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Praetorium Honoris

Saturday, November 30, 2019

Home

Udvar-Hazy, 05 March 2017
Well, I'm back from visiting the homeland, the southern part of northern New England. Spent much of Wednesday, all of Thursday, and a bit of Friday in the Connecticut River valley. New Hampshire and Vermont, where I was born and raised, the land which is deep in my bones.

Saw my mom, both of my brothers, my sister-in-law, nephew, and my niece and her boyfriend Charlie. A decent guy by the way, he's from Down East (as some say) the state of Maine. We all went out to a very nice inn in Chester, Vermont for an excellent Thanksgiving buffet. Sure, it's not like eating at home, but it is sure a lot less work. (Though damme I miss those leftovers!)

Not as cold as last year, but still brisk. Some remnants of a snow storm a couple of days prior were still to be seen, but last year it looked (and felt) more like February. This year it was what folks call "seasonal." (As in "quit yer bitching, it's late November, it's supposed to be like this.")

It was good to go home.

What sparked all this? A profound (as they often are) Beans comment on my Friday recycled (i.e. "rerun") post. To wit...

The key phrase there is "home that once was." I disagreed, sort of, but as I've given it more thought, I have to agree. All things change, nothing ever really stays the same. You can get close to what was, but only so much. When the people who made it what it was have moved on, it ain't the same. You can perhaps hear echoes of what was, but that's about it.

Life is changing, sometimes more rapidly than I care for, but I'm only riding the train, I'm not driving. So far the ride has been awesome, sure, there have been rough patches, but I have no real complaints.

Life is what it is. I am blessed, probably beyond what I deserve, but there you go.

It was nice to go home, then return home again. Home is where one finds love.

That's all I really want.

November was a good month.

Time for a musical interlude, this song really speaks to me.



Home

Taylor Hawkins, Chris Shiflett, Nate Mendel & Dave Grohl

Wish I were with you
But I couldn't stay
Every direction
Leads me away
Pray for tomorrow
But for today

All I want is to be home

Stand in the mirror
You look the same
Just lookin' for shelter
From cold and the pain
Someone to cover
Safe from the rain

All I want is to be home

Echoes and silence
Patience and grace
All of these moments
I'll never replace
No fear of my heart
Absence of faith

All I want is to be home

All I want is to be home

People I've loved
I have no regrets
Some I remember
Some I forget
Some of them living
Some of them dead

All I want is to be home



Can't argue with that...



22 comments:

  1. Nice tune Sarge, fits the mood this morn.........

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  2. We are fortunate that the majority of my relatives on my side of the family all live local. So the get-togethers aren't difficult to get to. Although, the much needed rain did slow the arrival. I went to pick up my son and it was near white-out conditions on the freeway with the amount of rain that was coming down. Glad you made it home safely.

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    1. We had pretty good weather going up and coming back. It rained like crazy Wednesday night, took my niece a lot longer to get to NH from Maine than usual. We even had thunderbolts and lightning...

      Yes, it was.

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    2. Very very frightening, indeed.

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  3. I think of life as a plane trip with the occasional turbulence. So far I have little to complain about, its been a good ride but I expect to hear the wheels drop before long.

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    1. I like that analogy, a lot.

      Watch the flaps, they deploy those before the gear goes down.

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  4. Every moment, every experience is unique. You can go back to the place they happened and remember how it was but that is a memory. Today is the time for new memories...
    It sounds like you had a good trip!

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  5. Hey Old AFSarge;

    Home is where the heart is and I am blessed. When I was growing up, we moved every couple of years because of my Dad's PCS moves. I missed out on the "home" experience, but on the other hand I saw stuff that most of my classmates only read about. It is a trade-off.

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    Replies
    1. I tried to stay put as much as possible during my career. I had no interest in climbing the rank structure and just wanted to do my job. Didn't get past E-7 but the kids didn't have to deal with moving every couple of years. I was good with that.

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    2. Learned very early, due to Dad moving, that 'Home' was people.

      Small birthday parties, really just the family gathering for cake outside (parents were very smart, no cake inside until we hit teens...)

      Big Thanksgiving dinner, again, mostly family and lost bachelors and lost temporary bachelors.

      Christmas was like Thanksgiving, but with Mom's Grandmother. And assorted lost bachelors and lost temporary bachelors.

      Then we finally stopped moving in '73, so 'Home' actually coincided with a reasonably permanent physical 'home' address. Then 'Home' shifted when I got married. Sure, we went down to 'home' to do extended family, but we always returned 'Home' to our new 'home.'

      But then again, I've been accused of being weird, so, well, my interpretation of the various meanings of 'home' may not apply to the rest of you.

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    3. Naw Beans, that corresponds pretty well with my recollections of "home".

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    4. Beans - Until I retired, home was just us, a tight-knit crew. Hopefully we'll always stay close in heart. (Distance, not so much.)

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    5. juvat - The military life, in many ways I miss it.

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  6. We're getting blizzarded today. Stiff winds blowing new and old snow into a frenzy of near-zero viz, drifts, and cold. Power out in town, still on out at the ranch.

    The fourth generation home is lovely and I get to go back to a new place every day.

    Navy homes are the places I can never return to. Just as well, I'm too old to be getting threwn in jail all the time!😇

    Great post Sarge.

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  7. You can not enter the same rver twice. Gosh those ancient Greeks were smart!
    here have a good song that about going home..
    https://youtu.be/7z9wd9bS1FM

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