I Am Back

My new PC is finally up and running. I have been without a personal PC for a few weeks. This is my excuse for a lack of writing. In addition to the lack of a PC I have been on vacation and my house is in chaos from home improvements and decorating for Christmas. I was also out of town for a few days on our annual family trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I haven't worked for ten days. In that time I have become addicted to getting eight hours of sleep each night. Tomorrow morning I will re-enter the rehab of daily work and less sleep. I will miss my leisurely mornings of drinking coffee and reading the morning news. The time off has been good. The trip to the mountains was enjoyable. The town of Gatlinburg was full of Christmas lights and decorations and it was a good start to getting me in the mood for Christmas. Thanksgiving was another pleasant holiday although it was difficult not to think of the challenging days we had last year at this time with my unplanned hospitalization and my mother in law's death. The night before this year's Thanksgiving I gathered with my old gang from my high school days for an evening of beer drinking and the telling of war stories from our now faraway youth. A little while ago my wife and I had one more dinner with our youngest son before he headed backed to the seminary. I don't think he was anxious to go but I gave him a little pep talk and hopefully he will quickly be back in the swing of things at St. Meinrad.

This past weekend my granddaughter spent the night. Last night as we were lying in bed and talking, after the second or third reprimand from Grandma, Chloe looked at me and said, "I love you, Pa Paw. Don't go to Heaven". She is a very loving child and she worships me. I knew what she was saying to me. She was saying, "Pa Paw, don't leave me". Although she is only five years old, she knows what going to heaven means. She understands that the "Old Grandma" is now in Heaven and she doesn't want me to join her there. I know someday I will make her very sad when I do leave this world but I hope that is a long time from now. I hope I live long enough to watch Chloe grow into a young woman. If I "go to Heaven" and that separates me from Chloe, then it wouldn't really be Heaven for me. Minimum requirements for Heaven are the people I love and good music.

Tomorrow it is back to my regular routine and my "normal" life. Vacation is always great but it must be balanced with not being on vacation. As Arlo Guthrie once said, "You can't really appreciate a light unless you have a dark place to put it in".

It was eight years ago today that George Harrison left the planet. Today I played some of his music in his memory. One line of a song really moved me. I will end these thoughts with this thought from George.

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there".
-George Harrison