realized what those parents were placing in his care.

Col Geraghty spoke of the difficult position the Marines were placed in. They couldn't take on a defensive or offensive posture. He had expressed his opinion that providing fire support for the Lebanese Army would end the US position of neutrality. He wanted everyone to recognize the professionalism of the Marines of the 24th MAU, they were committed and dedicated to their duty and they carried out their mission which required extraordinary discipline.

In addition to the Marines, the network of wives was extraordinary. He said he was inspired by the families who picked up their shattered lives and raised their families.

General Kelley noted at the close that we were still in a battle against the extremists. We've been engaged, militarily, with them since 1983.

"There is a blood debt still out there, it will be paid back some day," said Col Geraghty.

Gracie's Profile is up

Well, Gracie is up on the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue web site. We'll be going to our first adoption event tomorrow - - yes before the Beirut event at Museum. Its going to be a busy Saturday.

The home I hope to find Gracie is one where she is the only pet and can give and receive all the love in the house. She is a center of attention cat. I think she'd do o.k. with children because she likes to play and get petted.

Associated with the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue foundation are two restaurants in Arlington, VA. The Lost Dog Cafe and the Stray Cat Cafe. The next time you are in the DC area, be sure to check these out, proceeds from both go to support the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue foundation. I have eaten at the Lost Dog Cafe and the sandwiches are great. I'll have to check out the Stray Cat Cafe one of these weekends.