Memorial Day

I had a very odd night. I woke about 4 am after having an anxiety dream. Well, that doesn’t bother me. I know where the anxiety is coming from and actually, being able to wake and stop being anxious is a good thing. I turned the light on and read for a bit but then Fred started shouting in his dreams. He talks a lot in his sleep  and I usually half-wake, realize it is him, and go back to sleep. But today I just couldn’t go back to sleep so at around 5 am, I got up.{ As an odd sidebar, I wonder why I regard anywhere between 5 and 7 am a reasonable time to get up, but before that is unreasonable?} So, I got up, made coffee and had breakfast.

I have recently decided that it is time to organize myself to work on Italian an hour a day, and, of course,  I have a chart where I put down the date, what I did and how long I did it. Since I watched "The Barber of Seville" for three hours yesterday, I decided I didn’t really need to do an hour today so I did 45 minutes of workbook practice on subject pronouns. It got a lot easier towards the end when information was coming back. It was then about 8 am and I was feeling sleepy so I went back to bed for an hour and now I feel fine.

The other thing that I am going to do daily is to walk a bit. So, I went outside and walked slowly to the short end of our street. I am amazed how quickly I have  gone downhill. Just those 10 minutes {and I am being generous to myslf here} had me short of breath and I was walking slowly!  Still, from past experience with bike riding, I do know that although I go downhill quite quickly, I can recover quite quickly too, so, this afternoon, I will try another 10 minutes out. {And, yes, I have a chart for this, too! }

Fred and I have both eaten something that has us running to the bathroom. One bathroom, two upset digestive systems! But so far, no conflict!
Today, Memorial Day, has me thinking about my father. During WW2, he was a military policeman in the British Army. I have vague recollections of him in uniform from this time. What I remember most about him are the stories he told his two daughters about the time he was in the army. Some were funny, like his story of learning to ride a motor bike. He was chugging slowly around in a circle when is instructor yelled at him to get his $%$#$% foot off the brake {which, apparently was down by the foot pegs.}  He was a very tall man {6 ft 4 inches} and his feet were big to go along with his height. Apparently he had his foor too far forward and didn’t realize so when he was yelled at, he moved his foot back a bit and the bike took off as if, he said, it had a mind of its own!

He was also at Dunkirk. This was the time when Hitler’s army had the British troops backed up into the French harbor town of Dunkirk across the English Channel from England. What happened was that all kinds of ships and boats, manned largely by civilians, went across the English Channel to Dunkirk to bring the troops back. The military police were the last off the beach and were told to destroy anything that was left behind that could be used by the enemy. So, he tipped over his beloved motorcycle {named after his two daughters}, undid the gas-tank cap, and set fire to it. He then came back across the channel in a sailing boat with no engine where there were so many soldiers packed in that he stood up all the way holding onto the mast. And he used to tell us how great it felt that  the women on the beaches, civilians all, welcomed the soldiers with a nice cuppa tea !Ok, time to get on with the day. I hope everyone has a good holiday. Fred and I won’t be stirring from the house because, I at least, need to be near the bathroom! We are both feeling ok except for this and if it persists, I do have Immodium AD  which , I know from past experience, is very effective.

QUOTATION: If you have the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.

— David Viscott

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