Category: <span>Family Stories</span>

Published January 1, 2021 by

Welcoming In The New Year 2021!

Goodbye Year 2020
Yes, We’re All Exhausted

So, finally, we came to the last day of the year 2020 as defined by the Julian calendar. I think I can call this past year a wild ride. I’ve heard some people were surprised Godzilla didn’t make a return visit to either Tokyo or New York City. Alien invaders from Planet X also haven’t attacked us, so I guess there’s two bits of good news.

So now we get to look forward to a new year full of surprises and excitement. Which sounds suspiciously like the year we just left, that no one seems to want to repeat.

Continue…Welcoming In The New Year 2021!

Family Stories

Published December 26, 2020 by

On Restoring An Old Toy

Front View of an Old Toy Ocean Liner
Front View of My Toy Ocean Liner

My maternal Grandfather was among the people who inspired me the most when I was growing up. He was an immigrant from Germany and supported himself and his family as a house painter and general carpenter. He could make anything out of wood and frequently made us, his grandchildren, all kinds of cool wooden toys.

Alas, like too many childhood things, most of the toys he made me disappeared over the years. They were victims of my family moving, or letting my younger brothers have my things when I grew up and joined the Navy. However, one toy did manage to survive, abet in a state of disrepair. Recently, I took a trip down memory lane and restored this old toy.

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Family Stories

Grandfather Wooden Toy

Published December 20, 2020 by

Pandemic Day Two Hundred Eighty-Two.

I Want You To Panic!
This is Us

Today is my pandemic day two hundred eighty-two of staying safer at home. I’d like to be witty about this and make some wise-ass comment such as “if most accidents happen in the home, how are we safer there?” But honestly, after over nine months of staying in or near the house, I don’t have much to feel witty about.

This is just another day in the trenches. Now with with an extra added dose of Christmas holiday blues.

Continue…Pandemic Day Two Hundred Eighty-Two.

Family Stories

graduate program graduate shcool political chaos

Published November 26, 2020 by

Happy Thanksgiving Pandemic Style

Thanksgiving Rainbow
Thanksgiving Rainbow

I don’t think I’m breaking news by posting that this past year has been a difficult year. Millions of people are out of work with no way to buy food or pay their rent. Schools are shut down with an entire generation of children facing a severe setback in their development and education. Our country remains in turmoil with one half of our people ready to go to war against the other half. People have been locked inside their homes for as long as eight months with no end in sight.

But today is Thanksgiving, a day we traditionally set aside to give momentary thanks for the blessings we do have. One day out of a year to remember the good things as a perspective on all the bad things. So this is my small contribution to giving thanks.

Continue…Happy Thanksgiving Pandemic Style

Family Stories

Blessings Thanksgiving

Published November 13, 2020 by

Another Pandemic Friday the Thirteenth

Karsten Winegeart, Friday the Thirteenth
Pandemic Friday the Thirteenth

So today is another Pandemic Friday the Thirteenth. This has special significance for me as the last Friday the Thirteenth, back in March, was my first day of pandemic staying-safer-at-home. Today, two hundred forty-five days later, I’m still being safer-at-home.

I’m not sure if this is a real-life enactment of “Groundhog Day” or “Nightmare on Elm Street.” Either way, I wish the movie would just end.

Continue…Another Pandemic Friday the Thirteenth

Family Stories

Friday the Thirteenth

Published November 11, 2020 by

Remembering My Family Veterans

Veterans Day Remembrances

Today is Veteran’s Day, the eleventh day of the eleventh month. This holiday started as Armistice Day, the day to commemorate the end of what at the time was called “The Great War,” “The War To End All Wars,” now simply called “World War One (WWI).” Because people can’t ever seem to have enough wars.

On this day I want to remember members of my family past who were veterans.

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Family Stories

veteran's day

Seventeen Years Together!
Published October 15, 2020 by

Seventeen Years Together!

Yesterday was our seventeenth wedding anniversary. It was a quiet day, as most days are in this age of the pandemic. But that was ok, as Winnie and I are still together and still getting along after seven months of home lockdown.

The quiet day did give me a chance to reflect on our life together these past seventeen years (plus our one year of long-distance courtship).

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Family Stories

wedding anniversary

Published September 5, 2020 by

Pandemic Day One Hundred Seventy-Nine: Quarantine and Dead Batteries

Coronavirus, appearing in interesting times
May These Be Interesting Times

So here we are on pandemic day one hundred seventy-nine of staying safer-at-home. This life in a pandemic is proving to have it’s challenges and unique demands. Winnie and I are fortunate that at least we still have adequate income, stable shelter, and food on the table. That’s more than too many people in this country currently don’t have.

All the same, I’d just as soon have this over with and life go back to some semblance of pre-pandemic times.

Continue…Pandemic Day One Hundred Seventy-Nine: Quarantine and Dead Batteries

Family Stories

coronavirus pandemic quarantine

Published August 27, 2020 by

What’s Going On?

Music Inside with a YouTube Video
Music Inside

So let’s see. The world is in the grip of a one-hundred year pandemic that’s raging out of control in the world’s nominally most advanced nation. (That would be us). Forest fires are burning up California while a category four hurricane wipes out Louisiana and Texas. We have more wild protests in our cities due to yet another black man shot by police on-camera. Meanwhile, the Doom-and-Gloom Republican National Convention enters it’s fourth and hopefully final day, bearing a message that electing the other guy means a dystopian American future of plague, pestilence and violence in our cities.

Time for some music.

Continue…What’s Going On?

Family Stories

4 Non Blondes Music Video YouTube

Published August 25, 2020 by

Pandemic Shopping Through the Internet

Onlne Shopping
Online Shopping

Our grocery shopping patterns have dramatically changed in the age of the pandemic. In the before times Winnie would go grocery shopping every several days, using a variety of mostly Asian food stores. Since we’ve started staying-safer-at-home, we shop every several weeks using either Costco or Walmart curbside pickup. The ripple effects of this change includes not having enough space in our freezer for meat, and other stuff needing freezing to stay edible for long periods of time. So a few weeks ago, we (Winnie) decided we needed to buy a small chest freezer to store our stuff.

This should have been an easy purchase. But in this pandemic age, even internet shopping has proven to be adventurous.

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Family Stories

coronavirus freezer shopping

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