By Don Springer
The Christmas and New Year celebrations are over and we should now be back at the old routine of winter. I always regret the end of the holiday period and that we just finished is no exception. This was however a little different for me. This was the first time in more than twenty years I wasn’t at home at Christmas time with most of my family, which is growing smaller as the year’s progress.
For the first time in my life I spent the Christmas holiday with David here in Crosby. He and I had a good celebration for a few days before Christmas and sometime later. I arrived in Crosby this year about mid-December which is some three weeks earlier than usual. While this was my first time away from home on Christmas it was the first Christmas in about twenty years that David has had a family member to celebrate Christmas. Unfortunately being a chemist in a chemical plant he has had to work on Christmas day about 17 out of the last twenty years.
It doesn’t seem possible but this is my 14th winter in Crosby and about 17 or 18 visits here during that period. Linda and I started visiting Dave in Crosby in 1999, right after he moved to this fine community. Another thing that doesn’t seem possible is that he has been a Texas resident for more than 30 years. Time does fly! I still think of him as a West Virginian but he has lived in Texas at least five years more than in the Mountain State.
We don’t have any great plans for the winter except to stay warm and do some traveling in the great state of Texas over the next few weeks. We hope to take our first trip next week and haven’t decided where to visit but I suspect this year we will start around the border.
It has been a few weeks since I have written a column for my Texas readers or for those back home but a couple of hospitalizations and other medical problems have kept my activities limited. I underwent the knife more times in October and November than I like to remember. I’m back on the mend now so should have a column often.
Old English sheepdog Maggie and I are once again taking a walk twice a day in Newport or elsewhere in Crosby so we are enjoying seeing many sights we have seen before and seeing a lot of familiar faces. Maggie, now 13, has to undergo the knife shortly. She has an upper jaw problem that has to be operated on within the next few weeks. I talked with our vet here a couple of months ago by phone and made some arrangements which were finalized this past Monday. Maggie and I are getting old together.
I’m no cook so once again I am frequenting most of the area restaurants on a regular basis. When Brent is working I always eat out. If you see me around give me a shout for a few words or longer conversation. Always glad to see and talk to old friends as well as new ones.
Such are the people, places and things that have touched my life in my home!