One of the items we got in was a "Mariners Book of Days". It's kind of like a combination- Day Planner, Almanac and lots of nautical history and trivia information, that us old salts like to read about.
There is something about the term..."Book of Days" that I always liked, kind of sounds biblical and historical at the same time. I imagine a Book of Days, would be a good record of your life, something that would prompt old memories or thoughts of important events in ones life.
Maybe it would be a large leather bound volume, with many parchment like pages, that you could leaf through and have those days of yesteryear come streaming back to you like a rerun.
Or it could be something as pedestrian as in my case, when I received my brand new Baltimore County recycling/trash collection schedule.
One weekday morning, sitting at the kitchen table, with a cup of coffee, before I went in to work, I looked at my old Baltimore County Collection, dating back to the end of 2004. I started looking over the various dates and months and years, remembering certain events that happened in that month or this year.
Then it dawned on me.....this was to be my "Book of Days" There it started in the year 2004; Joan, I and the boys took our first family vacation at Lake George, staying at the Alpine Village resort. A place that we all loved and the boys and I would visit two more times. Later we brought our Beagle, Daisy home as a puppy. In December of 2004, I was told that I would be laid off from my job with Panasonic, a company I had worked for 12 years and loved being a part of.
Later on in the months and days of 2005, I see my last day with Panasonic and my first day with GET Marketing. Here before me were the nights I was a business traveler in New England, Virgina or North Carolina, as well as the nights I was a dad/fan on the football field for Chris and the Overlea Orangemen or at the basketball court for Josh and Eastern Tech Mavericks.
Later in November 2005; Joan tells me she is leaving.
Looking a little further on, into 2006 and I have February-Super Bowl Sunday, Joan moves out completely, yet the boys spend the night with me, so we can watch the Super Bowl and have some of their friends over.
July 2006 and the boys and I spend a week at Lake George, I remember our Horseback riding excursion that year. Where a great trail guide-College student from North Carolina and two horses-Duke and Bucky, won the boys over and showed them that there are new adventures to try in life and going horseback riding is not "Gay" as the boys wondered before it was our turn to mount up and ride.
2006 Thanksgiving; was at Gina's with Dad, Mom, Greg and his family all in attendance.
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008...the past 4 years of my life were playing themselves out right on these non-parchment looking pages.
I remembered great trips I took for work (yes...work) out to Chicago, or up to Newport, Rhode Island or down to Virginia Beach, or Charleston, SC and even to Puerto Rico.
Welcoming in 2007 was a party here for Christopher and his friends Donny, Tommy and Alex.
I can still recall the layer of confetti and streamers all over my deck.
Josh had his Senior Prom and then graduated from E.T. High School in 2007, I can picture those days and events.
July 2007 was another week spent at Lake George and this time it was a climb up Prospect Mountain, that while it was a killer for me, it was an adventure and a feat, the boys and I accomplished together.
July 2007 was another week spent at Lake George and this time it was a climb up Prospect Mountain, that while it was a killer for me, it was an adventure and a feat, the boys and I accomplished together.
Later on as the year rolls by, I remember....
My first time preparing an entire Thanksgiving dinner for Josh, Chris and Josh's girfriend Nicole came in November 2007.
Christmas dinner was at Gina's for all her family and my family.
Walks with Daisy along the Gunpowder River or the Eastern Regional Park.
Then comes a bad layoff for me in January 2008 and months of frustration searching for work and anxiety for losing everything I owned.
But what also comes is my rescue in the shape of Dad and Mom, plus West Marine.
Oh and don't forget the Unemployment insurance and then another part time job for Sony.
As I put this modern book of days down and finished my coffee, a few things about my life came to light.
I have had a string of events, good and bad, high and low, that would pass for a plot line on a Soap Opera, and.....I sure am consistant in recycling and marking off those weeks.
No matter what happened in my life, that week, month or year...I always made sure the recycling made it out to the curb and I recorded it all here in my "Book of Days"
Many thanks to the Baltimore County Department of Public Works.
And that's how life goes in Mr. Joes World.
Joe
