Anticipation I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had a great time. All of the family got together. I’m not even sure how many people were sleeping in the house at any given time over those four days. For fun my oldest daughter would ask me to name all of our guests. It was organized, blissful chaos.

Needless to say I felt much anticipation leading up to the holiday. Anticipation is great and helps us order our life and keeps us happy and sane but it can also have a pitfall. We should look forward to important events and milestones in our life but we should also live in the now. I had to make a conscious effort to still enjoy each day leading up to the holiday. If all our focus is on anticipation then we really haven’t lived. Anticipate your child’s first day in nursery school but don’t miss his/her first steps and first words. Life goes by fast enough living in the now but would go by under enjoyed and under appreciated if all you do is anticipate. Life really is about the journey.  ¶ 3:30 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Bruce and Joe I saw Bruce Springsteen last night at the Verizon Center. I took my oldest daughter. She thanked me last night but I think she will understand and thank me again in ten years. I am not an obsessed Bruce fan but I have seen him several times over the last, well let’s just stop there. Bruce always gives a hundred percent. He sang Born to Run last night and sang it as if he were singing it for the first time. There are no recorded music beds, no lip syncing just Bruce and the E street Band making good old fashioned live music. On the way home I told my daughter the story about Joe DiMaggio. One day Joe was sliding hard into second base to try and break up a double play. Joe gets back to the dug out and one of his team-mates asks him why he was playing so hard since the Yanks had already clinched for the playoffs. Joe said I play hard because someone may be watching me play for the first time. I think Bruce performs with the same attitude. We should all do our job with that in mind.

He also played:

Radio Nowhere
Badlands
She’s the One
The Rising
Lonesome Day
Dancing in the Dark
Growing Up
Reason to Believe
Gypsy Biker
Tunnel of Love
Kitty’s Back  ¶ 5:59 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Time to Nest There is a chance that we could see some wet flakes north and west of Town Friday night and early Saturday morning. My colleague Tony Pann covers the science of this scenario quite well in his blog so I will leave that alone. Instead I want to talk about nesting. Yes, I believe guys can nest too. Pregnant women don’t have a monopoly on nesting. As it turns colder and the first flakes fly there are some things you might want to think about doing before winter hits us full force.

- Have your furnace checked
- Have your chimneys checked, especially if you love having fires as much as the Shutts
- Cover your firewood and stack it at least fifteen feet from your house.
- Plug spaces to stop drafts. Stopping drafts can safe you some bucks over the winter...chalk your windows and doors (remember to smooth the chalk with your finger, don’t just squirt it out of the tube and leave it there.)
- Add some insulation in the attic. (Be sure to wear a mask and goggles and do not put the insulation over the eaves. Your attic needs to breathe all year round.) Keep your receipt you are entitled to a tax deduction.
- Within the next two weeks bring your hoses in and drain your spigots, (Some spigots do not have to be drained. I have both types. Turn off the valve from the inside and then leave the spigot open. The ones that do not have to be drained I put a cover on them. You can get styrofoam covers from your hardware store.  ¶ 5:33 PM 0 Comments Links to this post