Gratitude 1-4

 I love November gratitude. We should all be doing it every day of the year but at least it's an effort. It really does make life a bit sweeter to start (or end) the day thinking about all the good things that come to us.

So how did I manage to forget for THREE DAYS? Ugh.  Catching up ...

Gratitude #1:  Although my short term memory is definitely on a slide, I still don't need reading glasses. Given that I have worn glasses since 5th grade, I was sure that the day after my 40th birthday I'd be looking for bifocals.  It's been a few years since then, and Terry has his stock of readers, but I am still going strong with only myopia.

Gratitude #2:  I do love winter, and the cold and snow. But icy roads mean Alex has to take the bus or we have to drive her to school, and neither option is really awesome. So I am grateful for the mild, sunny, beautiful weather we have had this week. I even went for a run after work in short sleeves!

Gratitude #3:  As frustrated as I have been with myself on the nights I decided to get some sleep rather than chase the aurora and missed the show, I have now seen the Northern Light three times since we came to Calgary and it's the only bucket list item that never gets checked off.  The last time I saw them - last month - they were so strong we caught a bit from our own back porch. Given we are relatively close to downtown and all the related light pollution, that is a HUGE deal. I will not kick myself for not staying up last night and trying to chase them down (they were apparently going strong in the 4-6am timeframe).

Gratitude #4:  The last 2 years have been the nadir of the cycle of aurora activity, so it's only up from here. And I am super grateful that I will have almost 4 more years from right now to decide to forego sleep once in a while and try to catch Lady Aurora dance.

Halloween 2021

 Things felt relatively normal this year - fewer than half the kids wearing masks and a sense that kids weren't being kept at home due to COVID.  This was also the first year we let the kids go off alone (albeit together). We thought we had a good grasp of what the neighborhood would hold, trick or treat-wise. We bought candy like we still lived in NE Philly. I advised kids grasping at whole handfuls that they really needed to take only one so other kids could be sure to get some candy.

Oops!

We overbought by about 100.

Other interesting tidbits are the two different business cards we got from two very different businesses - one was handed out at a house and the other was actually taped to the treat. That was something new! And the candy the kids discussed not liking that we discovered were Baileys Irish Cream truffles.

Once in a lifetime

Last night the aurora was so strong and so high we caught a shot of it from our back yard.  We live relatively close to the downtown area, so between trees, neighbor's houses and light pollution, it must have been a massive, amazing show for us to catch that little green line.  It was early enough in the night that I got Alex to come down and take look, although it was past Zoltan's bedtime.

I deeply regret not getting in the car and catching the real show somewhere darker.

(Photo taken with my phone, so one more reason it's not as spectacular as it could have been.)

Catching up on the last few months

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent three weeks in Doha helping with the evacuation of Afghanistan.  In the space of just about a month, more than 120,000 individuals left Afghanistan. Roughly half of them passed through Doha on their way to other places: home, for those of dual citizenship; locations set up to process visas and humanitarian parole; in the end most are in the USA or will be.  The experience was physically, mentally and emotionally challenging and for all the things that went right, it's the things that went wrong that stick the strongest.

I returned home from Doha and spent about 10 days with my family before heading back out; this time to Boston, where I spent 10 days with my father in the aftermath of his wife's passing.  

Oh, and Terry broke his foot back in August so he hobbles around in a special boot.  No fall hikes for him, and his ski season will start a bit late.

It's been a hell of a few months.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Doha

 I'm back from three weeks in Doha helping move Afghan evacuees from Arrival Point #1 (Doha) to either Final Destination (for American citizens who just needed to get home) or Next Stop (for Afghans who need to be vetted and processed at some other location, like Germany, better suited for long-ish term living before being able to - most likely - move to the U.S.). Still processing the experience, but wanted to mark it.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Wordless Wednesday