Last week I took a small vacation from The Daily Flag, and during that time I made major business decisions about The Daily Flag and Flags Bay.

I will continue to write for The Daily Flag, but I am reducing the number of articles to one a week, maybe two, which will include occasional book reviews, too.

More than half the people who come to TDF are looking for specific information on flag protocol and etiquette, and I need to make changes on the website so that information is easier to find.

One of the serendipitous consequences of writing at TDF is that I have developed two book ideas which I never would have known about or considered, were it not for TDF and the research required to write here.  I don’t know if these ideas are viable, but I am devoting more time to them. That means trips to distant libraries, because the information I am looking for is not found on the Internet.

I would tell you what the book ideas are, but I cannot (unless you are a book publisher reading here—then one book is an undertold story in American vexillology, and the other idea is about a flag whose mysterious origin, I believe, is deeply buried in one of the oldest and most beloved works in all of English literature. Write me at deborah@flagsbay.com).

Until next week, I remain vexillologically yours, Deborah.

The flag image shown above was adapted from a U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs 1984 Veterans Day poster. The name of the artist is not available presently, but I’m on the hunt.  Isn’t it a beautiful painting!

Subscribe by Email

The first new service is the Subscribe by Email which was added at The Daily Flag. Many of our readers subscribe using the RSS feed on the website, but that’s not for every one. If you don’t know what an RSS feed is, don’t worry about it. It’s geeky techno-jargon anyway.

For our normal readers, the Subscribe by Email is quick and easy to use. In the right sidebar on any page, you will see the place to subscribe by entering your email address. Once you do that, an email is sent to the address typed in to verify it is legitimate. Before your subscription is activated, you must click a link in the email. This takes you to a Flags Bay page for you to click confirm.

This is called a double opt-in email subscription and accomplishes two purposes. First is to keep someone from entering your email address without your permission and second, to make sure you intended to subscribe.

Our privacy policy assures the safety of your email address, and the only thing you receive by this action are new articles written and published at The Daily Flag. You will not receive any junk emails or marketing materials from Flags Bay … ever.

Flag Position Notifications

The second new service is a little different. This is a request notification about flag flying days and half-staff days. We have implemented this from the Flag Store where that feature is built into our store software.

Those on this email list will receive notices of the 20+ designated flag flying days each year (according to the U.S. Flag Code), including the days the flag should be flown at half-staff. For instance, there are two days in February on the designated list, Lincoln’s Birthday and President’s Day (Washington’s Birthday Observed). We will send out emails two or three days prior to these days with a reminder to fly the flag and at what position, full or half-staff.

To be part of this email notification, all you need to do is set up an account at the store. Setting up an account does not require a purchase (though I don’t want to discourage you). Again, this is not a spam or marketing list, and will be used for flag position notifications.

If you need more information on either of these new services, click the Contact tab at the top of this page and fill in the form. The information from that form flies straight into MY inbox insuring a rapid response.

The abundance of this rain summer has resulted in the finest crop of weeds this state has seen in a long time. Now the weeds are going to seed (along with the other green–growing thing that aren’t weeds), and all that stuff floating around in the air can sneak up on a man, which is what happened to Larry. One day he was fine and two days later he was trying to cough up a lung.

He’s been coughing for the past ten days, but somehow today was more than he could take, so he’s horizontal and sleeping, thanks to a splendid variety of drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter—and for now, he is peaceful.

Our postings may be light for the next few days, because I don’t write as much or as quickly as Larry. As soon as he can focus his eyes again, he’ll be back at his computer. Unlike some folks, Larry loves Mondays. He tried not working one time, but it just didn’t feel right and he’s never done it again.

It has rained every day since we arrived, until yesterday —Sunday—when the sun finally came back out and the heat returned, too. We took an extended walk around the grounds and studied the options. My life experience means that I start with easiest and least expensive idea, then progress upwards to conclusion.

I mentioned in a previous post that because we lease this house, I did not want to attach the flags to the house or deck. But this simple, basic installation will work for anyone who wants to display both flags adjacent to each other.

As you can see from the photo, I started with an aluminum tube (old shower curtain rod). I cut the rod in half and drove the two sections into the ground about 18″ deep, and just placed the flag poles into them. I had to add an extra 2′ section to each flag pole to get enough height, but I think the results work.

The wind hasn’t been much of a factor this past week, but I’m sure it can blow, when it takes a notion. Time will tell if my cheap inexpensive installation will hold up to the wind and rain.

It sure is good to see the Red, White, and Blue flying again. I feel better already.

Background

Galveston Bay is a great place to live, and we have enjoyed our time here, but it is a long way from the rest of our family. We live here because of of a job promotion with a company that no longer exists. We stayed here because I like the warm winters and hot summers. (editor’s note: That means he hates to shovel snow.)

Foreground

A month ago, the opportunity to move closer to the family presented itself, and all the pieces quickly fell into place. We jumped at it!

Our granddaughter is growing so fast, and seeing her two or three times a year was just unacceptable. This move puts us within thirty miles of her (oh yeah, and her Mom and Dad—we missed them too)  

Still in Texas

We are relocating to Canyon Lake, which is in the Texas Hill Country. We’ll live on the south side of the man-made lake named—you guessed it—Canyon Lake. We aren’t especially close to the water, but from the front deck, standing on tiptoes, you can see a portion of the lake in the distance.

Deer run rampant and we noticed a pair of Road Runners around the place. The community of Canyon Lake sprawls around the water, similar to here in San Leon, but without the shrimp boats.

The main industry is Recreation provided by the lake and the Guadalupe River. Fishing and tubing bring in people from around the state, especially for long weekends and vacations. The slow moving river, with clear water and cool shade is perfect for an afternoon of relaxing and floating down river for twenty miles or so.

We are excited about this change in our lives, and should be back to normal in about a week. Thanks for your continued support.

By building custom searches in my news reader—Google Reader—I look at 100 to 200 news stories every day. So how does that equal the three to five I publish regularly?

I use this criteria in determining what to publish:

1. Must have a flag tie-in
2. Eliminate the bad news stories
3. Eliminate the controversial news stories
4. Find redeeming feature to the stories
5. Something you probably haven’t already read.

Let me explain each of these.

1) Since this is The Daily Flag, I want the story to have a link to flags. That can be stories about American flags, State flags, racing flags, flag football, or stories about flags in other countries. Because of the broad starting criteria, I begin with a large number of stories to choose from.

2) I eliminate the “bad” news stories, since they receive extensive coverage by the regular news media. I tend to enjoy the positive stories that don’t get as much attention from the main stream sources. Applying the “bad” news criteria quickly eliminates 75% of the stories, leaving me to sort through three or four dozen.

I apply the Apostle Paul’s encouragement here.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, my brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are right, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, think on these things.

3) Next, I tend to stay away from controversial stories on The Daily Flag. I have nothing against controversial stories, and sometimes it is fun to stir things up a little, but that defeats my purpose here—to offer positive, encouraging news that is not covered every day.

4) I love stories with socially-redeeming value. You’ll notice lots of stories about Scouts and Explorers. I want to share stories about young people that are encouraging. There are enough stories about young people in trouble for burglary and murder leading on the 6:00 news, so there’s no room left to talk about the good deeds these young people are doing.

5) I look for stories that haven’t shown up everywhere. If all you see here are stories you’ve already read or watched, I add no value to your day. My purpose is to bring a smile to your face or cause you to go “hmmm …” as you read a story that your local station didn’t cover, even though it might have occurred in your own back yard.

6) One additional thing: a news story must must pass under Deborah’s editorial review.

That covers the process I use to sort through the news to bring you uplifting, positive, encouraging stories.

Larry will ask what I am working on, which is usually research, because I can research for days without actually writing anything (while piling up books and papers all around me, and every pencil I own, plus a ruler, magnifying glass, archival tape, and a stack of jazz CDs), and I write mostly about subjects that are not time-sensitive.

Then he tells me about the ideas and things he is working on, and those items are normally more topical. He writes much faster than I do, and is amazingly organized, and he mind-maps much of what he does. He is digital and I am analog, and thus we maintain a balance of sorts.

After that he asks what I’m fixing for lunch, and I tell him that I haven’t thought about it, and he reminds me that he likes to eat lunch every day, usually about noon, and because we have been married for thirty-seven years, he doesn’t understand why I have to think about it each day. I remind him that I married him “for better or worse” but not lunch every day.

He goes to bed early, gets up early. I stay up late, and sleep late, and he brings me coffee in bed. I load the dishwasher and he unloads it, and he makes sure that my car never runs out of gas, because he knows how much I hate to pump gas (and he records the number of gallons, the price per gallon, and calculates the mileage on his Palm Tungsten T5, because he is digital and I am analog).

On Fridays, we go to the bank, the library (because you can’t write if you are not reading), and eat lunch out (usually Szechuan, but occasionally shrimp or catfish), then hit the office supply and the grocery store. Sometimes we go to a park beside the water, and watch the sailboats leave out for a weekend on Galveston Bay or the Gulf of Mexico, and thus we maintain our balance.

As a first-grader, I was enchanted with the idea of far-away Alaska becoming a state. My teacher showed the class the map of Alaska, and explained how big the state was (bigger than Texas!), and now the biggest in the United States.

What interested me in particular was the beautiful Alaskan flag. I was enthralled by the story of thirteen-year-old John Bell “Benny” Benson, who created a flag that so perfectly represented his state. I didn’t understand that Benny’s design had occurred thirty-three years prior to Alaska’s statehood. But all through the years I remembered Benny’s name, and his “Big Dipper” flag, which is how I thought of it. The Big Dipper was the only collection of stars that I could recognize as a six-year-old.

The next school year, when I was a second grader, Hawaii came into the Union. This time I had a better understanding of statehood. And if I thought Alaska was far away, Hawaii was a string of eight tiny islands, practically lost in the Pacific Ocean, and 2,390 miles from California. I could hardly see it on the map! What a contrast to Alaska.

Why I was more familiar with Hawaii’s flag is a mystery, but I knew that it included the flag of Great Britain, which I recognized from watching television (especially Victory at Sea) and looking at my father’s Navy Reserve magazines. I thought the Hawaiian flag was an amazing concoction of red, white and blue, and as colorful as the islands themselves.

The statehoods of Alaska and Hawaii were the first events of national importance that I can remember, and their flags made a great impression on me.

Fast forward to 2004, when my husband and I moved into a little cottage on Galveston Bay, in Texas. Where others might have a back yard fence, we had a bulkhead and small pier, and the Houston Ship Channel was three miles away. Each day I watched an endless variety of ships flying every flag in the world making their way to and from the Port of Houston, Baytown, and Barbour’s Cut in the upper Bay.

It rekindled my interest in flags, all those flags in the bay. Flags Bay.

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