A Funny Thing Happened On My Way To..

37 years ago today, equipped with a Rolls Royce limo on loan from a friend, a new 3-piece suit, a couple of gold rings (created by another friend) and accompanied by my best friend, a beautiful young lady attired in a dress sewn with love by still another friend, I stepped onto the Northwestern University campus to begin my pursuit of higher education. And what an education it turned out to be. I attended classes in parenting, patience, humility, sorrow, forgiveness, repentance, the value of friendship and, above all, love. I learned to endure bad times as well as good times. My professors were many, they came from every direction, from different walks of life and probably never realized the roles that they were playing in my life, and, that beautiful young lady put the class into classmate. She not only shared those 37 years of "education", but guided me through them. She was my tutor, companion, lover, inspiration and best buddy. She helped me pass my tough tests while she aced some really tough ones her own. When I stood in that little chapel on the NU campus I put my first 37 years behind me and started fresh. Now, I have another 37 years behind me as I look forward the next semester.
Every Thanksgiving I have another year of marriage to be thankful for, thanks to the friends, family and that beautiful young lady in the homemade dress who helped make it possible !

Thanks Jo! I love you.

On the trail to many more happy years!

Farewell!

This time I have a reasonable excuse for not posting in a long while.
Last Friday my Mom passed away. It was a sad time and a happy time. For the past few years her quality of life wasn't the most enjoyable. The time that wasn't spent sitting in a wheelchair was spent lying in a bed. In spite of her physical confinement, her mind was as free and active as that of a twenty year old. The world came to her by way of the many books that she read. Mostly cheerful, seldom complaining she had a way of brightening up otherwise deary times. As our family sat around this weekend discussing remembrances of our life with her, it seemed like the only memories were happy ones and we ended up spending most of the time laughing. I think if she could have planned her own wake that's the way she would have liked to be. My Mom's real strengths were her patience and her sense of humor. An example of both of these traits was the fact that she has been an avid Cub fan for 97 years. (And as Derek put it, never saw them win a World Series) I'd like to think that some of her patience rubbed off on me. After all I taught her to drive when she was 40 years old. This was a real lesson in patience as well as a realization that I probably should never take up teaching as a profession seeing as how she had an accident during her driving test. The written one. (Only kidding, it was the driving part) I could go on for paragraphs with little stories about Mom after all, there are 97 years of them. So, here's to Mom. She survived open heart surgery, cancer and 74 years of me. Now that's one tough lady.

Bye Mom, catch you on the flip side!

My baby sister, Mary, Mom and I.
(Mom's the one in the middle)

Sharing some humorous remembrance from the past.

Mom always would work her way over to the window to wave
a pleasant goodbye to anyone who came to visit her.

Nice Talkin' to Ya!

I've been sitting here waiting for something to happen that would prompt a really great post. Ain't happnin'!
This has been a funny year although it hasn't been very funny. It's been a nice year but a little short on the spectacular type of year we usually experience. I'm starting to get worried about putting together my hopefully hilarious Holiday Enquirer. We took two vacations and they were nice. We visited with friends and family. The visits were nice. I took a bunch of pictures (nice ones) but nothing outstanding. Still waiting to come across my "Photo Of The Year" (POTY). Recently my son Rick flew in from California for a nice visit, we celebrated Jo's Mom's birthday with a nice party attended by all of her nice children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren, and just last week, we had a nice time watching Saffron have a nice adventurous Halloween.
On the BIG news side, I did buy a nice new monitor to go along with my nice new computing machine. It's big! (at least for me it is) Looking back on the days using a borrowed Mac SE with about a nine inch screen this twenty two incher seems like CinemaScope.
Here are a few nice pictures to view while I wait for inspiration to strike.

Here is one determined little bee
getting ready to hit the pavement in search of treats!

"Here's my bag! Fill'er up!"

Trick or Treatin' on Abbey Lane. Where's Paul?

The Old Mac SE30

The BMOC
(Big monitor on Something that starts with C)