New Decade in Fort Riley

Well, here I am back at Fort Riley after spending the last two weeks with the family in Wisconsin and also in Alabama. I have to say that I was really looking forward to Christmas in Wisconsin with my Father's side of the family, but it turned out to be far from the normal time I am used to in Kenosha. First, my Dad's mother was in the hospital the whole time, and don't worry they diagnosed what was wrong and she is doing much better. Second, I had to wake up early on Christmas morning, and it wasn't to open up presents. My cousin Matt and I had to get up on the roof and shovel all of the snow and mush off of the roof, then punch through the ice and make holes in the down-spouts to let water drain off of the roof. It was leaking from several locations in the foyer, family room, and dining room. Third we had some wonderful loud 'talks' between my Dad and his sister. Thankfully, things turned around, my grandmother was getting better, the roof stopped leaking, and everyone made up and was in much better moods when we all left at the beginning of the week.
Back in Birmingham, I did what I normally don't do. I contacted all of my friends and tried to spend as much time with as many people as possible instead of just trying to sloth around the house all day long. I spent four of those days with a girl that I knew from Birmingham-Southern College and also worked with during my days at the Apple store at The Summit. I also saw almost all of my best friends that I grew up with. This included the infamous Alex Batten, Tim Season, Adam Parks, and Victor Wilson. The only people we were missing were John Mark Mitchell and J.R. Williams. I am sure that next time, way before I come home, I will contact everyone to make sure we can all get together at least one day and night to hang out and catch up on what each other are up to since we have really all gone separate ways since going off to college and after graduating and such.

In closing, I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and happy New Years!!

-paul



p.s. : PLEASE NOTE THAT MY ADDRESS HAS CHANGED AGAIN!!! it is on the right side of the page. If you do accidentally send anything to my last address it will still get to me, it will just take about three to four times as long as usual.

p.p.s. : I can't thank you all enough for all of the support and letters you have sent me. It really makes life so much better here in Kansas since there is really not that much to do out here after you have visited the official 'OZ' Museum