2000-03-03 - 01:11:13

Heather and I did errands today that had been deferred for several days. She is not in top form, but feeling better. The thing that worries me is the pains she gets periodically. I think she is taking the right approach, to try getting the infection conquered first - doctor put her on a course of one of the high test anti-biotics which is used for drug resistant strains of bug.

We took our time and muddled aroung as the moisture began to manifest itself. Did our thing and stopped off at Denny's to eat on the way home. We really splurged today, we each got a chicken fajita skillet - larrupin' and then stopped off at the supermarket and got a few necessaries - and then home in the snow - wasn't slick then. Don't know what rush hour was like - I think the black top was too warm to get slick. We were glad we didn't have to find out the hard way. The vehicles coming from the west were carrying snow, so the west side and the foothills were getting much needed moisture.

We are still working on the family photo library - putting together an album for each child - and the complete set of albums for us. It's quite an undertaking, at which Heather has in her mind the chronological sequence down pat. I can roughly figure things out but not like her. Although the pictures bring back to us the happy days of raising children, and their individual triumphs, the set of pictures our oldest son took while he was at Valley Forge Boy Scout Jamboree are priceless. Some of the later pictures taken by me when I was tech-reping over in the Orient, many from Japan, Subic Bay in the Phillipines, and on board the aircraft carriers on Yankee Station. Later when the Navy gave the Skyraider aircraft to the Vietnamese I did a tour in 'Nam the following year at Nakom Phanom, Thailand. I even got to Taipei for several days on a civilian type tdy. I had many nice pics and had sorted the mediocre ones and tossed them several years ago. We ended up picking the best of the best for the albums and putting the rest in the typical homebodys storage receptacle - a sturdy cardboard box which would fit on the closet shelf. Going through those pics was almost travelling back in time, our memories were spurred while looking at the Ago's.

The first few days of the month I usually finalize the month's budget and try to fit everything in. Man, those birthdays and anniversaries for our extended family keep the months with at least one birthday, Valentines Day, Father's Day and Mother's Day - - -yadda, yadda, yadda.

While out today I spied some green stuff poking up out of the ground, a little bit early for Denver I think. I remember one "almost" April we had a heavy snow followed by freezing weather that lowered the boom on the early bulb plants - that year bedding plants were at a premium. Petunias were as gold. One year here it was cold enough to badly nip the leaves coming out on the shrubs and trees. Things stayed bare for the early warm weather. But for the most part, winters in Denver are mild - but not as mild as Texas where Miz Bee publishes her "The Chattering," or as mild as Sandy of "Dirt Road Ramblin" has it, but a durn sight better than most of the rest of the country.

I love the winter in Eugene, Oregon - the grass is green the year around and there are so many evergreen trees that the bare deciduous trees are hardly noticed. The temperature there is mild, but the sky stays cloudy most all of the winter and it rains buckets by the second. Our daughter has adapted well for a Denver girl, her husband has traveled extensively as a young man with his family and already was used to most any kind of weather, and the two grandchildren were born there. But Heather grouses a bit about the cold, cold weather and wears sweats and sweaters around the house when the rest of us are beginning to sweat. She doesn't like the rain all the time either. Seems to be charcteristic of humanity to moan about the "now" weather and dream how nice it is in West Podunk, Missalina.

Brings to mind my transition from boy to man, caused me to notice the difference between the beautiful snow scenes and the cool weather, and scraping ice from the windshields, grubbling our way through the cold, cold snow and the north wind, and playing ice rink with our cars on the road home. And coping with whatever trouble winter had brought to our domicile on that go round.

Reminds me of the three dudes who went camping and fishing for a few days. One newbie and two old hands. They arrived at their selected spot and everyone put up�the tent and gathered firewood. Around meal time the "in" guys broke the news to the tenderfoot that one of the three would be cook, until someone complained - then the complainer automatically became the cook. They flipped a coin to see who was going to be cook. Luck was against the new guy, it seemed and he pitched in and tried to come up with a good meal, they all ate without comment that night. The next day something had crawled into the groceries and died. ol' newbie couldn't tell the difference and tried to build a noon meal, and he cooked enough that they could sup of it in the evening too. The two conspirators choked the mess down, while the newbie just figured it tasted funny from the campfire. Evening arrived, tenderfoot had reheated the earlier meal and served it when the men gathered round. After a bite or two one man started cussing, griping and moaning and saying the food wasn't fit to slop the hogs, and realizing they had more than a week yet to stay out, he weakly smiled and said, "Oh, but I like it, I like it. So as my children grew up and were enchanted with the winterI had to smile and say, "Oh, but I like it, I like it.

Blog