Skip to main content

Being Thankful

        Hey everyone!  Did you know that this page now has a companion Facebook page?   It will have articles, memes and such that interest me that relate to this page but don't really apply.  Be sure to check it out

 

  Let's be honest, 2020 has been one very odd and stressful year.

    Covid hung over Thanksgiving this year like some weird creepy Uncle that the kids shouldn't be left alone with.   In our family, we ended up having two Thanksgiving dinners.  One with my brother and family on the 21st, the other with Sue's family on the 26th.   

    This has been our first Thanksgiving together with our families in over 15 years.  When we lived in Florida we would come home for Christmas normally, but as children grow and things change, even that holiday seemed to fall by the wayside.   

   We often invited friends that didn't have family in the area or some of the elderly folk over for Thanksgiving dinner when we lived in Florida.  That became a tradition.

    Now however, we were back in Western Pennsylvania and could celebrate with family...sort of.   Which is why we two dinners on two different days.   We were trying to limit the exposure for all parties as much as possible for all parties involved.

    So, I thought I would share with you what I'm grateful for.

  • Family Love.  - Yes, it's is an old saying, but with the loss of my mother earlier this year and some things that have happened it showed me a few things.   When we moved we had friends show up to help load and unload trucks.   We have been very thankful to be surrounded by both biological and extended family.  
  • My Job - No joke, I had my doubts about moving back to PA.  I have a great job and have quickly advanced through the ranks at it.  The company recognizes and advances good work and workers.   In some ways moving home means starting over...but the company has bent over backwards to accommodate me in the last two difficult years.   I appreciate that.  No wonder people spend an average of 20 years with the company.  I have no doubt that I will retire from it.
  • The Homestead - Once again, I had my doubt about the rural lifestyle.  I was born and raised about 75 minutes south of here, in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.   I like city and suburban life, with its easy access to work, public transportation, and a 1001 food choices.   Here, I have learned to appreciate the quiet, the fact that I can look up into the sky and see the stars and constellations of my youth.  I have learned more about wood in a short time period than I would have learned in a lifetime, and have already had new experiences that I would have simply not had if we lived anywhere else. 
  •  

     I don't know what the future here will bring, However I do know that I'm looking forward to it.  With open eyes and an open heart.  I will have some bad days here.  I've no doubt that I will cuss and sweat and question if this is the life I wanted, much less choose.   It is however the life that I have and I'll accept that. 

    Honestly I don't know what 2021 will bring, in the back of my head I fear the worst.  My back ground is in the Sciences and I'm worried about the future, which is one reason why I agreed to move back up north.   It's only going to get worse before things like global warming even start to get better..   

    I do believe things can and will get better, which is one of the reasons I'm here, to help bring about that small change.  We all have to make small changers now, so the bigger changes will not be that drastic...and they will have to be made.  


Comments

What all the cool kids are reading.

You don't give up, you never give up.

 I'm really not in the mood for this.  It's raining again and I am on the phone making calls and sending emails and texts; letting myself get frustrated over things that I know, deep down in my soul, that I can not control. I'm very disappointed in people right now.  Roughly two weeks or so ago I started on a quest to find a small flock of goats of clear some land.   I have made phone calls, texted people, contacted websites and made inquires on sources like Reddit and Facebook.   I even spoke to a few Amish that live in the area.    Leads were given to me by various sources, companies were found and contacts made via text and voice mail, however, no one got back to me.   Not a single one.   No call back from the local 4 - H club.  No call back from the goat farmer.  Emails went unanswered.   Well that's not true.  One company did get back to me but the cost was higher than I expected.  Actual...

Rain and tears and those damned deer. Gardening can be painful.

“ None of us understand what we're doing, but we do beautiful things anyway.” ― Allen Ginsberg   The weatherman stated that we have not had any significant rainfall in over two weeks.  Nor did he see any relief in site. We are not in drought conditions yet, we are just unusually dry.  Interestingly enough, Pennsylvania should be getting warmer and wetter in the future if the climate models hold true.  If we narrow that down even more to my home town , the picture becomes even more interesting.   Solar Punk Pittsburgh For now though, I was worried about my garden.   It is not that big, I basically have a variety of containers around where I am maintaining lettuce, leeks, tomato's, peppers, strawberries, grapes, sunchokes (which I was really interested in growing) and a few other things.     Every garden needs to be watered and I played around with the idea of a r ain water collection systems before, we even had a simple one i...

Rebirth has come at last - reason to hope on Earth Day

I could not let this Earth Day pass without acknowledging some things.  So let's talk about success stories, and why we should have hope for the future. For the first time in a long time I have hope in the environmental movement.  Yes, there are still a lot of climate change deniers out there - and they are becoming more doomsayers than anything.   I used to be one of them, a doomsayer, meaning that I didn't have much hope for the future, and would gladly tell you we were fucked six ways from Sunday.   We still are in a lot of ways...but like the first flowers that are poking through their lovely heads through the ground...we have reasons to hope. In some ways I believe that the pandemic was a shot in the arm for the environmental moment.   Bird watching boomed.  People had time to watch nature shows and documentaries.  Home cooking became something pleasurable for people to do again.  Frankly my interest in cheese making flourishe...