Memorial Day 2019 Edition...More Places To Visit

It dawned on me as we drove away from our town's cemetery this afternoon, that the older I get, the more places I can visit each Memorial Day. Today, we visited my parents's gravesite. But it wasn't the only gravesite we needed to visit today.

There's another one, a new one.

Almost every Memorial Day since 1974 I've gone to a certain spot in the Farmington City Cemetery, a little south and west of center. In 2008 the family gathered not just for the fallen patriarch, but our matriarch as well. 

But because the only constant is change, our family now has a new destination to visit at our local cemetery, more south and more west, almost to the very corner of the cemetery itself. Last year, we had no reason to venture so far south and west. This year...well, it's a different story.

I don't know if it's weird, but I love seeing our cemetery on Memorial Day. There's beautiful flowers on most graves. There's pin wheels and balloons, American flags and stuffed animals. Those are the temporary things. The more permanent ones, the headstones and monuments, they'll eventually be gone, too. And, if things work out as planned, one day my wife and I will be part of the ecosystem as well, a little south and west of center.

Memorial Day at our cemetery is beautiful, for all the right reasons.

The Bulova Accutron 2181 Turning Fork Men's Watch...

Last year my father-in-law passed away. I blogged about it at the time. I also blogged about some items I inherited after he passed.

Watches.

I was given my wife's father's watches.

There were half a dozen of them. You can check out the blog post: HERE. Most were of the wind-up variety, but a couple required batteries to run, a fairly new Seiko, and a vintage Bulova. I'd seen the Bulova at my in-laws's house several times. To be honest, I didn't know anything about the watch until my mother-in-law, for a Christmas present, gave it to me again. This time it ran beautifully.

I've collected several watches over the years--not so many now. The ones I really like don't require batteries, and they're harder to come by. But I knew nothing of the Accutron models. What I've learned about them, after doing a little research, is fascinating.

Here's some information about the watches from a website:

While a mechanical watch uses a mainspring and a balance wheel, Bulova came up with a battery that makes a tuning fork vibrate – the tuning fork replaces the balance wheel as a regulator, powered by electromagnets attached to a battery-powered transistor circuit. The vibrations of the tuning fork are impossible to see – the Accutron’s frequency is 360Hz; later models from other brands vibrated at even higher frequencies. The mechanism is very small compared to a conventional watch mechanism, and is virtually invisible. A tooth of the ratchet wheel measures 0.025 mm in width and 0.01 mm in height. The wheel itself has a diameter of 2.4 mm and carries 300 teeth. The material used here is beryllium copper, which can be easily milled, especially in such miniscule size ranges.

A tuning fork--are you kidding me? Who'd have thunk it?

I guess smarter people than me. You can access the website: HERE.

My wife remembers her father wearing the watch and listening to it hum--you can actually hear the hum when you hold it up to your ear...no "tick-tock," just hum. It's very cool!

I have several favorites out of all the watches I've collected--most used to belong to my dad. Over time those watches have stopped working. No wonder since many are over seventy years old. But I'll be adding a new watch to my favorites, a Bulova Accurton 2181 watch with a 14K gold-filled case and a tuning fork inside making it all run smoothly. 

Very cool, indeed!

An Unexpected...And Beautifully Touching Gift

It's the season for giving, and receiving, gifts. For us, it started before Thanksgiving, but a better gift I can hardly imagine.

My wife lost her father this past summer. He had been in poor health for years and the end came relatively quick. When a person has declined for so long and they pass away, we can take some comfort in knowing they're no longer in pain, that their ailing body no longer incarcerates their soul.

There are many things that remind me of my father-in-law. My oldest drives his Ford Taurus to school, work, and on dates. I moved his desk into the basement and work there from home, and now that it's turning cold, I wear his winter coats. Last week I found myself thinking of him, his wonderfully dry humor, his kind nature, and I found myself missing him.

Then, the package arrived.

Most packages we get are addressed to my son--he's the one who orders most things in our house. But this package was addressed to my wife and me. We opened it up and discovered it came from my wife's oldest sister and her husband. They sent a box from the Western Nut Company. It's a local business that has been delicious nut concoctions for decades. The second we opened the box, I thought of Blaine. He loved Western Nut Company and their goods. He always ordered a box for the holidays--it was tradition.

I showed my wife the box, and when we read the accompanying card, we both got misty. It will be the family's first Christmas without their patriarch. The incredibly thoughtful gift made us realize what a fine man he was and what we're going to be missing. It also made us realize that, in some small way, he'll be with us after all.

Veterans Day, 2018...It's All About Time

I've been alive for a few big anniversaries. I remember watching TV on July 4th, 1976, and, of course, the whole world watched as the calendar changed from 1999 to the year 2000. Today we celebrated the one-hundred year anniversary of the first great war ending.

I think this one means more to me than the other two.

One could argue which has more meaning, but to me, the Bicentennial was neat, but I was a ten-year old kid. I didn't understand the significance of the United States in the history of the world. And the Year 2000 event was amazing, but it's just a number. If you're a non-Christian, I don't know why you'd celebrate it, and if you are a Christian, many experts agree that it wasn't exactly two-thousand years since Christ was born.

But today means more, because it involves family, and by extension, all of us.

I love watches and I've been fortunate enough to have inherited several from both my father and father-in-law. Since my dad passed away two and a half years before the Bicentennial, his watches are old. My father-in-law had both old and new. At precisely 11am this morning, I pulled out my father-in-law's newest (and most favorite...) watch and filmed it hit 11am exactly. I also took pictures of the two older Bulovas owned by each of them and photographed them, too.

Both men, Dad and Blaine, served their country, my father in WWII, and father-in-law in the Korean War. Both sacrificed. Both survived. I never heard stories about either of their experiences--one because he passed away decades ago, and the other because he didn't like to talk about it. He, too, has left us.

A hundred years ago today a chapter of humanity's darkest history closed, only to be re-opened again and again since. We celebrate the day, express our thanks, then do it all over again a few years later. In the end, it's about time. It's about how we use that time, how we think and treat others. I have watches that are reminders of two great men who gave their time so me and my family could live the life we live now. Thank you Harry and Blaine, and thank you everyone and their families that continue to give of their time for us.

My Father-In-Law, My Wife's Dear Father...Is Gone

The text message contained only two words.

He's gone.

Even though previous text messages said the end could happen at any time, the two simple words--the first a contraction of two words: he is, and the last, a verb, expresses a state of being--punched me in the gut with the finality of it all.

There's a void when someone leaves us, and not just to travel to another city, state, or country. Their spirit that once resided in the same world as us has left, leaving an emptiness. The man I knew almost twenty years longer than my own father passed away today. Ten days ago we gathered at the home he and my wife's mother built. We shared his eighty-seventh birthday.

Words seem to lack the sufficient weight to try and explain feelings, emotions, thoughts, and memories. And we're all exhausted. Tomorrow the sun will rise and it will be not as bright, but it will bring with it hope. Goodbye, Blaine...until we meet again.

Happy Birthday...To A Sweet, Sweet Man

Today was my father-in-law's birthday. We loaded up the van this afternoon and dropped by for a visit complete with ice cream and pie. Due to commitments, we weren't able to stay too long.

I have a lot of thoughts when I think of my father-in-law. I've known him for twenty-six years, decades longer than I knew my own father. He's been a wonderful father figure for me as I transitioned from single adult, to newly married husband, to first-time father, to a father of four. He's been there the whole time.

Growing up without a father in the home, you don't realize what you don't know. I thought I knew about being a father. I mean, the big things I thought I could handle, but having someone in my family that showed me how to navigate the sometimes stormy seas of fatherhood has been a Godsend. 

And not only has he been a wonderful example for me, he's been an absolute dream as a grandfather of my children. Since my dad passed, my children (nor my wife...) were never able to meet my dad, so my father-in-law's been my children's only example of a grandfather. I consider my kids lucky to have had such a man in their lives, a man who's shown them the value of hard work, of respect for things, for frugal living, and staying committed to family.

Yes, today we visited my father-in-law, my wife's dad, my children's grandpa on his birthday. Thanks Blaine, for everything.