Greatfulls 2013

For a long time, I had a yearly tradition that I started long before the advent of Blogs, Facebook Posts and Tweets where I took a minute or three to write down all of the things that I was grateful from the previous years. I called the list my Great-Full List and even kept them in a small metal box for decades. Of course, over the course of 30 or so years, that box has long since vanished from 1000s of miles of travel and many different life changes. I recall that I did do one Great-Full a few years back on one of my blogs, but have long since fallen out of the habit of doing it.

Part of that, especially in recent years, is due to the fact that things have not been the greatest and I oftentimes felt that I had very little to be actually grateful for. Another part is sheer laziness. Between writing books and short stories and three very popular blogs, I have really felt that I didn't have the time or the energy to mess with this once yearly tradition that I followed for so long. Well, with all that has happened to me in such a short period of time, I feel that this is an excellent time to bring an old tradition back. I have so much to be grateful for so here is the first Great-Fulls list of a brand new tradition. Hope you like it.

I am grateful for my amazing Wife. She has stuck with me through hard times and good times while putting up with my insanity and oddness. She has loved me and supported me for over a decade and I simply cannot imagine life without her. Actually that is a lie, I have a very good imagination and can imagine my life without her, but it isn't a world I would want to have to live in. Thank you, Paula for being crazy enough to marry me and dedicated enough to stay with me.

I am grateful for my Family, both blood relations and the ones I have been fortunate enough to find as the years passed by. Being the oddball that I am, I have not always gotten along well with my blood kin, but I still love them and am proud to call them my family. Through the magic of the Interwebz, I have rediscovered several people who are not my family by blood, but by choice. Men and women who are just as much my brothers and sisters as my biological ones. Phil, Ben, Shag, Mary and so many more make me a better person and make my life better.

I am grateful for my newly rediscovered faith. Times right now are especially hard and I oftentimes wonder if things will work out. The love and support of amazing people that I had never even known half a year ago have given me a strength that keeps me going. I still have my doubts and fears, but I also believe that things will work out in the end.

I am grateful that, for the first time in 5 years, I have a job. Admittedly it is only a seasonal job which will end at the end of December, but it is employment bringing in some much needed income. I also have a chance at a job that I really wanted and that gives me hope for the future.

I am grateful that my health still continues to be well. As a Diabetic, I live in terror of the many complications that can arise from the disease, but so far in the four years I have been ill, none of the horrors one reads about have happened. I work hard to keep myself healthy and I am grateful that so far my efforts have worked.

I think that everyone has their own Great-Fulls and I hope most people see them even when things get hard and dark. What kind of Great-Fulls do you have? Do you recognize them? Do you appreciate them?

Brew Long and Prosper

My Three Moms

I have a friend that I prolly talk to much about whom we call MacT who always talks about her two moms, Mom1 and Mom2. Her mother divorced her father and wound up getting together with another lady so MacT wound up with twice the moms. Doubling up on Mommage must be magical because she is easily one of the most intelligent and insightful young people I have ever met who is constantly making old Fogies like me go “Huh?” To quote my Brother Ben Baker, “Occam's got nothing on MacT.” (Occam...razor...meh look it up.)

So this past day or so, I was given a reminder that I have also been incredibly privildged to have more than my fair share of Moms. Each one of these amazing ladies has helped shape me and teach me while doing their level best to keep me alive and healthy. My Mother in law who I have called “Ma” or “Mom” for about as a long as I have known her knew I was sick as a dog and that we were returning to GA for some house cleaning. So she fixed me a massive container of some of the best chicken/veggie noodle soup ever just so I could have something nummy and healthy to eat. Not only that, she got up at 0 Dark thirty the next morning to fix us a real breakfast so that we would have something to eat before we left to return home to VA. This inspired me so I am going to do my best to describe these amazing women who have allowed me to call them Mother.

Betty Sue MacLeod was my Biological Mother and one of the most amazing Women I have ever had the honor of knowing. She raised three kids while working 12 hours a day 5 days a week at the local Shirt Factory. She did her very best to teach me the differences between right and wrong and never let me doubt that she loved me. She continued to care and look after long after I was grown and moved out. Sadly she passed away a few years ago and I still miss her every single day.

Now the next mother needs a little back information. While I attended college, I was friends with a rather drunken reprobate named Ben Baker and his not so drunken but just as Bated Brother Bryan. Ben was (I kid you not) voted the man most likely to go to prison three years running. (Oddly enough, 20+ years later, he is a ordained minister and devoted family man. Go figure.) While hanging with the Baker Boys, I had the privildge of meeting their mother, Suzy. (As an amusing personal note, she still retains the fame of being the first person to call me an Ass. I wear that title with pride, Thanks Ma!)

I can't even remember when she went from being Mrs. Baker to “Ma.” Today decaded later, it seems like I always called her that even though I am certain I didn't. Even the first time we met again after 20 years of separation, she was still Ma. From pretty much the first day I met her, she seemed to automatically adopt me as the 3rd Baker Boy. She fed me, she cared for me and she gave me prodigious amounts of love. I am a richer better man for having her in my life and words cannot begin to describe how happy I am that she is back in my life again. Did I mention she was the first person to call me an Ass?

Last but certainly not least, there is my amazing 3rd Mother, Janet. This lady has made me feel loved and welcome since the first day she met although she did tell me once that she liked me well enough but she didn't like me dating her daughter. Luckily she got over that.

I am allergic to onions and when she found out about this back before my wife and I were even officially dating, on holidays she always made (still does) a small extra pan of dressing because she knew that I LOVE dressing and can never eat it because of the onions. She knows I love her pound cake so every holiday and my birthday she always makes sure to make an EXTRA cake just for me. I could fill up two or three blogs with all of the amazing things she does for me all of the time.

So like I said, I have been blessed with the love of three Amazing Mothers and I just wanted to give a shout out to them and let the world know just how lucky I am. Hope the rest of you are half as lucky as I am.

Brew long and prosper.

WHOO HOO!!!!

     For the first time in 5 years I have a job.  Admittedly it is only season work for 8 weeks, but it is a sign to me that things are finally starting to turn around for my family.  I just wanted to share the good news with all of my readers.

Brew Long and Prosper