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.  


Labels:
Location: Stoneboro, PA 16153, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

What all the cool kids are reading.

Getting things done. Small victories add up.

In the new TV show Fallout there is a great line.  " The Golden Rule of the wasteland is thou shalt be distracted by bullshit every single time." I've never played the game it is based on but the picture shows the two newest distractions in my life.  We have taken care of our former neighbors barn cats since he moved out nearly a year ago.   Long story short the mama cat gave birth in his barn that we we given access to.  We found four little black long hair kittens and decided to take them, as it would probably be the only time we would be able to catch them.   Much to our surprise after a day or so the mama came over and started to milk them laying on our kitchen floor.  She's comes in, feeds them and then goes back outside.  Once they are mature enough to have them fixed we are planning on doing so and then they will go to a good home.   That's the plan...but plans have a tendency to change as one or two of them are findi...
Post a Comment
Read more

America's 250th - I am still a Patriot, I still believe....

  I could not let America's 250th birthday pass without some comment.   I love this country, but frankly this is not the country that I grew up in.   I'm not sure exactly where we went wrong and although it would be very easy to blame the current administration and the whole MAGA movement, that is to easy of a solution and not entirely true. What ills America today is a combination of things.   A combination of errors, bad decisions, mistakes that created a cascading effort.   We simply are not the country we thought we were and the proverbial chickens have come home roost.   Nor do I have a solution.    So why write about America's 250th birthday at all?   Because I believe in this country, despite where we are currently.  Because I am a student of history and we have seen all this before, and we have seen the solution to it as well.  Because after much thought about the state of the world and reading ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Just a short interlude to catch up.

  resting cat Recently I found myself with a bit of time on my hands.  Normally this time of year my wife and I like to take some vacation time.   We generally don't go to far, having visited Niagara Falls and New York state the last two years, the plan this year was to go south, to visit an old friend that has just accepted a facility position at Duke University .   A few days there, a few days in Charlotte; where I once lived and then, if we had time, a few days in Charleston, SC where I also lived for a brief time. Sadly however, due to circumstances that I won't get into here, our vacation became a staycation .  Which was fine because I still had a tree to plant from the Native Plant sale, odds and ends to do and to continue my war against some aggressive neighboring plants, which it seems I was now finding everywhere, as well as other small jobs that I've been putting off. I actually wondered if it would be affordable (and reasonable) to rent a f...
Post a Comment
Read more