Holiday thoughts from the Geezer

This won't be one of those "holiday" notes, where I tell you about the $100,000 wedding of our daughter, or the month we spent in the south of France. Nor will it be "all the stuff I am thankful for".

I actually had some time to reflect today, and here are the results of that reflection. Yes, this is random thoughts, so don't look for consistency.

I was walking into the house, past the garden hose hanging by the garage. Nice hose, got it for Christmas last year. Was there anything wrong with the old one? No, shorter, smaller diameter, kinked up sometimes, but it was faithful in delivering water to the end of the nozzle. The boys asked what I wanted so I told them 75 foot, anti-kink, 5/8 inch flexible hose, and it showed up.

I looked over my list for this year, and I feel so rich and blessed that there is absolutely nothing I couldn't do without on that list, or frankly, anything I need. Nice to have stuff, for certain, but nothing I” really" need.

We are all so fortunate here. Even those with only a little in our great country mostly have food and shelter, there are few if any $750 annual incomes in the USA.

I have great friends. I have a great bunch of folks I do volunteer work with. It is a labor of love, brought about by personal experience. We will not benefit by it, but our families and our kids certainly will. And other folk's kids, and in the end, society in general, with better outcomes for kids, and lower taxes chasing the social pathologies we hope to eliminate.

We give our time freely, and for that great bunch of men and women I am thankful.


I have memories of some opportunities I have been blessed with I would like to share. This list is not exhaustive. The heck with meeting Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Slick Willie Clinton and their ilk. I am more impressed with a little old lady in Mission BC that I had the fortune to visit with along with my friend, Sara on a few Christmas Days in years past, when our kids were with their other parents. It was her "extra" grandma. Nice old lady, told great stories, and she always referred to me as Sara's husband, so it was nice to get a promotion once a year.

She made blankets for the troops during the war, World War II for you younguns, had a sharp mind, could even remember her operator number that was sewn in each blanket. One time, we went up, without calling first (Sara used to roll like that, probably still does. She would have been comfortable being of age in the 60's) and the house was dark. I was fearful she may have died, but the neighbor confirmed that she fell, and was in a nursing home in Port Coquitlam.

Down the road we went.

She was there only a week, but could tell you how many minutes until the next bus came by, just from looking out the window during her week's stay. I want to be like her when I get old. Sharp as a tack. I really don't know why I am still impressed, but it was truly a blessing to be able to meet her, and to have a road trip with great company on a day that otherwise may have been a bit of a downer, without the kids.

When we had the grocery stores in Tacoma, all the big chains, and the small ones were closed, save for ours on Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was a "superette", which means a small supermarket, with meat and produce. It was such a delight to hear folks thank us for being open, with stories about relatives they didn't think would come, but did, and they, without proper holiday dinner food, but we provided for them, and contributed to their family enjoyment.

Yup, that is the sort of thing that I am thankful for, along with the fact I really have all I need.

My sincere wish is that you take a moment, and no matter what your station in life right now, find some simple things as I did, and reflect on their richness, and recall the joy that they brought you.

That is it; I said there was not a plot, or a start or end.

Best for the holidays, keep up the good fight, and be blessed with riches, as to your needs.