Sunday, December 02, 2007

Off the Dallas...

12/02/2007

It’s 9:54 on a beautiful Saturday morning that is the 1st of December, 2007.  This day finds Mother and I (“Mother” would be The Nancy) on an American flight heading for Dallas.  We are going to see some very brave people and celebrate their birth, so to speak.

This weekend three years ago had me in Dallas finishing up the fourth day of five days of intense introspective known as the Millennium Advanced Workshop.  A workshop that means the world to me and those who know me, but may not know that the man I am today is who I am because of Millenium3 Education (http://www.millennium3education.com).  This weekend pilgrimage is done in support of and to honor these folks who have spent this time to find out who they are and what they are about.  Most people really don’t want to know who they truly are or what they are about – facing a truth they have hidden for all their lives can be painful, while being the victim of it is so much easier.  That’s all on that subject.  I don’t want to frighten you.  Just know the program, the three workshops I attended, is the best thing I ever did for me, and might be for you.

Trips to Dallas are not always so serious.  We have a lot of fun there, as well.  Dallas, we kind of hang in the outskirts of the city, is in an area of Texas that can best be described as flat, as in devoid of terrain.  I look at Texas as basically flat and flatter.  It’s so flat around Dallas there is no such thing as downhill.  I was on the third floor of a hotel in Dallas the last time I was there and I swear I could see Houston in the distance; it’s that flat.

I don’t mean to belittle Dallas.  I owe a lot to my days spent there.  A friend of mine called me one time and told me he just had the best view of the City of Dallas he ever had, it was in his rearview mirror.  I don’t feel that way about the city; I actually very much love my trips to Dallas.  One of my favorite microbreweries is there, BJ’s on Beltline.  Great place, good memories.

Did you know that Dallas spelled backwards almost spells salad?

And that is all I have to say about that…

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Hot Chocolate, Anyone?...

11/29/2007

My of my favorite people on the planet sent this to me.  I liked it so much that rather than pass it to a few by e-mail, I decided to post it here for more to read and enjoy.

Life Is Like Hot Chocolate

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.  During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives.  Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: “Notice that all the nice looking; expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones.  While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you’re drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate.  In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups… And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups.  They are just tools to hold and contain life.  The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have.  Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us.  God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don’t have the best of everything.  They just make the best of everything that they have. Live simply.  Love generously.  Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate.

And that is all I have to say about that…

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Thanksgiving Aftermath...

11/25/2007

Here it is three days past Thanksgiving.  All of our wonderful guests have departed, the house is back together; bed clothes washed and beds remade for the next overnighters, the furniture moved back to its original places, carpets vacuumed and about a ton and half of refuse ready for pickup, but not until next Wednesday.  It took The Nancy and me about an hour to rid the house of all evidence there had been twenty-three people tramping through it.  The house became eerily silent after the last of our guests departed yesterday morning and the cat came out of hiding.  I am missing the activity, but it’s nice to see the cat again.

Our dinner went very well – we have this almost to a science these days.  Well, almost a science.  The Nancy did let me know I did not prepare enough mashed potatoes for our guests.  Allow me to qualify this: the judgment was made by her after all our visitors had been served and she was letting me know there would be no leftover tators – and that’s how she determined not enough potatoes were mashed.  We did manage to fill the fridge with a myriad of other unconsumed side dishes – leftovers!  We have sweet potatoes, carrots, Alton Brown’s green bean casserole, three kinds of dressing, gravy, ham and just a little turkey (I planned the turkey right on the number, but The Nancy thinks I should have made more).  We also had a bunch of desserts left, those we couldn’t send home with anyone, and some fudge and another homemade candy.  I’ll take care of the sweets.  Most of this stuff will sit in our refrigerator until we toss it sometime early next week (before the trash dude comes) or after it turns green and moldy.  We have decided to eat out for the next few days.

Thanksgiving heralds the upcoming Holiday Season (aka Christmas Season for us professionals).  This begins the time of year when folks in this country get into the spirit of giving.  Personally, outside of springtime, this is my favorite time of the year.  People get nicer, kinder and gentler.  It seems inappropriate to flip anyone off in December, no matter how much they might deserve the gesture – even though it may be offered in the “spirit of giving.”

Today is Sunday and it is a perfect day here in Beautiful Downtown Berkeley Springs, West Virginia (aka Town of Bath), population 711.  Soon the village will be bustling with Christmas shoppers and adorned in Season decorations.  Many of the houses in the village and around the county are already lighting up at night dressed in multi-colored lights and Christmas décor, and some will just turn on those they never took down from last year.  Thanksgiving 2007 is behind us now with Christmas and the first day of 2008 is just a little over a month away.  Where did the year go?

I am thankful for so many things this day.  I don’t think there is enough space here for the entire list.  So just know this Hell of a Guy thanks you for being a part of his life.  Today for me is just an opportunity to spend another day in paradise.  Shucks, if I were any better, I’d have to be twins. 

And that is all I have to say about that…

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Thanksgiving Remembered...

11/22/2007

Today is Thanksgiving Day and it’s just a tad after 6AM.  I awoke this morning thinking of all The Nancy and I have to do to prepare for our twenty-plus guests for today’s feast.  As I lay there, all snuggled in the warmth and comfort of our bed, I began to mull over some of my past Thanksgivings.

The one with the most impact occurred just ten years ago on a Thanksgiving Day.  That one is the day in 1997 that my dad past away.  He was ninety-three.  I still miss him and think of him often.

As a kid, Thanksgiving was a really great day for me and my brothers and sisters.  It was turkey day, and those only came twice a year – Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Thanksgiving dinner was always at home.  With seven people making up the White family, we never got invited to anyone’s home for Thanksgiving, but that was okay; Thanksgiving was still a very special day.

In addition to turkey, Thanksgiving was one of two days in a year when cranberry sauce would grace our table (same as now, for the most part).  The memory of cranberry sauce is very vivid.  It came in a can and it slid out of it in a homogenous glob once the ends of the can were removed.  It tasted better than it looked.  The turkey generally looked better than it tasted.  My mom was not Betty Crocker.  Turkey, as was most other meats she prepared, was cooked until the meat began to separate from the carcass.  It was as dry as a paper napkin, and had to be smothered with the lumpy gravy she made to make it palatable.  Still, it was the best meal of the year and we all loved and looked forward to it.  I think the Thanksgiving aromas wafting through the house had a lot to do with specialness of the day. 

Thanksgiving Day was also the day of the City-Poly Annual Football Classic.  “City” officially known as The Baltimore City College and “Poly” the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute had the oldest high school football rivalry in Baltimore, and for years it was played on Thanksgiving Day at the old Memorial Stadium on 33rd Street.  City won the contest each of the three years I was in high school, and my Thanksgiving meals in 1959, 1960 and 1961 probably consisted of a couple of hotdogs and a Coca Cola.  Good Years for sure. 

These days The Nancy and I are making our own Thanksgiving memories.  Four out of the past five Thanksgivings we have hosted between eighteen and twenty-five people for dinner.  This year I think we have twenty-two.  After about seven trips to the grocery store and the depletion of our check book, we are ready.  One turkey cooked and another to go in the oven around ten this morning.  Three kinds of stuffing, Alton Brown’s green bean casserole, streusel sweet potatoes (fancy for crumbs and marshmallows), garlic mashed tators, Hell-of-a-Guy made cranberry relish and sauce, sautéed Brussels sprouts, kale with caramelized red onions and garlic, hot potato rolls, five pies, a cake, homemade vanilla ice cream and a partridge in a pear tree.  Yep! We is ready!!!

Thanksgiving, though, is so much more than a meal, especially this one for me.  I am so thankful for so much, now that I have a personal relationship with God (we are friends again).  Today I get to be with a whole bunch of people I love.  I get to cook and I get to entertain.  I get to hug.  If there is any sadness in this day, it is only because of those I so dearly love who cannot be here to enjoy this day with me, and I will miss them.  And, I will miss you, too!  Thanks to all of you for being a part of my life. 

And that is all I have to say about that…

PS to Dad:  I miss you.