First: Memories
Thankfully, both dates fell on Saturdays this year.
On 1/18/2020, Mrs. Appalachian Irishman, her family, and I honored her father’s older sister, Mona Beckner, for her 98th birthday. My wife asked me to sign the birthday card that she had bought for her aunt. I signed it with the following letter enclosed in the card:
If my math is correct—as I was educated properly in mathematics in school, as opposed to those nowadays who are ”correct” if they think sincerely that one plus one equals three by “new math teaching” (but I digress)—you were born in 1922.
You have a treasure house of life, on which you have spoken and still speak to those who listen. I know that you have written many details of your life. I suggest, once you attain age 100, that you publish your autobiography! You are a bit too young to publish your book yet. Ha!
You are a fine, Christian lady, who has experienced many pleasant times and endured many unfortunate times in life. You have stood firmly on the Solid Rock. In everlastingness, when we are at home, we will enjoy only pleasant times, even better than here, where we are now, on this speck-of-dust, blink-of-an-eye, temporal plane.
As a side note, my mother’s brother, Robert Allen Wood, was born on 5/14/1939. (Mom was born on 11/24/1932.) My uncle, “Bobby,” as he was called, “went to see Jesus” on 1/18/1941, the same date as your birth, in 1922. I look forward to meeting Uncle Bobby at home.
You have my deepest respect and love. My wish and prayer to God is for your health and good life.
Uncle Bobby died from pneumonia, after Granny and Papaw Wood, my mother, and he moved from Indiana to Morristown, Tennessee. Uncle Bobby, I’ve seen photographs of you. I’ve heard about you. I look forward to meeting you in heaven! Say hello to my mother, your older sister, for me!
On 1/25/2008, my father joined his wife and so many others in heaven. I remember every detail. Once again, I have gone through the time of year that remembers the passing of my mother on 12/27/2000, Uncle Bobby on 1/18/1941, and Dad on 1/25/2008. Other articles are about Dad. Selected ones are Tribute to Dad; Well Machine & Water Truck Legacy; and Happy 85th Birthday, Dad.
Life Goes On with a Touch of Humor!
On 1/9/2020, after work, I helped “Comcrap” fix their “Comcraptic” problem on our TV! A $64.07 discount will be on our next bill in payment for my new, as-needed, job as a “Comcrap” technician! I won!
On Saturday, 1/11/2020, I got a haircut. I could see the rain coming. Afterward, my new ol' truck got a good hand wash at the vehicle handwashing spot. I guessed that I could get my truck back into the garage before the rain. I was wrong! Later, after purchasing food and treats at the Tractor Supply for our dog, Molly, the rain started to fall, once I was back inside my truck. That handwashing lasted about 30 minutes! I lost! I checked out at the Tractor Supply at 2:22 PM. Mrs. Appalachian Irishman checked out at the IGA at 2:21 PM. I lost again by one minute!
On Saturday, 1/18/2020, before the family gathering for Aunt Mona, I had my eighth, every-four-week, deep tissue massage for 90 minutes this time, instead of the usual 60 minutes. Dang, if whatever is in my left shoulder is improving and working its way down my left side and to my left hip. I’ll take the aggravation for the improvement. I am winning!
On Monday, 1/20/2020, Mrs. Appalachian Irishman and I were both off work for Martin Luther King Day. Our chiropractor adjusted us at the usual every-four-week interval. He used his new muscle-hammering electric device on me for the first time. That helped! I ordered one online later that day! After the chiropractor, we went to the jewelry store, so that the battery in my hiking watch could be replaced. Then, we ate dinner (not lunch) at a nearby Cracker Barrel with a friend, a few years older than me, with whom I used to work. We hadn’t seen each other for a few years. That was fun! Finally, we went to Target, where I bought a work Timex watch, so I could stop wearing my hiking watch every day for work. Timex watches take a licking but keep on ticking, as I’ve heard. Hey, that’s like me! I win again!
That Monday was supposed to be my transition into a different and better type of job description at work. We’ll see, but so far so good. I might win.
On 1/24/2020, Mrs. Appalachian Irishman and I both came home feeling a bit sickly. That was not good. It was not influenza, so we won!
On 1/25/2020, the anniversary of Dad’s passing, the eldest daughter of my youngest brother and his wife and the Bulls Gap Middle School girls’ basketball team that she is on played a first-round tournament game at Volunteer High School. Mrs. Appalachian Irishman and I attended the same type of game last year, on 1/19/2019. Our niece's team won the game, 43 to 19! That’s a team win!
Now, here I am writing at 4:33 PM on Sunday, 1/26/2020. Mrs. Appalachian Irishman and I are better, but not fully well from the minor bug that we have. It has been a cloudy weekend anyway. I’ll get back into the woods again, but not this weekend.
Conclusion
Enjoy life the best that you can, dear reader! Take the good, bad, and ugly, with an apology to Clint Eastwood. Use humor to get through the bad and ugly. It helps. Remember, sarcastic humor is the intellectual person’s attempt to cope with the realities of life.
Of course, everlasting life on “the other side,” with an apology to Aerosmith, will be completely good! Have you taken up the Good Lord’s free gift offer? Are you living according to it by faith? No one is perfect. God expects faithfulness, not perfection. If so, then everlasting home awaits on “the other side,” the transition from life to everlasting life! The end is only the beginning. We will win, once our physical life becomes everlasting life!
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