ANOTHER YEAR OVER....

2010's almost gone, and I'm the same age as the year I was born, something I (and a lot of others, I'm sure) never thought I'd see.

I miss being younger, miss not aching when I walk, having parts of me not work when and how I want them to. I miss my home, not just the where, but the when; somewhere between the ages of five and thirty-five is when I truly felt the most....what?

The most free? What about all the years of drugs, and depression?

The most at peace? I had my first suicidal thought at ten, and many afterwards.

The most content? I wanted so much, without knowing what it was I truly wanted.

My life was not horrible, compared to many, and I enjoyed a lot of it....this blog is a record of some of that. However, while I'm waxing nostalgic, I need to keep in mind certain things....

It's only by the grace of God that I'm still here, alive, sane, and healthy, certainly not due to my own efforts.

My time will not end when it ends here....I have a blessed eternity to anitcipate.

Even in the turmoil of this life, I am blessed.

2011 is nearly here, and Lord willing, I will be, as well.

GIFTS OF THE SEASON

I just finished spending almost three weeks laid up with an infected foot....I was stuck in the apartment because I couldn't walk, and there was no way to get the wheelchair downstairs. So, I had a lot of time by myself, and a lot of time to think.

I'm blessed...sometimes, I can't believe it. Here I am, turning fifty-five tomorrow, unemployed, overweight, uglier than an Adam Sandler film festival, but I know I'm blessed. I have the love of my Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus, and His promise of eternal salvation. If you don't have it, look into it; it's real, and we're not making it up.

If I died today, I could still say that I'd lived a full, eventful life, not always happy, pain free, or even free, but still there's not much I'd change. My family loves me, I've learned, taught, taken, recieved, loved, and are loved.

One special woman has chosen to spend her life with me....that was one of those things that I really didn't know how important that was to me until it, until she, was there. She loves ME, the Caliban of the NorthCoast, the clown, the joke....now, we're laughing together.

To everyone, Merry Christmas, and may your gifts be as special to you as mine are to me.

DINING OUT

We've got a drive-in here in Whitney, a Sonic, where you pull in in your car, and a smiling young lady on skates brings you your meal. It's okay, but nothing like the places we had when I was little.

Lorain had several drive-in restaurants back then, all long gone. There was The Hoop, which had three outlets in Lorain, one on Kansas Avenue, as you came off the 21st Street Bridge on the east side, another at the corner of West Erie and Leavitt, and one on Route 254. The Big Dipper, my personal favorite, was at the corner of Colorado Road and Kansas Avenue. There was one in South Lorain, on Pearl Avenue, the name of which escapes me.

There's a Dog-N-Suds on 254, but to be honest, we didn't go there that much....as late as 1975, as far as I know from personal experience, they had a habit of serving whites before blacks, even if the blacks were there first. The ice cream stand in South Amherst had the same problem.

Still, I loved the drive-ins, the cool trays that hooked to your window, the girls with their smiles and ponytails, and the great food; my favorite meal then was a footlong, catsup only, fries or french-fried mushrooms, and a chocolate shake.

Ahhhh....Sonic, you are SO close....