Seventy-One Winters

Dear Carol,

I’ve been reading, enjoying and appreciating what you write, even though I haven’t stopped by to comment for a long time. I’ve been “too busy” spending my time doing other things that seem important and that might even be valuable to others and perhaps even to the world. It’s hard to tell, really, though, except that I know I have at least a few people who seem to appreciate what I post on Facebook and beneath some articles on news sites. And then there is, of course, the work I’m doing to try to keep earning a few dollars to help meet the needs of Life that can be met with money.

But, reading what you posted here, now, I couldn’t help but come by to comment that I’ve just greeted my 70th Winter – well, back in early January – and that I’m still shoveling snow and enjoying doing it. I’m actually not amazed that I’m still shoveling snow and enjoying it, that’s simply the way Life is for me. We heat only with firewood and I enjoy scrounging up my own. The past few years that has mostly meant getting wood that has been cleared to build new roads and building sites and then hauled to large piles where it gets burned during the Winter. I salvage what I can, which involves cutting it with a chainsaw, and hauling it home where I split what needs splitting with my hydraulic splitter, and then stacking it in my woodshed.

The snow shoveling, the work on firewood and other physical activities in the yard and garden or elsewhere I simply consider to be the major part of my physical fitness program, and it seems to be working pretty well for me. I have had one stroke, eleven years ago, and one heart attack one year ago, yet i’m still here and still going strong.

Our daughter and her son, our grandson, live with us, so they are daily blessings in our Life in many ways, including by helping care for my wife who has severe dementia. And we have some friends who provide help in various ways that help make Life work, because we all get along better with a little help from our friends as we whirl around the Sun together from one Winter to the next – 70 here and counting . . .

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