I used to be in charge of the Christmas letter. No one else would bother and I thought I was funny. It is evidently easy to get me to do things if you tell me I am funny (or clever or pretty much anything positive). I would fire up one of the Macs, find a few pictures and tell stories about the kids or Cindy. I guess without the kids at home and my focus on multiple blogs my writing needs have diminished. This may also be another of those signs of aging.
However, it is a great snowy day here at the cabin and writing allows me a reprieve from getting out the snow blower. I did make it outside earlier to take some photos and some video. One would think the shots from the deck or up the road before there are any tracks would get old. But those of us with poor memory continue to experience the old as new. This is possibly one additional advantage of aging I had not thought of previously. Writing truly is a way to discover.
The entire family made it for Christmas and it was great. We are close to reaching the max size for the cabin (one more coming in March), but we still all fit and I hope there are more such occasions to come. We are in that short time span before the kids of the kids begin having other commitments over the holidays. Still the lake is such a fun place we hope all will make the trip when they can.
Cindy and I are settling into retirement and seem to be having a great time. I guess I cannot speak for Cindy – she does have to spend much more time with me. I now find it difficult to imagine how some folks miss their previous lives or find nothing to do. I think both of us have held on to those previous experiences we enjoyed, but we have also found plenty of new ways to spend our time. In a few days, we will embark on a grand new adventure. We have purchased a small travel trailer and a car with more power to pull it. We have had grand adventures before (multiple trips to Alaska and the extended stay in Russia), but this will be something new. There is enough complexity in operating our new rPod that this should be challenging for those of us who made a living reading books and working on various technology devices. The guy who explained how to use the trailer in 20 minutes had to use a power screwdriver to get at some of the important features. We plan to learn as we go and as long as we can access YouTube or can get to a motel, we should be fine.
As is our custom, we hope to create the next great epic version of “on the road” and share with any interested party. I will post a link to the blog site in a week or so. I have been having dreams already. In my dream, I get the car ready to go, hitch up the rPod, take a picture and generate a blog post, and then can’t get up the icy hill by our house to get to the highway. I always wake up so I can tell you nothing more. Stay tuned.
Hope your holiday break has been great. Stay in touch.
The curmudgeon