Round Robin

It is time for me to do another round robin Schnelle letter. For those of you who do not know what that is about, it is letter package that has been circulating for some 50 some  years. It was started by Reuel, Emma, Ray, Ira generation. I recall hearing about it when Emma was still on the farm, AKA before 1963. I think it had been going on some time at that point. It is a... read the other letters, take out your old letter, add new letter and send it on to the next on the list operation. I inherited the duty after mother was returned.

I am not a natural letter writer, as my mother was. I had a difficult time with her grammar, and my difficulties with my own. My issue is I don't care about grammar, and cannot remember literal strings, aka words that are not not spelled as they sound. Also, I like to write in stream of consciousness, not in classic paragraphs, with a start, middle and end.

It was nice getting caught up with you all again. Time is having its way with we all.

Life has been kind of uneventful since the family gathering last August at Albert and Mary's for their 50 wedding adversity. Winter came and went finally. Summer was hot, fall dry, and winter is back. A whole year has come and gone, with the typical trips to see Sue's family in BC and Saskatchewan.  Sue had a second cousin come from France, so we took him on a Banff - Jasper trip. Two of Sue's brothers from BC met us in Jasper. After we returned, Sue and her cousin went to Sask, from where he left to return to France.

I did renew my personal engineering permit in the spring, but have not done much, mainly phone consulting with my old clients, but now that winter has set in, I am retired. The permit runs out in the spring, and will not be renewed. Well, it is not my intent at this time... fate willing.

Thanksgiving we had the whole of Sue's generation of family here from both BC and Sask. That was an experience which will likely not happen again. Age and illness is creeping up on several of those.

The garden was ok, and this was the ideal year for beets. Some of them were massive, volleyball sized things, not quite basketball sized. Most were 6 to 7 inch diameters, and a few as small as 4 inches. Detroit Reds.

I have become even more reclusive and eccentric in the year. This has resulted in me reading the ancients Greeks and Roman Stoics and adopting parts of there philosophy. It has been liberating and clarifying. I now understand effects on me of growing up in a household where my father had resentments toward his family of origin and many others. This, combined with the passive approach to parenting resulted in me, such as I am. Oh well, I now understand and have made steps to correct the most severe issues, but who cares. It was all the standards of the various times, and is all history, as told by the survivors.  

As some of you know, I started this blog, which has not resulted in the lively discussion I had hoped for. Oh well, I am just going through life for the first time, so it is all a learning experience anyway. Also blogging is fairly new and unexplored. It only appeals to a few and is a great study in human agendas, communications, or the lack thereof. Also it will just appeal to a computer comfortable subset of humanity, but not to those who are Facebook comfortable or unaware their data mining activities. Oh well, I am just doing life without parole, but the end is coming nearer.

Anyways, the round robin is on it's way soon. If anyone would like to join in, please advise.

Merry Christmas

Just to  wish you all ...
Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukkah
Joyous Solstices
what ever may be appropriate.