Where I've lived

 The first 18 years of my life, I lived in an apartment over a grocery store in Anawalt, West Virginia. We had a coal stove in the living room and electric heaters in the bed rooms. Our bathroom was not connected to the living space, so it was unusable for baths in the winter, so we bathed in the living room in a large steel tub. The grocery closed in my late teens, so winters were really cold.

The next four years I lived in Morgantown, WV, in a dorm the first year, an apartment at 69 Ridgewood Ave. the second year, as a Junior I was a hall monitor in another, off campus dorm, and my Senior year I lived in an apartment at 89 Ridgewood Ave.

The next year I lived in a dorm at Harvard Divinity School and the year after that, having married my high school sweetheart, Bern, in an apartment in Somerville.

The next five years we lived in Charleston, WV in a house on Hazelwood Avenue.

For seven years after that we lived in the Rectory of St. Paul's, New Haven for five years and then, separated for a while, in different apartments in New Haven and then, together again, in a house in New Haven.

Since then, we've lived on Cornwall Ave. in Cheshire. Almost 30 years now.

So, I've lived in six different (very) towns and 12 different dwellings.

But here on Cheshire for much the longest--this is 'home'.

Interesting to look back and notice that.

You might want to do that too.

milestone

I just opened my blog and found I have now had 250,003 views.

A quarter of a million views!

I've been averaging over 250 views a day this month.

I thank you all. Your support encourages me to keep writing.

And since I wore my winter coat again today, I needed good news!

So, I'll write on, trying to make the profound trivial and the trivial profound. And everything in between interesting and straight-faced humorous.

Thank you all for sticking with me....

Shalom.

Be well and stay well.

 

Welcome to New England in March

Today about 3, the clouds came and winds that blew the trees crazily. 

Then came the snow, very hard and fast, nearly covering outside our house in Cheshire, CT.

Just as suddenly, it stopped--both the wind and the snow--and in 15 minutes it all melted, leaving everything wet--and the sun came out and the sky turned blue.

A snow squall, I think it called.

March in New England is like that.

It's 20 degrees colder than it was this time yesterday.

I blame Daylight Savings Time.

I got up at my normal time but it was an hour later than it should have been.

DST throws me off for days.

It must have caused the squall.

Just me talkin'....

 

Wandering...

Bern wore a shirt today that said: "All who wander are not lost".

I really like that.

I remembered Dion's song "The Wanderer".

In there somewhere it say, "I roam around, around, around, around...."

Wandering and roaming are good things.

"Wandering" and "wondering" are not that far apart in spelling or meaning.

"Letting your mind wander" can turn up all kinds of things you couldn't have found through logic or directness.

I sometimes just drive around Cheshire, wandering, finding streets and places I've never seen before.

I heard a long piece of NPR today about how valuable 'day dreaming' can be for adults. Kids do it all the time, but adults, when they have spare time, are usually looking at their phones or a screen.

Day dreaming, roaming and wandering can open up areas of our lives and the world that aren't accessible any other way.

So 'wander', my friends. 'Day dream' and 'roam around, around, around, around....

Trust me, you won't be 'lost', but you will be deeply 'enriched'.

Wander and wonder on, beloved....

 

 

I'd forgotten

Since it's been so cold so long, I'd forgotten how annoyed I get by people walking up and down Cornwall Ave. talking with their phones on speaker.

The last few warm days, days for being out on the porch and deck, I've been reminded how much that annoys me.

Get you friend to come walk up or down Cornwall with you--don't have them on speaker phone.

It annoys me.

Most things about cell phones annoy me:

 *people on their phone in the super market asking about what cereal

 *people on their phone in the car, driving like idiots

 *people looking at their phones while in a restaurant

 *people on their cell phones in any public place

I remember the days before cell phones.

Now those days seem like days of a more wondrous time....

 

The warmest day

 Today was the warmest day of the year so far--up at 60 or so.

I love it!

I know it won't last--this in March in New England-anything could happen in the next 3 weeks.

But today was a hint of times to come and gave my heart hope.

In our country, too, we are coming out of a long cold spell into a kind of Spring of Biden.

The Covid Bill passed and was signed. Other bills are in the works on gun control, opening up voting as the states are trying to shut it down, making unions easier to start, minimum wage increase, and more and more.

I listened to a report on line today that said Republicans are attacking (falsely) the 'cancel culture'--Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato head, even Pepi LePew--because they dare not attack Biden. He's too popular with ratings like today's temperatures, high 50's and 60. Higher than the previous president ever got.

(By the way, none of the things they're talking about was 'cancelled'--all were decisions made by the companies who own the rights to the products.)

So, Spring is on it's way in more than just the weather....

The Covid bill

It has finally passed and will do immeasurable good for so many in America.

And it passed, as always, with no Republican Support though 76% of Americans and a majority of Republicans in the country were in favor of it.

If you need a hint of how divided this country is right now, consider this: a bill that will enable more vaccines, give money to millions of families--taking some children out of poverty by tax breaks, pay rents to prevent evictions, secure unemployment benefits through September, help small businesses and provide states and local governments with money to deal with the pandemic--ALL OF THAT, was not supported by a single Republican in the U.S. Congress!!!!

Take a breath, beloved, and ponder that.

Ponder it well.

That's where we are right now.

Alas.