KattyWilly

Over at the Big Happy Fun House it’s resolution time.  For my resolution I’m just hoping to get the Christmas decorations put away and get the house cleaned up.  I’m thinking that at the pace I’m going it might take all year.

How does this one sound?  “I’m selling all my crap, buying a motorhome and spending the next year
traveling the US and visiting some of you. It’s something I’ve wanted
to do for sometime now.” 

Just before Cindy died we had started talking about wat we would do once the girls went off to college, and at times the discussion would drift even farther into the future and we’d wonder what our life would be like when we retired.  I would joke that we would sell the house get a nice motor home and see the country.  Cindy would laugh and I think she didn’t relish the thought of living in a motorhome.  But I think we both liked the thought of travelling.  I’ll have to see if the Big Happy Fun House US tour makes it’s way to Florida.  It would be fun having a found home movie show.  I’ll provide the popcorn.

He finishes with more talk about death and happiness,

“A good friend of mine (who is no longer with us) once told me ‘Everyday above ground be happy.’
I’m going to go be happy.”

Here’s to many more days above ground, whether they suck or don’t.  And if you are in the neighborhood be sure to stop on by.  Oh, and free pie, and the bowling alley is just up the road.

The Bucs won the football game today. That was fun, and a great excuse for not making much progress on putting away the Christmas decorations (memories). Some people think it is early, but when you’ve had that tree up since the weekend after Thanksgiving, and it was cut sometime last fall, and sat in the Florida sun for several weeks, it’s time! Besides it’s the New Year! Time for cleaning up and starting a fresh new year.

I received a very nice electronic New Years Card today.  I really enjoyed it.  And then I thought about it for a while.

Chelsey and I are good at having arguments sometimes.  Today we had a nice discussion, er, argument about my attempts at guessing what kind of food she would like me to get at the grocery store. 

Lindsey gladly goes grocery shopping with me.  That way she gets what she likes to eat.  Chelsey on the other hand almost passes out at the uttering of the word grocery.  You would think that spending a few minutes in the local trash n’ karry was like being sent to one of those prisons where they don’t torture the prisoners.  So she was upset that even though the fridge and the cupboard are filled to overflowing with a variety of food, there wasn’t anything to eat.  So I explained it from my point of veiw, she yelled at me from her point of view and then we degenerate to yelling about what words we did or didn’t just say 🙂  It ends up being a discussion, er, argument about whether I said allways or all the time, or everytime, not about whatever it was that happens all the time, or everytime, or none of the time as the case may be.

So I was reading this very nice News Years Card with that sort of deep semantic thought process.  I got to the end where it says,

“Happiness that lasts months
Friendships that last years
But most of all
LOVE that lasts a lifetime!”

So I thought about that last line for a while,  and specifically the differences bewteen a love that lasts a lifetime, and having someone to love for a lifetime.  In my case I feel like I’ve experienced the love that lasts a lifetime.  Many widows and widowers have that knowledge that they will always love the one that they have lost.  There is an emotional scar in us that doesn’t ever heal, and our love for the one we have lost settles in and around that scar so that everytime we feel the pain of that wound we also feel the love that will be there forever along with that scar and it’s pain.

So I have to wonder if that is enough, a love that will be with me for the rest of my life.  A love that can’t be given back.  Can’t be expressed in the ways love should be.  And I read back a few lines and decide that for now I would hope to find Happiness that lasts months.  I know that I have friendships that will last years.  I met many of those friends at the New Years dinner and parties  last night.  Though those friendships are somehow different now.  They to can’t be shared the way they once were. 

So I’m all for a year that doesn’t suck, and I’m hopeful…  (that word sounds interesting) that this year I can find Happiness that lasts months.  Knowing that you can’t just choose to be happy, but you can choose to have fun.

Here’s to a fun year that has hope for happiness, and doesn’t suck.

Over at Widow Shmidow the motto for the year 2006 is “May your year not suck“

Sounds good to me.

Happy New Year!  Rabbit Rabbit

Here’s something I like about sending out my Christmas cards each year. For just the price of a stamp the post office will tell you that it knows what my friend’s new address is and prints a nice sticker on the envelope of my Christmas cards and then sends them back to me so I can update my address book. Cool!

I also discovered that if you cross out the incorrect address and write in the new one from the address that’s on the envelope and after putting on a fresh stamp put it in the mailbox the letter carrier will gleefully take the letter and then send it back to you again several days later 🙂

At least they didn’t cancel the stamps the second time they returned it so I can now address a fresh envelope and cut out the uncancelled stamp and paste it on a minty fresh newly addressed envelope to go out for the third try.

So if you didn’t get a Christmas Card from me yet don’t give up, I’m still trying.  And just in case here is what it looks like, a photo of the girls and I standing on the Charles Bridge in Prague from our trip last Christmas.

Halley’s doing weather reports so I thought I’d mention that it is absolutely georgeous here today. I was out at lunch and found this little Russian market where I picked up a bottle of Obolon Premium beer from the Ukraine and a Kiper Bock from Poland. And what would some nice beer be without some Mikado Cornichons? Maybe a couple of slices of brown bread that I picked up at the Czech deli the other day. Yum!

Anyway enough food back to the weather. It’s in the high 60’s and low 70’s here with clear skies and bright sunshine. Oh, and of course it wouldn’t be Florida if there wasn’t A TROPICAL STORM OUT IN THE ATLANTIC!!!! WTF!!! I guess mother nature wanted to sneak one last named storm in before the year was out. What a sense of humor she has. So on this most beautiful Winter’s day in the sun I’ll raise a toast to Tropical Storm Zeta (Jones?) with a nice gherkin and a cold Obolon! Here’s to the end of named storms in the year 2005!

Halley is wondering what the bloggers are up to today, note: I’m not one of
those famous bloggers she lists :).

I’m at work, wishing I was home with the girls. I’m also looking up a
recipe for a friend that putting together her menu for the New Year’s
Eve party. I like making a traditional southern dish, as in South
America. It’s a Feijoada, or Brazilian Black Bean Stew. It’s a nice
hearty warm dish that is somewhere between a stew and a soup when I make
it. I use this  recipe as my starting point and more easyify it by substituting
canned beans and usually use different sausages and meats each time I
make it depending on what looks good at the market. Here’s another
recipe that includes a yummy looking photo.

Over at Heathervescent
she is asking “If money was not an issue, what kind of life would you
lead?”

I have been thinking about this for the past few years. In my case
I’ve been trying to figure out how much money it would take for money
not to be an issue. That is I’ve been hoping to change my life so
that I could spend as much time as possible with my girls.

I guess in the best case scenario I would still work, but for the
school system so I would have the same schedule as my kids. I would
be on vacation when they are so they would be sitting at home during
the winter break while I’m here at work wishing I was at home, or even
better that the girls and I were off on vacation somewhere. Maybe
visiting relatives, or seeing the country.

And then there is trying to make sure that they will have all the
opportunities for college that they have worked so hard at in
elementary and middle school.

And having a comfortable home to raise the girls in. We already have
that I think, it’s just a matter of maintaining it at this point.

So I would lead the same kind of life at least in the short term but
with more time for me to spend with the girls. Once they are off to
college … not real sure what will happen t

One of my daily aggregator flows is BigHappyFunHouse. I think
Ron lives in the Chicago area where I happened to grow up. He collects
old photos and posts them to his web site. There are some great
photos over there. Every now and then I’ll see something in those
old photos that looks so familiar. A piece of furniture, or a lamp, or
sometimes a
face that somehow looks familiar. I’m certain it’s only a matter of
time before I spot a photo of myself taken by someone at some point in
my past.