All Alone

It's been a good week so far, as I'm getting comfortable with bachelorhood. It's so nice to clean the kitchen, then come home and find that its still clean. If it weren't for the cats constantly bugging me it would be very peaceful indeed.

A Good Life

Today is June 8th, which happens to be the anniversary of my mother's death. It's always been a fairly solemn day in which I reflect a little bit on her life, but mostly mourn her passing. I usually write something on here about her, but I was thinking that this year I wouldn't because it's kind of depressing for me to do so. But then I was thinking, why should it be a sad, depressing day? My parents both believed firmly in the afterlife and the rewards of living their lives as their faith dictated. I believe they both did this to the best of their abilities, so therefore this should be a day of celebration. Today I celebrate the anniversary of the achievement of my mother's life goal, her reunion with the Lord.

As Generations Pass

Coming from a large family there are a lot of memories of things that are forgotten until I happen to run into a picture of something to jar my memory. There are a lot of little things that just slip my mind, and when I see a photo it brings back memories. Lately these memories have had more of an emotional impact on me than they used to. I think it's because I'm getting older and realize, with a sense of finality, that there will never be times like those again. To put it another way; when we used to have our family get togethers we made the memories. Now when we have them we reminisce about those past gatherings, while our children create their own memories before our eyes.

I was looking at photos today that my oldest sister posted on our family web site. It's amazing to see such a different world in those pictures, one world I recall with fondness, and also the world before my arrival into the family, which was yet another era in family history. My oldest sister is almost twenty years older than I, and to look at pictures of the family members and the homestead before I came into being makes me wish I'd been there then. Mom and dad were so much younger looking, and I can see the bond that existed between the older kids, which was something different for us younger ones. It kind of makes me feel left out - not going through some of the experiences my older siblings went through, but at the same time I realize that I had my own place in something unique and special, my family.

Tis the Season

As we here in Ohio are getting used to the warm weather we also look forward to Orange Barrel season, which immediately follows Pothole season. They overlap most years, so we get to put up with road construction right up until the ground freezes and the snow flies. It's sometimes an adventure trying to worm your way onto the highway when they have half the on ramp blocked and only one lane on the highway open and everyone in a hurry. And I just love it when they block off the road for several miles for several weeks but only work on a small portion of the road at a time. But its good to see our state tax dollars doing their job. Those eight guys standing there watching the one guy fill a hole are depending on us so they can get that raise this year.

Anyway, enough griping. My wife and son are leaving tomorrow for a Florida vacation with my niece and her family, so I will have a whole week to myself. A week of worrying about them, probably, but I'll try to take time to do some relaxing and do stuff I normally can't do, like pee in the kitchen sink, fart all the time and lounge around in my underwear.... oh wait, I do that all the time anyway, so maybe I won't miss them that much after all.