Giving Thanks

It's evening in the Nation's capital. The streets are quiet.

For of all nights of the year, this is the worst for trying to leave town. Add to that the drizzling rain and the road conditions that result.

And five weeks before I turn fifty, I just got my long-anticipated invitation to embark on a major rite of passage -- I get to join the AARP. Can't wait for all those discounts. Oh boy!

Back at school, I'm ahead on at least one thing. The design for my portfolio page is finished, and online:

http://stu.aii.edu/~dla312

The picture is only a few years old, actually. A little more gray since then, but other than that...

Some of you have wondered what would become of the website of the late Gerard Bugge. For the time being, A Catholic Page for Lovers will continue to occupy the same server as the website of his parish, St Benedict's in Baltimore. Discussions are pending with his family. We'll keep you up to date.

"Sal" and I will have Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's house in Leesburg. Paul will be joining us. So while everybody's in the other room chattering away in Tagalog (the Phillipine national language), us boys will try to catch a movie. To a guy like me, who's used to having Thanksgiving dinner at IHOP when no one else was around, a "normal" experience would be quite refreshing.

Next morning, we'll join the gang of Troop 111 and their families for the annual After Turkey Day Climb up Old Rag Mountain in the Shennandoahs.

Saturday and Sunday will be spent mostly on school work. This boy's got a website to build. You kids will get to see it as it happens, by giving the above a little click.

Some day I'll have a grandchild to bounce on my knee and read stories to. Then we'll watch football, or an old movie, and we'd both fall asleep on the rocking chair. On that day, Deo volente, the years of doing without will finally be realized for what they are.

A reminder to be thankful... for doing with.