In chess, as in life, possibility is the basis of everything. Every hope, every dream, every regret, every moment of living.
Matt Haig, “The Midnight Library”
Category: Uncategorized
Snowshoe 2021: Skiing in the Season of COVID
We had predicted a windfall year for snow here since restrictions kept us from our usual skiing places. We were right.
There was no way that COVID was stopping us from getting in our yearly runs. Since West Virginia was the only state that would let us in without quarantine restrictions, the choice was clear – Snowshoe Mountain.
We rented a house for a week and decided to keep doing school and ski around that. While it wasn’t our ideal, we made it work. A great week with sun, melt, sleet and snow. Because of the variety of intermediate runs, we spent the week mostly skiing together. A rare and unusual treat.
Next year – Holiday Valley and Colorado … here we come!!!
Gramps
Li doo de doo. Li dee dee doo.
This was Gramps’ tune.
Always humming or singing. Always smiling.
So much satisfaction for a good, long life. So many memories for all of us.
Fishing and swimming at Mill Dam.
Playing Croquet.
Learning Morse code.
Smushed-face-in-the-glasses-case hugs.
The deliciousness from that amazing garden.
Long, slow rocks on the porch, listening to the waves and breathing in the scents of life.
The battle over the best boiled peanuts in the South.
Savoring that barbecue chicken.
A quintessentially sweet southern grandfather.
But most of all and more than anything – the gift of this amazing Family.
What a blessing to be a Fralix.
The bond that unites us. Ties that withstand and transcend time and distance.
We’ve weathered the ups and downs. The differences that make us human – that can divide or unite.
And we are still here. Together. To celebrate and to mourn.
Always.
No matter what, no matter where.
We all know it. Without question.
And we all live it. Each in our own way. We have translated these lessons into our own lives and our own families.
Being Fralix.
We are so lucky. Not only to have known you as Dad and Gramps but to have been blessed to be a part of all that you created.
Thank you Gramps. For the memories that bond us and the love that makes us Fralix.
Until we meet again.
Li do dee do. Lie dee dee doo ….
Learn to fail or fail to learn.
We often spend so much time chasing the extraordinary moments that we miss out on the ordinary moments – the ones that if taken away, we’d miss more than anything.
– from Brene Brown’s “The Call to Courage”
Taking Notes …
I often rant about how kids today won’t even know how to write things thanks to Siri and now Alexa and Google Home are adding to that mix.
That by itself is bad enough. But I hadn’t even considered Voice to Text and who knew that Google Classroom has this built-in?
Clearly not me.
My son-who-loathes-to-write came to me this evening proud of himself for having taken all of the notes that he needs for an essay that he has to write in class later this week.
Imagine how impressed I was to see that his notes were typed AND included bullet points for each individual item.
I was, of course, thinking about my own schooling way back in the 1900s and imagining that he’d by handwriting these notes.
Pfft. Kids today don’t hand write anything!
What I failed to consider, though. Was that he merely dictated all of these notes to and Google took care of the rest.
Shock and awe.
Things were spelled correctly! The bullet points were added automatically!
He didn’t have to type anything!
It’s like we’ve gone forward to go backward – dictation but with no steno pool.
Don Draper and Peggy Olsen would be impressed.
I just feel old.
Other Great Sources of Information
Other blogs and places to go for really great food-related information. I try to update as often as I can!
And in no particular order …
Clean Eating With A Dirty Mind
Kelly the Kitchen Kop
The Elliott Homestead