I was trying to think of a good title for this morning's post, but with my mind whirling, it's hard to think straight, so I opted for simple....and here's why it's "Reconnecting":
On Saturday, my hubby and I made a drive to Vermont, where his dad and step-mom live, to deliver Christmas presents in a surprise visit. It's normally a little over 4 hours for the trip without any stops along the way, and with the weather reports all saying "Sunny, but cold", we thought it would be a "no problem" trip.
Obviously, no one gave that weather report to the mountain passes that shorten the trip, however, so we found ourselves on a two lane highway that goes over the mountains in the middle of a white out, unable to see more than 5 feet ahead and on very slippery roads. (I'm glad the hubster insisted that the chair we were bringing as a present wouldn't fit in my car, as his truck has 4 wheel drive capability, and we needed that a couple of times.) Needless to say, we took the longer route home, staying in the valleys as much as possible for the return trip, relying less on the 4 wheel drive and relaxing a bit more, only hitting some snow flurries on the one section that didn't give us an option of a valley passage over the White Mountains.
The long drive and the hairy period when going through a total white out situation allowed us a long time to talk, and on arriving home, I set out to locate some of the people we spoke of during that trip whom we've lost touch with at one point or another. That's what my title refers to: that we were intending on reconnecting with some long lost friends and relatives. Of course, it helps that, in the years since a friend gave me my first internet-capable computer with the understanding that I would do research for him, I've become something of an expert at internet searches, coming up with fewer and fewer pages that I dubbed "pink bunny slippers" in my early days (because the results had as much to do with what I was searching for as a pair of pink bunny slippers) and actually finding what I'm looking for 99% of the time these days.
Sometimes, however, this isn't as good a thing as I'd like, as the search for one of our missing friends brought me to this:
http://www.derrynews.com/obituaries/george-dubois/article_bb102791-cc1e-521e-881a-1652d80f4c0b.html
George and my hubby used to work together at The North Conway Racketball Club back when playing racketball was a big thing. The club also had a gym, a sauna and a jacuzzi, and since I was related to one of the employees, I got to use the facilities for free. George (or, as we called him with heavy fake Mexican accents, "Hor-hey") was always a blast to hang around, and Buck the Wonder Dog, who wore a hat and sunglasses while riding in his master's canoe, was one of the sweetest animals you'd ever meet.
Of course, there's a bit of a Twilight Zone feel about this find, as my husband was diagnosed in August with Deep Vein Thrombosis and is currently on Xarelto to thin his blood and hopefully dissolve a clot in his thigh. It really brings a bit of fear to roost to know that someone who was always eating healthy, always on the go, has passed away from this very thing....and two years ago, at the same age my husband is right now....
Do I need to express why, in addition to trying to figure out what to get for our siblings, parents, and grandchildren, I have a little niggling voice that keeps telling me I need to worry about next year and what it may bring my way? (I try to shut that voice down, but it's like a rat in the sewers. I block up one exit and it just goes through the pipes to come back up somewhere else.)
In the meantime, one of the ones whom I was going to search must have been thinking of us a few days ago, as my hubby's only remaining sibling, whom we hadn't heard from in a couple of years, sent us a Christmas card that arrived yesterday. Even as we mourn George, we're very grateful that Dottie is still with us, as her ex-husband passed away in 2009 from Parkinson's and she had been seeming more and more depressed since then. With my hubby looking mortality in the eye, it's always good to hear from an older sibling who is still hanging on.
So my advice to all who read my blog is simply this: Use the holiday season for something more than just buying gifts and dreaming about what you'd really love to find under the tree. Reconnect with family and friends before they're gone from your sight forever. Tell everyone how much you love them in little ways, whether it be a simple hug and a kiss or by doing something extra special for them that tells them how much they mean to you.
You never know when that place at your table will be vacated, so don't waste another day.
I hope that all who read this have a truly magical holiday season and that you all know how much I appreciate you coming to visit me here.
Blessed be, in 2016 and beyond.
P.S. Having visited my mom last week and being given the chance to reconnect with a former neighbor who was as much of a mom to me as my own mother, I'm even more determined to locate my great-grandfather's family. Going over my findings with my mom while delivering some paperwork about her siblings who died in Canada as babies, I'm determined to leave the legacy of our family tree for others to use as a "jumping off point" in finding their branch of my family tree. At the rate I'm going, I may find that I'm just 6 degrees of separation from many of you....and we may well be related not too many generations back......
On Saturday, my hubby and I made a drive to Vermont, where his dad and step-mom live, to deliver Christmas presents in a surprise visit. It's normally a little over 4 hours for the trip without any stops along the way, and with the weather reports all saying "Sunny, but cold", we thought it would be a "no problem" trip.
Obviously, no one gave that weather report to the mountain passes that shorten the trip, however, so we found ourselves on a two lane highway that goes over the mountains in the middle of a white out, unable to see more than 5 feet ahead and on very slippery roads. (I'm glad the hubster insisted that the chair we were bringing as a present wouldn't fit in my car, as his truck has 4 wheel drive capability, and we needed that a couple of times.) Needless to say, we took the longer route home, staying in the valleys as much as possible for the return trip, relying less on the 4 wheel drive and relaxing a bit more, only hitting some snow flurries on the one section that didn't give us an option of a valley passage over the White Mountains.
The long drive and the hairy period when going through a total white out situation allowed us a long time to talk, and on arriving home, I set out to locate some of the people we spoke of during that trip whom we've lost touch with at one point or another. That's what my title refers to: that we were intending on reconnecting with some long lost friends and relatives. Of course, it helps that, in the years since a friend gave me my first internet-capable computer with the understanding that I would do research for him, I've become something of an expert at internet searches, coming up with fewer and fewer pages that I dubbed "pink bunny slippers" in my early days (because the results had as much to do with what I was searching for as a pair of pink bunny slippers) and actually finding what I'm looking for 99% of the time these days.
Sometimes, however, this isn't as good a thing as I'd like, as the search for one of our missing friends brought me to this:
http://www.derrynews.com/obituaries/george-dubois/article_bb102791-cc1e-521e-881a-1652d80f4c0b.html
George and my hubby used to work together at The North Conway Racketball Club back when playing racketball was a big thing. The club also had a gym, a sauna and a jacuzzi, and since I was related to one of the employees, I got to use the facilities for free. George (or, as we called him with heavy fake Mexican accents, "Hor-hey") was always a blast to hang around, and Buck the Wonder Dog, who wore a hat and sunglasses while riding in his master's canoe, was one of the sweetest animals you'd ever meet.
Of course, there's a bit of a Twilight Zone feel about this find, as my husband was diagnosed in August with Deep Vein Thrombosis and is currently on Xarelto to thin his blood and hopefully dissolve a clot in his thigh. It really brings a bit of fear to roost to know that someone who was always eating healthy, always on the go, has passed away from this very thing....and two years ago, at the same age my husband is right now....
Do I need to express why, in addition to trying to figure out what to get for our siblings, parents, and grandchildren, I have a little niggling voice that keeps telling me I need to worry about next year and what it may bring my way? (I try to shut that voice down, but it's like a rat in the sewers. I block up one exit and it just goes through the pipes to come back up somewhere else.)
In the meantime, one of the ones whom I was going to search must have been thinking of us a few days ago, as my hubby's only remaining sibling, whom we hadn't heard from in a couple of years, sent us a Christmas card that arrived yesterday. Even as we mourn George, we're very grateful that Dottie is still with us, as her ex-husband passed away in 2009 from Parkinson's and she had been seeming more and more depressed since then. With my hubby looking mortality in the eye, it's always good to hear from an older sibling who is still hanging on.
So my advice to all who read my blog is simply this: Use the holiday season for something more than just buying gifts and dreaming about what you'd really love to find under the tree. Reconnect with family and friends before they're gone from your sight forever. Tell everyone how much you love them in little ways, whether it be a simple hug and a kiss or by doing something extra special for them that tells them how much they mean to you.
You never know when that place at your table will be vacated, so don't waste another day.
I hope that all who read this have a truly magical holiday season and that you all know how much I appreciate you coming to visit me here.
Blessed be, in 2016 and beyond.
P.S. Having visited my mom last week and being given the chance to reconnect with a former neighbor who was as much of a mom to me as my own mother, I'm even more determined to locate my great-grandfather's family. Going over my findings with my mom while delivering some paperwork about her siblings who died in Canada as babies, I'm determined to leave the legacy of our family tree for others to use as a "jumping off point" in finding their branch of my family tree. At the rate I'm going, I may find that I'm just 6 degrees of separation from many of you....and we may well be related not too many generations back......
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