musing minds

D-Day

It was 82 years ago today.

SS Jeremiah O'Brien
SS Jeremiah O’Brien

This is the SS Jeremiah O’Brien. She was present at D-Day, making many Channel Crossings to support the effort.

She was almost scrapped, but was lovingly restored, and she even made the trip from San Francisco back to Normandy for the 50th anniversary.

She’s moored at Pier 45 in San Francisco and can be toured.

20 Years Smoke-Free

Today marks 20 years since I stopped smoking! Yay me!

All that money saved!

The prices as they are now, I’d only be able to buy about three packs for what I was paying for a carton then. Cartons are ten packs, so it’s more than three times what I was paying then.

And I’m so much healthier!

Happy New Year!

Wishing you a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2026!

We ended 2025 and are starting 2026 in Texas because of a death in the family. We’re traveling home today and tomorrow.

We’ll be doing some more traveling this year, mostly closer to home, but we have another trip to Texas in the works.

Happy New Year to one and all!

A Date Which Will Live in Infamy

On a sunny Sunday morning 84 years ago, the world changed.

At 7:55 a.m local. on December 7, 1941, the attack begins.

Pearl Harbor Attack

Pearl Harbor Attack

The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor to remove what it saw as a threat to the empire’s southern expansion. The Pearl Harbor attack hurt us badly, but it also hardened our resolve and brought us fully into WWII.

Snopes has some photos that were purported to be found in an old Brownie camera years after the attack. The story was untrue, but the photos are archival and genuine.

The U.S. Navy has a Pearl Harbor site with more photos.

Chris at A Large Regular has linked to this National Geographic Pearl Harbor site in the past. It has a multimedia timeline, survivor stories, a kid’s section, and more.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Hymn

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;
the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing:
sing praise to his Name, he forgets not his own.


Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine;
so from the beginning the fight we were winning:
thou, Lord, wast at our side: all glory be thine!


We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,
and pray that thou still our defender wilt be.
Let thy congregation escape tribulation:
thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

Words: Nederlandtsche Gedenckclanck, 1626;
trans. Theodore Baker, 1894.
Music: Kremser

Enjoy this day with your family and friends.

Roast turkey with garnish and pie on festive table

Veterans’ Day 2025

Armistice Day, Veterans’ Day, Remembrance Day

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month…

In Flanders Fields

poppy

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Written by Lt-Colonel John McRae (1915)

D-Day

It was 81 years ago today.

SS Jeremiah O'Brien
SS Jeremiah O’Brien

This is the SS Jeremiah O’Brien. She was present at D-Day, making many Channel Crossings to support the effort.

She was almost scrapped, but was lovingly restored and she even made the trip from San Francisco back to Normandy for the 50th anniversary.

She’s moored at Pier 45 in San Francisco and can be toured.

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