I put the flannel sheets on the bed a couple weeks ago.  I was wondering if that was a good idea, because just when it was time to change the sheets, it got warm again.  Of course that couldn't last, so by the end of the week, I was happy to have the flannels.  They're so much warmer to climb into than the regular sheets.  By the next week, it was even cool enough that we threw an extra quilt on top of the bed.

Yesterday I changed the sheets, and this time I put the electric blanket on too.  Just in time, I think, because it is cold out there.  We even got a little snow yesterday.

Thankfully I didn't have to guess which way the electric blanket goes when I put it on the bed.  I got a little ahead of myself, though - looked it up and started to put it on the bed, and realized I had to put the sheets on first!

©Copyright 1981 by CDR Kelly Strong, USCG (Ret).


I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of taps one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That taps had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.
 

Poetry / Prayers / Lyrics for Memorial Day