Getting together with the family yesterday was a shot in the arm (no, not a vaccine) for me.\u00a0 Great food, Easter-chocolate-fueled kids, friendly family, boisterous activity, a few sprinkles of hail and snow, sunshine, a passel of tail-wagging dogs and no television or electronic devices at all.<\/p>\n
The time passed so quickly and no one was bored.\u00a0 I\u2019ve arranged to see the new Batman movie with the two older boys tomorrow.\u00a0 I opined that this new Batman will be lame because he\u2019s being played by some emo-actor named Robert Pattinson who apparently is best known for playing some lame vampire that girls loved.\u00a0 The boys agreed that the Dark Knight is still the gold standard for Batman movies but feel we should give this one a try.\u00a0 I told them we should rent the Michael Keaton Batman from the 1980\u2019s.\u00a0 Anyway, we\u2019ll buy some greasy popcorn and watch this ridiculous movie and we\u2019ll spend the two hours back and forth talking about everything and nothing.<\/p>\n
One of my sons-in-law is starting a small business of his own so we swapped information on LLC\u2019s and sole proprietorships and I told him I\u2019d let him know what I found out from the town hall about paperwork.\u00a0 And then we discussed his recent foray into welding and metalworking.\u00a0 I have some projects that would benefit from custom hardware and I told him I\u2019d see if he had any time to cost out some items.\u00a0 As if he isn\u2019t busy enough running a small factory and large family.\u00a0 But it was good to have someone who\u2019s trying to build something too, to talk to.<\/p>\n
And Camera Girl was in her element with the kids to play with and her daughters to compare notes with on managing homes, kids and dogs.\u00a0 And there was talk between them about flowers and vegetables and kids\u2019 activities coming up and a summer trip up to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, and on and on and on.<\/p>\n
It seemed like everyone there was suffering from allergies.\u00a0 Kids and adults.\u00a0 And there was sneezing and runny noses and coughing and no one was wearing any stupid masks or apologizing for sneezing germs on each other.\u00a0 That nonsense seems to have gone the way of the dinosaurs.<\/p>\n
And I had a long discussion on dinosaurs with my youngest grandson.\u00a0 But yesterday the new fascination was Pok\u00e9mon.\u00a0 He inherited a book of the cards from one of his older brothers and he regaled me with detailed information about the names, powers and relative value of this album of meaningless monsters.\u00a0 But showing my attention to this ritual of pre-adolescent consumer culture gained me all kinds of street cred with this miniature descendant of mine.<\/p>\n
All in all, it was a roaring success.\u00a0 Good feelings reigned supreme and the winter was officially laid to rest and the outdoor season was christened with the kids tracking mud into the kitchen and all over their Easter clothes.\u00a0 And not a single word was spoken about Biden or inflation or transgender anything.\u00a0 We talked about the kids\u2019 schools and sports and the plans for the next get togethers.\u00a0 Life and family and friends fill up the spaces in your life if you take the time and trouble to involve yourself with life.\u00a0 It\u2019s good reminder for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Getting together with the family yesterday was a shot in the arm (no, not a vaccine) for me.\u00a0 Great food, Easter-chocolate-fueled kids, friendly family, boisterous<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2860],"tags":[904,2093,2341],"class_list":["post-18630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-reclaiming-the-family","tag-easter","tag-reclaiming-the-family","tag-traditional-family"],"yoast_head":"\n