I was out on one of my half mile walks, about a quarter way through, when I passed a house with a large American flag displayed. I have been past the house several times, but today the garage door was open and I saw an older Chevy truck with several patriotic stickers on its rear window.
An old man came walking out of the garage. I asked, “Are you a veteran sir?” He replied that he was ex-navy, and our conversation began. He was a rough, grizzled looking old man, with about half of his teeth gone. I figured him to be well into his nineties. It turned out he is eighty years old, barely two years older than me.
We talked about our time in the navy and what ships we were on and what timeframe that was. Ray had been on a WW-2 cruiser, the USS Canberra and finished his career on the USS Bainbridge, the first and only nuclear powered destroyer class ship. He went from one of the oldest ships in the navy to one of the most modern ships. Ray was an interesting character to meet.
We stood talking for a half hour or more, I am not used to standing that long, my legs were beginning to ache and I still had three quarters of a mile to walk home. I ended our conversation and strolled the rest of the way home and was very tired. I figured a cold refreshing brew might pick me up a bit. It did so well, I had to have another cold one. I love my beer, my coffee and my cigarettes; they help me make it through the day. I have at different times done without them and I could do so still. My thinking is, what time I have left is best spent with things I enjoy in life.
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