First Snow

As I grow older, I have really come to see the first snow as something magical... or maybe its the influence of all those "Calvin and Hobbes" books that I have.

I have beautiful memories about being outside in the snow... the common thread in almost all of them is the silence. After all of the sledding is done and exhaustion had thoroughly set in, we always laid there, back in sled, and let the snow fall on us. The silence then was comforting.

Even more so, in the deep woods, when I would go tracking for deer. I would go across the street and would inevitably find deer tracks. Then I would follow them for as far as I could. There were fifty acres of uninterupted woods across the street from my parents house, and once led inside, the other world was lost. leaves, snow, dark tree trunks and silence.

Nora and Henry have a lot to look forward to.

pick it up, put it in, throw away the bag.

I helped to insulate the upstairs yesterday. My friend Tony, who is an insulator, came over and as a favor, insulated the upstairs of my house. So we are that much closer to having an upstairs. It is all VERY exciting. It would be even more exciting if we had the money to do it. But, thank God, Tony is doing this as a favor, and we are getting a very professional job done up there. Any way, at one point, he needed help and my job for a couple hours was to load bales of mulched up, treated newspaper product into a hopper while be blew it into the walls upstairs. It reminded me of some of the jobs I had before I was a teacher and I thought that I would write a little about them.

My first job, while I was a sophomore in highschool, was working at "Olsons," a restaurant in East Templeton. I was a dishwasher. My neighbor Greg got me the job there. The owner was an interesting guy. I don't remember much except for a deep loathing that I had for the man because, weekly, he also demanded that the dishwashers come to his house and mow the lawn. Even then I knew that was kind of sketchy. I can't remember quitting that job. I think I just stopped going. And that was Olsons.

My second job was at a Supermarket in Gardner. It was called the "Food Farm." I worked their for exactly one week. I had no idea what to do socially. I remember the first day I asked another employee where to find some food item that a customer was looking for and they gave me crap about it. So I didn't ask from that point forward and got fired for being a "know-it-all." I also had a woman with a beard ask me where the cherries were. She really had a beard, it's burned into my my memory.

My third job... god what was my third job... I remember a few crash and burn jobs...I worked in the video section of Stop and Shop... but I don't think that was my third job... Oh, got it, I worked at "Horse and Buggy Feeds" in Winchendon. This was an interesting job. It covered a whole assortment of things, feeding tiny chickens, quails and ducks (my favorite part), repotting plants, getting sacks of grain. I ended up liking this job a bit, but I got fired for some unknown reason. They accused me of stealing some flowers. WHAT?? I am still offended at this. Then they fired me for wearing the wrong shoes. That was that. I was kind of hurt by that because, A. I kind of enjoyed the job, and B. I didn't steal anything! I did however lose about 10 baby chicks by knocking over the warming table by mistake. They ran everywhere..."peep" peep" just everywhere and I was trying to keep them quiet while chasing down every last one of them. The owner did end up coming down stairs and seeing me desperately chasing them down. Maybe that's why he canned me... who knows

more later.

Mark Twain

I went and saw an actor portray Mark Twain last night. It was pretty incredible really. I had forgotten the power that that man had. His essays are a beautiful mix of biting sarcasm and incredibly strong message. I can't believe how relevant his writing still is. Some of it went over my head, if I am honest. Still, I was really moved by his words. Here is one of the things said that really impacted me.

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

He was really an amazing man. I was very happy to have gone last night.

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