Take Comfort in...

Quantity - that's right - some of us take comfort in different things - but there is nothing more relaxing than taking a little comfort in going home to the parent's house and walking into the pantry (for some strange reason I keep wanting to type panty - but that seems terribly inappropriate to get that mixed up with going to the parent's house, I have had to correct pantry several times or risk getting some very odd email comments on the trips back home to the parents house and what I do when I am there - I digress)...

I have to admit that it is a comforting feeling to walk into Mom's kitchen, and know that when I open the pantry door that there is going to be a stockpile of food - the kids and I joke everytime we make the drive over that Walmart has to send additional trucks to Pensacola just to supply Mom's pantry with all of the good stuff that we don't buy at home - vanilla oreos, the cheese dip that causes heart attacks (literally - six or seven different types of cheese, and bacon bits - but man, it is good stuff), different types of sweet, salty, sticky, and gooey treats, all the bread products you could possibly desire, hidden and rare oddities of food that are always good to eat - and at Mom's house, are readily available - what's even funnier, is that I usually end up with a trunk load of those things - Mom wants us to have comfort - whether we are there or not - and that is obvious when we pull into the driveway, and generally when we walk into the kitchen, there is something hot and ready for us to eat.  I know that there are ingredients for those foods that we grew up on, barbeque chicken and rice or ham or hot dog buns, but most of all, there is just about everything in there for us to feel at home - and for us to have some comfort...

I feel sort of guilty about not going to church on Easter with my folks and kids today, I don't frequent those places much anymore - but the kids went in their Easter finery, and I think that was enough - but none the less, I could have gotten out of bed, changed into something considered church going clothes, and headed on over - but the sleep and quiet was nice - and was good.

Taking comfort in quantity has never really been my thing - my pantry has the staples that get me through the six days per month at home - spaghetti sauce, noodles, dry beans, canned vegetables - you know, everything that can be fixed in about ten minutes -

I tend to take comfort in places - you know, I have seen a ton of them - and I know that there are more to see - and that is comforting to me, there are places with vistas and people and little dark bars and dives that serve cold beer and greasy food that I have not been to - there are folks with stories that I have not heard, small airports with only prop service that I have not been to - that's comforting to me - what is not so comforting is that I want to share them with my children and Cadence - and most of the time - they are somewhere else - and I am there - nothing to complex about being comforted by that feeling - the complexity comes in when there just are too many miles between those places and me.

Places - that's about right - too many places, too much time, and too little of everything else to get to them all - but there is a list of things to want to do - and want to see - and that, for me, makes a huge amount of comfort available.

Until next post...

George