#31: Realize how fortunate I really am

It's Sunday--psychologically Saturday because I DON'T HAVE TO WORK ON MONDAY!! For that, I realize how fortunate I am.

However, that's not what got me talking this morning. I'm up at the lake house--watching my puppy appreciate nature as the sun slowly peeks through the trees. On top of that, a nice Venezuelan man offered to pick up more coffee when I realized we were out, saving me the hassle of having to leave. Sigh.

I know how fortunate I am to have this house (ok, Scott has this house--he goes it goes, but we're not anticipating this occurrence). And yes, I do understand that it is our jobs that provide for this retreat. So I suppose I am fortunate for my job as well.

Finally, I would be remiss to not mention all the people who fought and died for this place I now sit enjoying--I am fortunate they had the courage to fight, and we memorialize them this weekend (contrary to popular belief, Memorial Day is about more than just the beginning of summer--and it ain't just about the North and the South. It's over. We won.).

From usmemorialday.org:

General John A. LoganLibrary of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-B8172- 6403 DLC (b&w film neg.)]

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 - 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia (yep, I live here but I's a Yankee), and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee