Something unexpected

Today, I made my deliver to the Marine liaison office at BAMC for Operation Santa, which was sponsored the Marine Corps Family Foundation. The Marines in the office were very professional, and Cpl. Rodriguez engaged me in polite conversation as he took me up to the very tiny office of his boss, LtCol. Olbrich. I talked briefly with the LtCol about the donation. He thanked me for it, saying it would be a nice treat for his Marines since most of the holiday goodies have already come and gone. Departing, I mentioned I was going to be making a side trip to pick up some very tasty take out from Karam's, a Mexican food restaurant down on Zarzamora Street that my dad has been going to since he was in a high chair. It isn't far from downtown. If it was already dark, I'd have had to go home without my tamales, chili con carne and rice - I wouldn't have gone there alone, since I'm pretty sure the surrounding area isn't the safest part of San Antonio. On my way there, once I had gotten off the interstate, I was stopped at a stop light at the intersection of Commerce and Colorado. I noticed a mural on the wall of a building on the far opposite corner. I didn't have my good camera with me, but I had my new toy, a Pure Digital Flip video camera, in my purse. I was able to get it out and take a short video before the light changed to green. Sorry for the small size of the image captured from the video:

It's a mural honoring Vietnam Veterans. It says "You are not forgotten" and includes along the bottom the Vietnam Service Ribbon. The top center of the image is a bald eagle and the American flag. Of course, there are soldiers, aircraft and images of the environment our soldiers encountered. Seemed fitting I would see something like this while I was in San Antonio in a very small support role for Operation Santa.

By the way, dinner was delicious ;-)