The Zen of Ben

Today was a fairly dreary day here in Georgia, rainy and overcast all day long.  My wife and I got a slow start to our day and eventually headed out to check into some new furniture we had been interested in.  After tackling that bit of business we came back and settled in for the Georgia/Georgia-Tech game (a Thanksgiving tradition for all of Georgia, no matter what alumni you fall into).

Now, I’m not an alumnus of either.  My alma mater is VSU (Valdosta State University for those non-natives reading this), but I always root for GA Tech in this contest.  Let’s just say I find UGA (and especially UGA fans) to be very obnoxious.  Not only that, this year, UGA is simply OVER - RATED (read that like you are in the stadium stomping your feet to it - yeah, you know what I’m sayin’.).  Hehehehehe…I’m happy that GA Tech finally won against UGA this year.  Way to go, Jackets!!

Ahem - I digress.  Anyway, after the UGA/GA-Tech game, we went down to the basement and pulled out the christmas tree and ornaments. An hour or so later and voila!, the Christmas tree hath cometh!  Standing in all its glory in our formal dining room facing the front of the house - lit up with its lights and ornaments, shining with the angel perched atop.  A beautiful sight to see, I’ll have to post a picture soon and share it with you.

I love this time of year (because my birthday is just before Christmas), but also because of Christmas itself.  It brings back such wonderful memories - those from childhood and those from just a few years back.  Christmas is always a wonderful, heart-warming time and I love sharing it and being sentimental about it with friends and family.

So from our family to yours - Merry Christmas.  It’s a time of joy, so relax, love, feel, and truly enjoy it.

My wife and I stayed at home this year for Thanksgiving.  I had taken the week off but she had to work through Wednesday, so we simply decided to make ourselves a nice Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and enjoy the long weekend together, afterwards.  On Friday, I decided to make a trip down to Thomaston and visit with my Aunt Bobbie.  I hadn’t seen her in way too long and a trip was long due.

So, my wife and I headed down yesterday morning and arrived around noon.  My aunt, uncle, and cousin were all there when we arrived, so we sat and talked and enjoyed each others company for quite a while. We shared stories and memories of days gone by, looked at old pictures and made sure to catch up on the latest and greatest in everyones lives.

Speaking of pictures, my aunt gave me one of me when I was about 3 years old - standing outside my granny’s house next to a big Santa Clause that my uncle had made.  I’ll have to post the picture up soon so everyone can see just how cute I was (am). 

I had a blast visiting with my aunt, uncle, and cousin.  I miss the days of old, the memories are precious and the moments are so valuable.  I look forward to my next trip and “shooting the breeze” just like the good ‘ole days.

I love you much Aunt Bobbie, Uncle Chuck, and Lisa.  Thanks for the wonderful Friday, wonderful food, and wonderful company.  Take care, and we’ll see you soon.

I’m very happy to report that we had an awesome turnout this Halloween.  I figured that we would since we are back into a “normal” subdivision of single-family homes now instead of in a town home community near KSU.  As I have mentioned before, we had extremely poor turnouts over the past four years - poor as in 0 kids!!

But not this year!  This year, we had purchased over 250 pieces of “the good stuff” (i.e. Hershey chocolate candy, Reeses chocolate candy, etc.).  I gave out 2 pieces per visiting trick-or-treater and I’m very happy to report that we gave away roughly 200 of our 250 pieces!!  That’s right, somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 to 100 kids swung by our new home this year for Halloween!  Now that is what I’m talking about!! 

In addition, my sister and her family swung by to take my niece and nephews around our subdivision for some trick-or-treating and we had a really nice time with them being here.  What a great Halloween this year!  I absolutely loved it!  I look forward to many years ahead of that kind of fun.  What a wonderful change from years gone by.

My good friend, Helen, officially retires from Delta Airlines (and Delta Technology) today.  Yes, that’s right, she is retiring on Halloween!  How cool is that?  If you only knew Helen - you would know how most appropriate today is as her official day of retirement.  I am so happy for her and of course, a little jealous.  Helen and I first got to know each other well when I was but a Delta Technology “newbie”.  We had some great laughs over the years as cube-mates in the office and I even became an honorary “kid” of hers.  Hehehehe…

Anyway, yesterday Helen had an official retirement party down near the “Delta compound”, or Hartsfield-Jackson Airport for those out-of-towners who might be reading this.  We all gathered at La Fiesta, our most Read the rest of this entry »

Spring and Fall - my favorite times of the year here in the South.  Temperatures become moderate, the air becomes crisp, nature becomes accentuated in colorful glory, and memories from childhood fill the mind.   I suppose it is that connection with “life”, or perhaps with living life, that seems to become more apparent during these seasons, more in focus for me.  I remember things like going to the fair as a kid, the cool Autumn air brushing against my skin, the smell of popcorn and cakes, the excitement of the rides and hanging out with friends.  Memories of Halloween, trick-or-treating, and family gatherings - all very fond memories, no wonder it is my favorite time of year.

As Halloween grows closer this year, I’m excited about being in our new neighborhood.  The past four years Read the rest of this entry »

Wow, another year has zipped by in the blink of an eye.  I noticed that last year I had posted a “Happy Birthday” blog entry to my sister along with a post about having the opportunity to meet my favorite author, Terry Brooks.  It is hard to believe that was a year ago!!  My how time seems to fly…

Well, this year is a special one for my sister as she hits the big 3-0.  Yep, she is finally “all growed up”.  Ah, who am I kidding, my younger Read the rest of this entry »

Good morning everyone.  Well, it’s closing day for us.  We finished moving everything out of our house late afternoon yesterday and checked into our hotel room around 8 PM last night (exhausting all around).  That mixed in with some 11th hour antics from the buyers of our existing home and we are off to a great start this morning (oh, the enthusiasm)!  Hopefully, all will pan out, but at this point there is nothing that is within our control so we’ll just hurry up and wait, as they say.

Our first closing is in two hours and will determine how our day goes (hopefully smoothly).  Once that closing is over, the stress will go WAY down since our second closing (the purchase of our new home) has been a fantastic experience so far.  The people we are buying from are very nice and their Realtor has Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of weeks back, I reported on the main page of my web site that my mom had to undergo surgery for gall stones.  I am very happy to report that all went well and mom is doing just fine.  She came down with her husband to come visit us kids and the grand-kids over the past week and a half.  She spent the weekend of the 19th and 20th with my brother and his family up in Dahlonega and then swung over to this side of town to visit with my sister and her family.

They weren’t able to stay with my wife and I since our house is a big clutter at this time due to our packing and moving but we were still able to visit while she stayed with my sister.  We went out to Read the rest of this entry »

Whew!  Weekend #1 of packing and moving is behind me, two more to go (and that’s just to move out of the current house!).  My wife and I started the final countdown of days left before we close on the sale of our current home and the purchase of our new one (15 days left as of today) this past weekend by packing up and moving some things into storage.  Yes, unfortunately I will have to move everything out of my current house and into storage since we will have a day or two between houses.  The good news is, we will have movers moving us from storage and into the new house - so me and my posse only have to move stuff once (thank the gods!!).

My wife and I put a good dent in things this weekend.  We used her CRV to take Read the rest of this entry »

Whew! It really has been a hectic month.  If you have been keeping up with the front page of my site, you know that my wife and I have a person buying our current home - we are under a binding contract and close in roughly 3 weeks.  We are also under contract with the purchase of our new home.  We did the inspection on our new home this past weekend and everything came out smoothly.  We plan to close on it roughly the same time as we do on the sale of our existing home, around August 8th.  We have already started the daunting packing process and the paperwork processes involved with moving (change of addresses, inspections, surveys, appraisals, etc).  Despite the stresses, we are still very happy and excited.

As for other aspects of life these days, well work has been extra busy of late since Read the rest of this entry »