February... in Muddling Through As Best I Can

It’s been very nice weather here in the South. It was a cloudless day today with temperatures in the low 70’s.
Brad, Shea, Sienna and I went for a drive in the country and I found a temporary housing option. A large camper trailer for a low price. It was in good shape and had all the appliances I will need to set up housing until the new house is up. I’m estimating about 8 months until it’s ready for me to move into. Keeping my fingers crossed and going to work hard to hold to that timeline. My finished house won’t be large, only one bedroom and two bathrooms. One for the master bedroom and one for guests. I’ll be doing the construction and plumbing myself, and hire an electrician to do all the electrical I want. Aiming for small and energy efficient. Until then, I’m fine with living in a tiny space and putting my belongings in storage.
Working hard to keep my spirits up this month. February marks the fifteenth anniversary of my eldest sons’ death. Austin had his accident on the 5th of February and died on the 24th. His services were held on the 29 as 2000 was a leap year. Each day of that month is branded into my memory.
Time has eased the pain, and I focus on happy memories more than not, but this month is still more difficult than at other times of the year. It still bothers me when people don’t remember it like his mother and I do. I know that’s irrational, no one else was as affected as we were by his loss, especially not long term, but still it gets to me. I guess parents always feel that their children should make the same impact on everyone else that they did on us.
But whether we will it or not, time and the world marches on.
Now, off of the sad and depressing and back to now. I also went with the kid units to their OBGYN appointment and all is going well. We are now at 31 weeks. If she has not had little Raina by week 38, they will induce labor.
We came home to an excellent dinner. Brian made homemade tamales. If you’ve never had authentic Mexican tamales, you don’t know what you’re missing, they were delicious!
It takes me back to my first marriage and watching my wife, mother in law and grandmother in law grinding the corn to make maza! My wife’s grandmother, Mrs. Alonzo, spent the entire preparation time (several hours) telling Judy what a bad wife she was because she didn’t get up in the mornings and make tortillas for my lunch. Judy’s reply was that as long as the grocery store sold them I could make do or go hungry. It’s that whole women’s lib thing…Gloria Steinem; Darn you!
Of course I must now admit that Judy was probably one of the best cooks I have ever known. We’ve been divorced 22 years and she still treats me to her lasagna for my birthday each year. I weighed about 175 lbs when we married, and over 400 plus when she divorced me. Good food was never an issue. Speaking of February, the 12th would have been our 34th wedding anniversary had we still been married. We usually try to get together for lunch or dinner during this week, but it’s not in the cards this year due to conflicting work schedules. There’s nothing sketchy going on between us, her husband and kids are usually there along with mine. We were lucky enough to become good friends after all the hurt feelings faded and that friendship continues on.
Well, again I rambled on making this post longer than intended, and so I gracefully bow and leave the stage, wishing you all a good and peaceful evening.