2001-01-01 - 00:25:03

January 1, 2001

Twenty More Years

I'm sitting here by the Great Wall Of Books in my daughter's study. Some few of them came from my store of old and treasured books, some from her childhood and many from her husbands vast store of books and his encyclopedia from several publishers. What a storehouse of learning for our grandchildren -- above and beyond the reading material they have in their rooms.

In my ruminations (def. chewing my mental cud --yuck !) in a sort of laid back way the enjoyment washes over me like a soft, warm rain of bliss. The grand-children are asleep, daughterand her husband are at the house of friends for awhile probably will arrive for a cup of coffee before they hit the bed.

A wrap up of my year ? Being with family, celebrating someone's birthday each month, sometimes two or more. We have a grand-son who celebrates his birthday the same day as Heather. January birthdays are multitudinous, one of our daughters has a birthday on December 28 -- I tried to give her my birthday so that she would never feel cheated, with Christmas and her birthday so close together. But Heather nixed it, "Her birthday is her birthday and it will be celebrated on December 28 every year, and we will bust our buttons to see that itwill be a great affair -- so have we done ! I really didn't think my idea was so far off the wall though, if I remember correctly I think that Robert Louis Stevenson gave his birthday to a lad who was born on a leap year day. Daughter has always been so good about it and always has shown her thankfulness for the things given her.

Being with Heather all the time, not having to leave her to go to work as I did for many years.

The gift of Webtv for a birthday present some time ago because Heather and one of our grandsons thought it would give me pleasure and keep me out of her kitchen and generally from underfoot. The longer I am on it the better it gets. Oh my has it been a great thing for me. One of the huge advantages is that it circumvents my hearing problem by putting words in black and white right in front of me -- no missed or misunderstood words. As a one-time ham radio operator the hankering for communication with people has always been with me. The internet seems to me to be ideal, I send e-mail at my convenience and the receiver reads it at their pleasure. No hanging on and waiting, while thirst or nature's urges make a conversation short. Along with that are the number or journalists I read and communicate with, the forums I like to post to. Wow, how could it be any better ?

Weather -- to my satisfaction Denver is the place to live, not from home-town prejudice, but on consideration the weather is mild in comparison to the rest of the country. Tornados, cyclones very rare. Warm, sunny days in between light snow storms(most often). Our nearness to places of recreation such as the Rockies and Front Range excursion routes.

With luck and pure damnfoolishness I will go past the century mark in 2021 -- in only Twenty More Years. . . . .

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