High heat index
I was amused by today's weather report on the radio. It will be 102 today, but it will feel like it's 104. I guess the heat index isn't so high.
Of course, we're mostly in the hotel. Last night was the chorus presentation, I recorded several songs. The leader and organizer is a trumpet player. Clare, I have him playing Battle Hymn of the Republic. I bought a CD. Margaret was quite moved by listening to the wartime music. One of the vets was a school band director. Though the singers were older, the performance had a familiar feel for me (for example, good, but maybe a little too long).
Wednesday night was a river boat ride. Unfortunately, the bus to the boat did not have a lift. Dad was able to make it up several steps. After watching, a couple men carry a woman up ahead of him. And, he made it back as well. We've eased off by skipping bus tours that we've signed up for. Instead, he's taking time for his physical therapy exerices. He wears ankle weights doing the same leg lift exercises that he needed assistance with in December. Margaret worries that he'll have a heart attack doing the exercises and keeps telling him to stop.
The schedule is fairly busy, though it includes long meals waiting for food orders to emerge from hotel restaurant kitchens. Today, we started with a memorial service, where the names of association members who died in the past year are read off. Dad said that 1,500 WWII vets die every day.
I am learning the story of the 99th Infantry Division (See Wikipedia entry), not only from events and presentation but also reading Infantry Soldier, a personal account of the 99th Division by a soldier who later became a journalist. Reading it, I can appreciate why Dad always said that he would never camp because he got enough of that in the war. The infantry was poorly outfitted for the weather conditions. They lived outside for weeks at a time in wet, slushy foxholes and wore thin leather hightops. The author writes of a medic report for a "quiet period" November 12-30, before the Battle of the Bulge, stating that 959 men were evacuated from the division of 14,253; most were from the 3,240 men in rifle platoons. Almost half, 423, suffered from trench foot; 14 percent suffered battlefield casualties, generally mines and booby traps. The 99th battled the weather and the Germans.
Of course, we're mostly in the hotel. Last night was the chorus presentation, I recorded several songs. The leader and organizer is a trumpet player. Clare, I have him playing Battle Hymn of the Republic. I bought a CD. Margaret was quite moved by listening to the wartime music. One of the vets was a school band director. Though the singers were older, the performance had a familiar feel for me (for example, good, but maybe a little too long).
Wednesday night was a river boat ride. Unfortunately, the bus to the boat did not have a lift. Dad was able to make it up several steps. After watching, a couple men carry a woman up ahead of him. And, he made it back as well. We've eased off by skipping bus tours that we've signed up for. Instead, he's taking time for his physical therapy exerices. He wears ankle weights doing the same leg lift exercises that he needed assistance with in December. Margaret worries that he'll have a heart attack doing the exercises and keeps telling him to stop.
The schedule is fairly busy, though it includes long meals waiting for food orders to emerge from hotel restaurant kitchens. Today, we started with a memorial service, where the names of association members who died in the past year are read off. Dad said that 1,500 WWII vets die every day.
I am learning the story of the 99th Infantry Division (See Wikipedia entry), not only from events and presentation but also reading Infantry Soldier, a personal account of the 99th Division by a soldier who later became a journalist. Reading it, I can appreciate why Dad always said that he would never camp because he got enough of that in the war. The infantry was poorly outfitted for the weather conditions. They lived outside for weeks at a time in wet, slushy foxholes and wore thin leather hightops. The author writes of a medic report for a "quiet period" November 12-30, before the Battle of the Bulge, stating that 959 men were evacuated from the division of 14,253; most were from the 3,240 men in rifle platoons. Almost half, 423, suffered from trench foot; 14 percent suffered battlefield casualties, generally mines and booby traps. The 99th battled the weather and the Germans.
posted by Patrick at
11:34 AM
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