Re-Post from December 31, 2009
HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2011
Frequently, in getting to know blogger-Peeps,
I wonder, "Where do you live? What does
your house look like? Your yard?"
This is where steveroni lives...
WHERE DO YOU LIVE?
And I am so ever grateful to have a place to live. I do know what it is, to stand in the cold at midnight, snow swirling about howling winds. And I am there shivering with runny nose, fever, wet feet in soggy socks and shoes, feeling OH! so sorry for myself--you know the drill--"Nobody loves me...nobody cares!" I wish I had a hat.
Yeah, right. Boo-hoo-hoo! It is snowing so hard, several inches have accumulated while I'm standing there waiting for a bus--hopefully, heated. My ears are freezing, and my fingers also. If only I had a hat. "Achoo!"
Must remember to get my violin out of hock, and see if these fingers will still do the thing. Where did I leave that hat?
NOTE: I had pawned my violin (worth $950 at the time) for $5...to buy a quart of "good" vodka. Two weeks later they wanted $17 for it's retrieval. The vodka, with my system of rationing, had lasted seven hours.
Ten more years of this kind of life brought me to my knees--literally--in 1974. I have not had a drink since. My gratitude is ongoing, characterized by activity in the groups of Alcoholics Anonymous. There I found, in twelve steps, a way of life...which makes life worth living.
Many of you Peeps are friends who I never have met, and probably will not experience that face-to-face joy of meeting. But I love you--ALL of you. And as we trudge this road of happy destiny, this road of Poems, Paintings, Music, Love and SOBRIETY, I am humbled. God has granted me SO many gifts, temporal, spiritual, and certainly not the least...YOU Peeps, who I cherish. And I now own eight hats!
Love.
Steve E
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
(See you in 2011)