It’s really been a strange week for me (for a variety of reasons) – I’m off on vacation all week, and have been doing a lot of physical hard labor (over a period of a few days), and I’m just exhausted from it – over the weekend, moving all the junk from the garage into a U-haul truck so that a new garage door can be installed, and then moving (most) all of it back into the garage yesterday. I did make an effort yesterday to throw out a bunch of stuff that I will never ever use. – stuff I’ve kept when I downsized from my house I had with GMR, into this townhouse twelve yrs ago. There is still a ton of stuff to pitch someday – the secret is to rent a dumpster – when my (ex)wife and I moved from our first home to the lake home in Shoreview, we rented a dumpster and over a week’s time, we filled that thing up – this wasn’t a back alley eight foot by eight foot dumpster you see in the TV shows, but a real “demo” (demolition) dumpster, eight feet wide by sixteen or twenty feet long. This was close to twenty five yrs ago, when you would think, one wouldn’t have as much stuff in your thirties than you have now in your fifties.
I pity the person who’s going to have to go through my “possessions” once I leave this world, it’ll take them weeks, if not months to go through it all.
[maybe I just leave my estate to the Smithsonian and let them deal with it]Well, this posting really got off the rails, didn’t it??
Woke up really, really early this morning, and I’m just sitting on the lazyboy in the sun porch watching the sun rise. Haven’t done that in awhile. Twenty five yrs ago, I would get up early, and go out to the deck and and sit in one of our deck chairs, gazing out at the water on the lake – at this time in the morning, it was like a sheet of glass. It was so very tranquil. God, I really miss that house, that lake, coming home after work each day, and taking the boat out on the water, for a few hours each evening, not to mention all the time we spent on the water (or on the deck, eating, and laughing, and teasing each other), each weekend with Gail’s family. Man, my life was so different back then – I don’t think I had any worries (but I did have a job that i wasn’t suited for, making me unhappy, and consequently making the people that I led at the time, think of me as a pretty bad team lead, but, that’s another story for a different day).
[Well, talking about a post going off the rails – omg, Brian.]Where was I?? Talking about early morning tranquility, being on the water, being with a family that (for the most part) loves you.
Yup, life was different back then. Life is different now. Much different – I would not give up the last six and a half years for anything – not for a boat, not for a house on the water.
[of course, I’m speaking about having Lailah come into my life, and the awesomeness that comes with her, the unconditional love, the laughs, the faces, the giggles, the fun we have with each other.]I have a nice life, it’s not perfect, and I’m very glad to have the life I live. I do not want for anything (other than my next chocolate bar). I have the ability to sometimes help others who need help, and, for that I’m grateful that I can help them.
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There is a model railroad convention in town this week, it started yesterday – I missed the first day of it since I was still dealing with having to unload that stupid U-Haul truck, but today, I’m going to go to it this morning, and then this afternoon, will be going to see some model railroaders’ home layouts in their basements. That is one of the greatest aspects of these conventions, the local model railroaders open their homes to strangers to share their creativity, their hard work, in order to help inspire others with this hobby. Isn’t that totally cool? What other hobby does this? There are stamping clubs, memory book crafters that invite people over to “craft” together (and maybe quilters too?)- I think there is a sense of camaraderie amongst hobbyists, I guess it’s similar to those that attend sports games together, tailgating, etc.
Been up for two hours now, have to take the u-haul back before nine am, then get my tail into gear, and over to Bloomington for this convention.
More later – might have some photos of the MRR layouts later.
Have a great day everyone.
