Small Town Life

I live in a little town.
It's a place where people know your name.
They know your kids.
They know your business.
It's a little town with a lot of good people.

And it's a place where holidays like Memorial Day mean a lot.

Here's a video of Monday's Memorial Day parade.

(My kid is in the band playing the trombone. )


This is 10am on a holiday morning.

Yet, as you can see, bunches of people are up and at 'em, marching down 32 Mile Road to the cemetery to pay tribute to men and women who gave "the last full measure" in war.
Some things DO matter.

I love this parade.
And the speeches, and the music.
And all the faces of all those people.
I love the tractor at the end of the video.
And that little kid on the scooter.

In a world full of baloney, and bluster and phonies, Romeo is still real.

Really wonderful.

Blue Eyed Blessings

Mother’s Day

This is one of my favorite holidays of the year.
I enjoy it more than Christmas.
And much more than Halloween, or New Year’s Eve, or my birthday.

It’s Mother’s Day.

The day when my two princes,
(or chimps as I used to refer to them) are unusually nice to me, and take me out to breakfast, and buy me little gifts and cards, and hug me with their man-arms, and their razor stubble, tell me that they love me.

None of us is delusional.
Those boys know my many flaws and failures inside out.
In fact, they positively LOVE making fun of me.
Preferably in public.

I am not delusional.
I know I could have done better.
I also know that these princes are not perfect.
I failed them in a lot of different ways.
They have their faults and they have much growing up yet to do.
But in them I see the structure of fine individuals.
Handsome. Sensitive. Strong. Caring and loving.

I was married for seven years before I got pregnant.
I thought (and my doctor thought) it wasn’t ever going to happen.
But it did.
Twice.

And they are the best things that ever happened to me.
I would do anything for them.
God, kids, I love you.