Patriot Guard Riders

Today, the Coyote and I provided Patriot Guard Rider funeral procession escort and flag line support for three deceased homeless veterans.

This is the announcement that we received earlier:

"Marc Reichert, Funeral Director has requested the PGR provide honors and escort to SVNC for 3 Vietnam Veterans  Mr. Raymond Morgan, US Marine Corps 1966-1967, Mr. Floyd Preston Jr. US Air Force 1963-1967 and Mr. Timothy Harding US Army 1967- 1969. Services will be Tuesday, May 10, 2016 at 12:00 PM (noon) at Reichert Funeral Chapel, 7320 Auburn Blvd., Citrus Heights, CA. Private burial will follow at Sacramento Valley National Cemetery.

They are  being buried under the Dignity Memorial Homeless Veteran Program.  The PGR are honored to stand for these veterans."

The funeral included active duty Air Force and Marine Honor Guards inside the funeral home, a group of seven prior Marines for a 21-gun salute, a bag piper, 20 or more civilians and American Legion veterans and a dozen or so of us from the Patriot Guard Riders. It was an impressive gathering considering the three veterans passed away with no homes or known families.

The procession included three hearses and about 8 of us on motorcycles.

The event was somber and respectful - something I don't often see these days but I am sure one that is repeated often throughout our nation.

I was glad to be a part of it and felt somewhat closer than I might have otherwise as Mr. Preston served his Air Force tour during exactly the same years I served between the ages of 17-21.  I  kept thinking we very well could have crossed paths along the way...

The scene at the National Cemetery was very nice.  It is about ten years old and the grounds are well maintained.  Our nation is doing a fine job of seeing that our deceased veterans are well taken care of.

The Coyote (his Dad was a retired Army senior enlisted man) and I then returned the 40-odd miles to the Sacramento area on a hot Sacramento afternoon.  He and I have ridden thousands of miles together on our Hogs over the past 18 or so years.  I have written about him in books and blogs often...probably not done yet.

  

You say "ToeMayToe"...

...I say; "Let's get that steer manure and start diggin' the patch."

As our story begins, the end of April fast approaches and we are lagging in getting our tomatoes planted...(Whoops! Here it is May already and even this post lags!).

I have been distracted from the task at hand by tending to Julieann's pretty damn rugged illness that has dogged her for a couple of weeks now. My job?  Walking in and disturbing her every couple of hours by asking, "How you doing?" and then returning to the recliner to reflect further on asking her the same question again.

I did find a few moments to haul the gardening implements out to do a little spade and rake work on the patch but the heavy stuff awaited the skills and muscle of son Tyler and daughter Samantha. Since I am now, in my book, finally old enough to claim age as a factor in dodging heavy work, I was left to getting the two of them here for assistance.  In retrospect, it would have been much easier to just work the spade in stages because aligning their busy schedules turned out to be a pain in the ___.

Nevertheless, Saturday morning the stars aligned and we all got together to attack the terrain in the back of the NorCal Campbell Family Ranch.  It was Tyler, Samantha, this old dude and 9 bags of premium steer manure (As Ty and Sam would have it, counting me there were 10.) gathered en force and ready to roll. We three lefties got'er done with a minimum of harassment.

Also, permit me to explain a couple of the props used in this event:

TC & SC turning steer manure into the earth.
These two know their shit!

First; the masks - there to block pollen and prevent allergic reactions.  Score? A perfect 10 as they are extremely effective.

These here gloves will keep your hands
as tender as they deserve to be.

Second; the gloves - "Atlas Nitrile."  This is a great product that ranks second only to my blogs in its value to mankind. They allow a person to hand dig through the aforementioned tomato patch, pulling roots with no concern at all for the drying or skin cracking events normally associated. Actually, the tactile feel of these gloves is so great I am pretty sure I could perform orthopedic surgery with them...just not on family or most friends.

The dude abides whilst his progeny
does the diggin'.  

Now for the scientific part.  I used Google (The god of all knowledge) for "Sacramento Tomato Plants" and came up with a fine article including recommendations from local expert growers. They suggested a bunch of plants with cool names that I will be hunting today or tomorrow depending on how serious my typical attack of procrastination is.  Here's a few:  "Lemon Boy, Madam Marmande, Steakhouse, Cherry Baby, Striped German (is that a bass or something?), Better Boy, Early Girl (our old stand by), and Aussie."

So there you have it.  Julieann seems better due to the miraculous therapeutic qualities of the oft repeated question: "How you doing?"  As for me, I have run out of excuses...gotta' get those plants and get'em planted PDQ.

A few of my personal gardening tools.
The (stolen) ashtray for stogies has since been repaired.

P.S.  Her daddy taught Sam that systematic spade method.  That both are adept at shoveling manure is an endearing quality that will serve them well in all business matters.