The stars that shall be bright when we are dust

I took the title of today's entry from a poem, one line of it has been made famous by Peter Jackson's documentary in the title, They Shall Not Grow Old. The poem itself is called "For the Fallen," and I picked a different line for today.

Doug had wanted to head into DC to see the dedication of the World War I Memorial. Last night was the illumination night, and all weekend there were festivities celebrating this dedication. The memorial has been open since 2021, and before that there was a memorial there and it was called Pershing Park. As Mister History over there follows a lot of things, well, he was game to getting to go and see this.

We headed into the city around 4 which was perfect timing for getting down there. It was hot today, around 85 degrees, not nearly as horrible as it has been all summer, so today was lovely.

They had a wonderful band playing and displays of WWI memorabilia. We met a woman who is involved with a WWI restoration project of a building her grandfather worked on which is now being reassembled at the 29th Division Museum in Virginia. 

The sculpture is impressive. It is titled "A Soldier's Journey" and follows the story of a soldier who leaves home, goes through the horrors of battle, and actually returns to his family. 

When I saw this, I thought for sure that wasn't the father at the end but another soldier handing her his helmet. But reading about it on multiple websites, it turns out that's indeed him, returning home to her. 

I have to admit, thinking about her receiving her dead father's helmet kind of floored me. Reading what the story is here, with a happy ending as it were, well. That.

The anchors of the sculpture for me are the beginning where his daughter hands him his helmet at the far left, and at the end, the far right, he hands it back to her when he returns home. 

And everything in between is amazing. 

If you get to DC, of all the memorials, go see this one. 

There were folks dressed in reenactment garb from soldiers to nurses to dogs. I got a group shot of everyone but the professional photographer's strap was dangling down at the far left. I cropped it but I am not good on my phone with editing things out. 

As we were getting ready to go, I heard a young man with a French accent talking to a much older man in military garb. The younger man said "World War I is so often forgotten and overshadowed. This is a special place." And the older man nodded, he said "I have to admit, I know so little about World War I. Thank you for bringing me here today." 

That was very touching to me. 

They play Taps every night at 5pm there. Today they played Last Post and followed it with Taps. It was very beautiful. 

There are a ton of great websites, this one features an amazing drone flight around the memorial - go watch it! 

We walked around the Sherman statue, thinking that we'd go over and walk over around the White House but the roads are all blocked off, and it looked complicated. 

We were hungry. 

So we walked away and over to Capitol City Brewing. I remembered Linda and I ate there in 2019 in between 2 nights of Guster, and I was laughing thinking about that weekend's adventure with her. 

We crushed it with the walking today and I actually felt pretty awesome even when we got home. We were sitting in the restaurant and I asked Doug if he wanted to walk the 10 blocks to .... 

No. No he did not. 

What a day. Here are some pictures. Enjoy. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 2 good solid walks. First was 22 minutes (Metro station to WWI memorial and all around it). Second was 29 minutes (WWI Memorial walk around, and walk to restaurant). 11k steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

10am: 187
3:45pm: 150
10:15pm: 165

food:
coffee/water
11:30am: English Muffin w/pb and a touch of cherry preserves; metformin
3pm: handful of pepperoni
6pm: chicken piccata w/couscous, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, 2 beers; metformin+jardiance
8:30pm: ramekin chicken salad; a couple beers