Leslie and I were going to go to lunch yesterday, but she lost a filling and couldn't get a dentist appointment until noon. She suggested we go to breakfast, instead, and we did. Went to Dockside, where I haven't been for ages, and had a wonderful time and good, good talk. When we parted, we vowed to meet more often, preferably every month.
Got a web cam call from Mike and was delighted to see him, Paula, and adorable little Violet, Vivian having ridden her bike to her friend's house. Their furniture came, and Mike "took me around" with the laptop to see it. It's beautiful, so big, tastefully done, and elegant, thanks to my daughter-in-law, the designer. Mike told me they live in a gated community, which surprised me, and that Jerkas are now guarding the entrances.
Spent the rest of the day making macaroni salad--it always goes over big--washing clothes, and packing for out trip to Wellsboro today.
WIDER: Dockside is right on the canal, and oh, how enjoyable it is to eat scrambled eggs while watching the boats go by in the summer sun. It's a small, one-room restaurant, and was packed, as it always is at the height of the season. Les and I were stunned at the "patriotic" displays that decorated every available surface if Dockside. There were flags, stars, Marine Corps insignias, red, white, and blue wreaths, and so on the windows, hanging from the ceiling, and affixed to the walls. Every table was festooned with small vases filled with artificial flowers in--you guessed it, then national colors. Boy, was it tacky.
Les is one of the few friends I have who is a committed pacifist. Lots of people I know are opposed to the current wars. I've heard many deplore the loss or shattering of American lives and/or who express the belief these are the "wrong" wars. (The lives of those we're slaughtering, whether purposely or accidentally? Not important, so rarely mentioned.) The idea, however, that never seems to penetrate is that if you have a huge standing army, a war budget bigger than all other countries' combined, and an arsenal of weapons that could pulverize the planet, you gotta do something with it all. Sooner or later, too, the argument--which I've heard over and over--comes up that the military is a force for good, such as feeding starving children. That's so specious a thought I can hardly address it. In fact, I won't, except to say you don't need to carry a gun to feed people.