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3:15am

snowstorm has stopped after depositing about 4 inches on my neighborhood. driveway cleared. on this, the shortest day of the year i am beginning this blog. like an all night diner, there will be the same items on the menu for the regular crowd, and an occasional rare treat for newcomers and those strange people that tend to be here on an irregular basis. my name is richard. i am 59 1/2 years old. i won't pretend to be young. i won't pretend to be anything but what i am. there is so little truth in our world; i don't think it's a good idea to add to the deception we all face daily.

i am married. as is usually the case, my marriage has its' ups and downs. usually it is somewhere in the middle. it is my second marriage. i find myself in the majority as far as marital success is determined. i have three sons from my first foray in matrimony; my sons are all adults now and live elsewhere. the oldest made me a grandfather five years ago. the youngest is about to make me a grandfather for a second time. my middle son has not shown any inclination to repeat what his brothers have done.

i had a son with my second marriage. he lived twenty-two days. so it was, and so it is....the grief was too great for me to consider another. that feeling was not shared by my wife, and has been one of the major "downs" in our marriage. so it was, and so it is.....