We all value things, for some of us it’s our car or jewelry, for others it’s old photos and memorabilia from when we were kids. But as we get older, which we all are, things don’t seem quite as important. Your health, happiness, free time, and opportunity to spend time with those you love rise to the top. A few years ago Lori and I decided to stop buying “things” and instead build or buy memories. Think back to stuff you had to have 10 or 20 years ago and how important those things are now. I suspect, if you can even remember or find those things “you had to have”, that they’re not very important now. On the other hand, think back to the good times you had as no one can take those away from you and you’ll have them forever. A few examples are trips to the Ranch fishing with Mom, Dad, Tom and Ali, when Lori and I first met. I can still see Mom holding up her fish in her cowboy boots and jeans with a scarf on her head covering her black beehive hair and cooking them in Archie Hess’s cabin where we all stayed. Or how about our family trip to Italy, that was a great time with some really fun experiences like Tommy taking pictures of a car in front of the Israeli Embassy from his hotel room and having armed Mossad agents show up at his hotel room door with the hotel manager within minutes wondering why he was taking pictures of the Embassy? Or all of us driving our rental cars through the insane traffic in Rome with hundreds of scooters swarming around our cars and ignoring traffic laws as we tried to navigate our way through the crowded streets. Or the endless flow of Christmas presents Mom and Dad would shower us with each year. It was funny as every year Mom would say, “we’re scaling back this year and just getting a few nice things instead of spending a lot on tons of presents like other years”. We all knew this wasn’t true and that she’d still go overboard on all of us. I could go on and on but those are just a small sample of the great times we’ll remember for all our life. Sadly the trip to Italy was Dad’s last trip before the Alzheimer’s really kicked in. I’m so glad we all went.
As we continue to go through the remaining stuff in the house I’m finding old pictures and things like dad’s dad’s book from the memorial service when he passed away in 1953. I’m boxing all this stuff up in plastic storage containers I bought to keep it seperate. After we get everything cleaned out, we’ll hopefully get through all this and I’ll send stuff to everyone. These are the things that I value, family history and things from our past that helps tell the story of who we are.
Yesterday I was down and up the hill and today I’ll make the trip again. It’s not a bad drive. In fact it’s no worse than driving from Long Island into the city in New York or driving from Santa Monica into downtown L.A. It’s actually better as there’s less traffic and it’s much prettier.
Jag was off early from school and took a bus in to town and went to the Four Seasons for a haircut and then walked over to Lori’s office for a ride home. She left at 3 even though yesterday was her first day of “half day Wednesdays”. That didn’t work out too well, ha.
Tomorrow I’m not going down but Saturday Lori and I are leaving around 6 am as we need to drop Jag at school to go to a all day volleyball tournament in Denver by 6:15. We’ll then head straight down to Mom’s and try to clean most of the remaining stuff out of the house in one day. Tom and I met some realtors there two days ago and today or tomorrow should have proposals from two realtors so we can decide who’s the best fit. The second realtor who does a lot in Lakewood thinks someone will want to keep the house and fix it up. The other thinks someone will tear it down and build a mansion on the property. We’d all love to keep it but that’s not that practical. Either way I’m ok and just want to sell it for as much as we can. More to come.
Time to get moving as Jag wants to go to school at 7:15 this morning to study for something. Ty’s up too and Lori is getting in the shower. Hope everyone is doing well, take care and God Bless.