Friday, January 30, 2009

Sloshy Winter Day

It was a beautiful day. Early on, the sun was out gleaming on the snow at Arlington. The snow had turned to solid sheets of ice shrouding everything, making marching a bit treacherous early on. It warmed up as the day moved on creating huge pits of mud that had to be navigated around. I felt for one of our body bearers (casket team) who stepped ankle deep into the mud and lost a shoe on approach to a grave. But minus the mud, it was a gorgeous day here.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!