Its Veteran's day.  I am not close to any veterans.  My Father was a conscientious objector in World War II and served in the civilian public service camps rather than go to the war.  My Mom's brother was a staunch pacifist and refused to serve in or support WWII in anyway and was sent to jail.  My own brothers managed to be born in a time where they did not get drafted.  They were too young for Vietnam and too old for the Gulf War.  My ex-girlfriend had veterans in her family but I never got that close to them.   I wonder if the holiday means more when you are close to a veteran.  I expect it does.  I do appreciate all the veterans out there who fought in wars to keep the world safe.  I wish that fighting wars was not the way to make the world safe but as long as it continues to be so I thank the veterans for making that sacrifice and serving their country.

I did not get Veterans day off from work.  I used to get time off for it when I worked at NASA Ames Research center because it was a federal government facility.  Now I work for a commercial satellite company so no Veterans day off for me anymore.   It was always an odd holiday in that if it fell on a weekday, that was when we had the holiday.  So sometimes you got a day off in the middle of the week.   I rather liked it as it gave me a day of rest.  Usually holidays are smashed up against the weekend and I often have big travel plans for them and although its fun I get worn out.  With a random day off in the middle of the week, I usually just sleep in and enjoy being at home and getting rested.