Did you ever wonder why things have to change? For example, if we are a traditionalist, then change changes tradition, or going to a new school, or new job, or new friends. At first glance it always seems bad, but if we look at it in a positive light, then we learn, and when we learn, we have the ability to make even better choices.  The key is to make good choices from the change.

This past weekend Ash and I loaded up the old truck-ster , to include some high quality merchandise  (chairs), and yes Eddie I do mind telling you how much they set me back! They were a perfect fit, and no I do not have a chair fetish! We hit the road on Friday afternoon, and joined all the other deranged Loony tunes and departed our Nation’s Capital. Think of the worst rush hour traffic you have ever had the pleasure of sitting in. Bingo! That’s the beltway is like on any given Friday afternoon. As we relished the pleasure of averaging 5 mph, while listening to the “traffic on the 8’s” (Like that is going to help us) we heard that our Nation’s Capital has the highest median income of any city in the US! (88K) Ponder this for a moment: Traffic jam 1:00 Friday afternoon, weather perfect, no accidents, average income 88K, our national debt increasing faster than a gator attacking its prey, the worlds coming to an end because of the debt ceiling continuing resolutions and our budget , you are on the threshold of hell! You then ask yourself; self does anyone in this city work? Let’s see??? Oh they work for our government, you expect these people to actually work 40 hours a week! So I want all of you to write to congress and ask them to raise our taxes, and give those poor Gov’t employees a raise, this way they will even be more worthless and leave in the morning, so I will not be stuck in traffic! We turned the radio off, and broke into a chorus of “Deck the Halls” Moving on, back to the topic! Let’s see …. We had some goooood burgers on Saturday night; they were done to perfection on the family grill-ster. Tradition calls for the fire to be ignited with a small pile of charcoal, and a can of lighter fluid. I don’t really know if that is done that way in the summer.  I know that I appreciate it in the fall, especially after a long cold day of rain. As you are standing aerating your glass of Rex, enjoying the cool crisp fall air, you start to feel a little chill come over your body. Never fear, because the next thing you see is the constant stream of fluid being put on the red hot charcoals. You are immediately transported to the mandatory morning beach walk, where you experience that warm glow of the sun raising over the beach. Three of us can related to the experience of the morning walk, and appreciate the controlled explosion, but to the other slackers yes rule breakers all you see is some loco, nut , deranged, eccentric, bonkers, batty  (Uncle Lewis) standing there trying to replicate the blazing Christmas tree.  After dinner we moved to the fire pit to enjoy a nice fall evening under the starts, with great company, intellectual conversation while being warmed by the camp fire. The fire wood was soaked, but that did not stop us, we were armed with plenty of paper, and our trusty second can of lighter fluid. After an hour or so, we had a roaring fire. I am much of a traditionalist, so this part I really do not understand.  Last year we had PBR, and this year, some of the intellectuals turned in to elitist social climbers, and had bottles of Moose head! How in the world, was anyone supposed to tie a 6 pack of Moose head bottles to their belt!  Now what’s up with that! I guess they were just trying to get into the social class of those who drink the mighty Rex. People it is going to take a lot more than going from cans of PBR to bottles of Moose head! Rex puts you in a social class of its own! Since we are all aware of our clans pro-environmental stands (for example recycling every morning at Kiawah), we were face with a new problem, what were we supposed to do with the empty bottles? Last year when we had cans we did our own recycling and casually place them in the fire so they would melt down, that worked well, contrary to some sage edumacated advice. So once again contrary to the advice, we put in the bottles, and what else would you expect to happen, but they melted. We are the poster family for responsible re-cycling; I can see it now, guest speakers at the next presidential conference on climate change, front and center with the Gore’s and Obama’s! We will all be rich! Vegas here we come, they might even give us some free Gov’t land! I hate to end this on a bad note, but I have been suffering some severe mental anguish over this. As I always say, it is better to be upfront with things then to disappoint people. Here goes.. There will not be a center piece on our thanksgiving table this year. Yes.. No gourds, pumpkins and fall Bucket (pronounce Bouquet) illuminated by a single bee’s wax candle. Every year we plan something “real nice” I am just out of time! Please don’t feel shafted.  We spent hours molding a Rex bottle, and made a creation that was worthy of the Warhol museum, but we received some sage advice! Take it out of the fire and put it on the grass to cool, take one guess what happened… thanks to that advice our good old hap-hap-happy traditional family thanksgiving dinner will not be as festive this year. No center piece, we will now just have to focus on that old dried out turkey! Oh one final note, at the end of the night all cars started, no dead batteries, so that is a good thing, the down side to it was we did not have the pleasure of listing pre-season music.

Words of Wisdom: When you take action that you know is good; then what happens happens.