The Challenge

Bringing you high quality blogs since.... okay, we are working on that one.

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Timer Started My Pop passed away early this year. One of the things I have found hard to express is that suddenly a timer has started. My father was about 20 years older than me. Wow!!! That means if I live more than 20 more years, I win. Man Steve, that was one morbid thought. Legacy I have mentioned needing a purpose in previous blogs. In a sense, I believe leaving some kind of legacy has to be my goal. Now, I just need to decide what that legacy will be. There is a lot that could be done. Should my legacy be monetary? Should my legacy be philosophical? Should my legacy be made of Play-Doh? Christmas One of the best things I can think to give anyone is fond memories of Christmas, so that has become important to me. There are currently 5 children under 6 in the family and I am likely going to spend a crap load on them, but possibly not for what they may be expecting. I am thinking of things such as baby dolls, wooden blocks, Tinker Toys, Legos, and Lincoln Logs. I do believe that toys like this that don't actually do anything are beneficial in several ways. Many would say they help a kid in terms of being creative. The other thing is that if you get a toy that "does" something, once the kid gets tired of what the toy does, it gets cast asside. Memories I have very fond memories of Christmas. As I described in a previous blog, my Pop's Christmas ritual gave me a very good sense of family and it seems even stonger now that he has passed. Somehow as you get older your picture of the world changes. When you are young you are very self centered, you think of what you get for Christmas. As you get older you begin to think more of who was giving and why. Spoiling I have five kids on my Christmas list. They are all under six. There are the 2 daughters of one of my brother's daughters, and one son and one daughter of my brother's other daughter. Also, there is the daughter of my cousin, who passed away at the ripe old age of 29 earlier this year. Yes, they must all be spoiled. How? A good hour or so spent on Amazon and Walmart did the trick. Older, Wiser, Dog Food One of the great things about becoming an old fart is that you develop thoughts that make you far superior to all of these young whipper snappers. No, you may not invent the internet, but you come up with things. My contribution? I learned how to empty a near empty dog food bag. My entire life I have ended up spilling the remainder of the food because the whole at the top of the bag was so big. Not now, because I am older and wiser than these young whipper snappers. I simply cut a small whole in the bottom corner of the bag and all the remaining pieces come out easily!!! Youth is wasted on the young. Sense of Family As Steve the Patriarch, I am wondering how I can impart that sense of family to the younger members of the clan. Spoiling the crap out of them is a start, but I really need to figure out something else. Christmas cards are a possibility. Somehow finding a way to teach the children well has become a priority. I want them to take pride in themselves and their family. Christmas Travel Yea, I must make the trek to Alabama for Christmas. I love it when I am there, but the trip there is usually pretty rough. I tend to get sick and stop a lot, but I should be able to take off plenty of time and Scooby and I will take our time. The return trip is hard in a different way. While I have only got sick returning to South Carolina once, it is terribly hard to leave Sweet Home Alabama and come back to my isolation in South Carolina. Once I become accustomed to having family around, it is very hard to give up.

Blog Topics I have actually sort of had blog topics recently, which is pretty cool. The only problem I see is that I seem to take the blog topics that nobody else wants. Maybe instead of the hermit blog, this should be the blog orphanage or something. A Nurse I ran across a really cool blog about the life of a nurse. Check it out. Background Another thing I do for my atmosphere is to have a slideshow of images on my desktop. I have two 22" 1080p monitors, each of which have beautiful pictures from around the world that cycle through. It definitely gives you a peaceful easy feeling. Nature For some reason the pictures that I am collecting are largely nature photos. I may add some impressionist art, which I love, but simple nature photos seem to have become a favorite these days. Black and white photography, such as that by Ansel  Adams is also a favorite. Elections I was just reading a story on a new offensive in Afghanistan. Yea, this is way off topic. It occurs to me that what places like this need is some way to assure honest elections. It is easy to think of the President of Afghanistan as a U.S. puppet. It would be interesting if they came up with some way to monitor elections with impartial observers, although I am not sure who could be considered impartial. Prices I did my Christmas shopping online and am pretty satisfied. I noticed that the prices at Walmart are much cheaper than Amazon for the same items. I saw about a 20% difference in a couple of things. Most of the stuff I got came from Amazon because of the wider selection, but Walmart is a good for deals. Also, I had a TV in my shopping cart at Amazon. I put it there just after Thanksgiving. I come back today and it is about $200 cheaper. Be picky about when you order.

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Doing the holidays right!!!

Take Care,
 Steve