Today Is ...

October 27, 2024, at home

Today (October 27, 2024) on Navy Day, I honor my father, who served 22 years in the Navy on active duty and in the reserves. Here he is in 1958 at age 24, when he was stationed in Hawaii.

My mother worked for the Navy as a civilian on Long Island, New York.

My dad retired at the rank of Commander, about three months away from earning the rank of Captain. After more than two decades, he had enough and decided it was time to retire from the military.

Dad also served aboard a ship, transporting displaced persons (delayed pilgrims, as he called them) after World War II multiple times from Bremerhaven, Germany, to New York City. Soon after his death in 1997 at age 62, some of his ashes were scattered from a Navy ship into the North Atlantic Ocean, where, as he had told me, he spent one of the best times of his life.

The remainder of his ashes were interred at Breslau Cemetery in Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York. (Lindenhurst was formerly named Breslau after the city in Germany.)

Dad requested that his ashes be mixed with the ashes of his favorite dog Ludwig, which were in a metal can as the only thing Dad kept in his large metal safe which was never locked. (We didn't do that.)

Dad would take Ludwig to work with him at his insurance and real estate office in Lindenhurst, the town where he grew up. Every weekday morning, my dad would get the dog a buttered roll and a cup of coffee with sugar and milk. Two things an already jittery dachshund definitely does NOT need are sugar and caffeine.

October 27, 2024, at home

Today (October 27, 2024) is National Mother-In-Law Day (fourth Sunday in October), so I would like to remember and honor my mother-in-law Lorna, who passed on February 16, 2011.

This is my favorite photo of her and me. My wife snapped it on July 13, 2008, in a coffee shop in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, when the three of us were on vacation, visiting my wife's family and friends in and around Toronto. I particularly like that she is small and is holding a big cup, and I am bigger and am holding a smaller cup.

She always encouraged me to become a better person with each passing day, while accepting me each day exactly as I was. For that, I thank her again. Lorna, you are sorely missed.

October 27, 2024, at home

I don't really have a favorite American beer, well, Yuengling and maybe Samuel Adams. At university in the early 1980s, I drank PBRs (Pabst Blue Ribbon) because it was cheap. I also went through a short stint with Miller High Life long ago.

I did drink Grolsch long ago, but that's not American.

I never drink Budweiser and Molson due to resultant hangovers.

My favorite beer is Mohrenbräu, which is a famous Austrian beer. I first drank it in my Austrian cousins' living room in Dornbirn, Austria, in the early 1980s, when I was in my early 20s. I have enjoyed it on many subsequent trips to Austria. I have never found it in the United States. Mohrenbräu is brewed in Dornbirn.

https://www.mohrenbrauerei.at/

October 27, 2024, at home

Superstition: It's good luck if a black cat follows you home.