Post Thanksgiving Update
Gosh. It gets harder and harder to come up with unique titles for these entries. It's like the writing cells in the brain have gone on a vacation. Hope they come back some day!
Thanksgiving was good. Went up to Sioux Falls to see the family. Spent alot of time with 2 of the cousins who have kids just a little younger than my kids. Spent time with dad too. That was more depressing. He's lonely, having alienated himself from much of what used to be his support system due to his paranoia of what others think about him. His driving is getting scarier and his judgement too. He really needs to come to Des Moines but refuses. Several months ago we looked at a great senior apartment complex close to my home. Too expensive by his standards. He could afford it but yes, it would take most of his social security yada, yada.
Read 2 books by Carol Kent over the weekend..."Laying Down my Isaac" and "The New Kind of Normal". Pretty good.
Now we're speeding headlong into my least favorite time of year. So far, it doesn't have me too anxious. I've lost about 15 pounds since September and with eating better and walking 40 minutes per day, I feel better emotionally as well as physically, etc. I've never liked cold weather, snow and Christmas is skewed so far from what it should be it kinda makes me sick. I've made some fairly good memories during the past few years with my kids but when I was younger, I knew (thought) that everyone else had the big, happy, extended family Christmases that were never a reality for me. We either wouldn't get invited to mom's extended family stuff OR Dad wouldn't want to go and his family didn't really ever do Christmas. I usually got one or two presents each year from Mom and Dad but almost always had figured out what they were before opening them. Oh yeah and of course my birthday is in there too....44....aaaaaaaccccccckkkkkk. Oh well, Brad Pitt's turning 44 too so 44 must be the new 33, right?
