On Memorial Day this year, I sounded four bugle calls:

• “Assembly” and “Echo Taps” at the ceremony hosted by VFW Post 1040 at Veterans Park in Lynnwood.
• “Taps” at the retirement community, MorningStar Senior Living at Silver Lake, in Everett.
• “Taps” at the Seattle Mariners baseball game at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.

Judah Deuman, a senior trumpeter at Lynnwood High School, played the “echo” part of “Echo Taps” with me.

These were very significant, “comeback” performances for me. I had not played in public for the past five months.

In my previous blog article, I divulged that during last December, I was having trouble playing my horns. My orthodontist predicted that I should be able to play my horns again by Memorial Day. Sure enough, it happened!

Now, what else could happen? Sciatica, that’s what. While sounding “Assembly” during the morning ceremony in Lynnwood, I discovered I could not hold a steady tone while standing, due to my lower back pain. So, for the rest of the day, I sounded “Taps” while seated on my walker and did just fine.

Who said that old age is just a number? Well, if that’s true, then jail is just a room.

The privilege of sounding “Taps” at the Mariners game that evening is presented in my next blog article.

Please click on any photo to enlarge it.