HOME ALONE.....

....AND LOVING IT!

After a busy spring of travel and interacting with crowds of people, I am "home alone" for a few weeks. I am looking forward to some quality time on the deck. 

A SHORT HISTORY OF DECK DAYS...ALONG WITH A SHORT HISTORY OF BEARDS

Here are some old "home alone" photos, complete with full beard, partial beard and now no beard at all! I grew a full beard in 1971. I cut it down to a partial beard in 1995 in honor of my twenty fifth anniversary. I cut it all off in 2014 in honor of my retirement. If it had not turned white, I would have kept it. However, when someone said I looked like Colonel Sanders, I went into the bathroom and "did it in."

FULL BEARD DAYS

I once had a dog, BEAR, for six days, but had to give him back because I was not used to having something in the house following me around and staring at me all the time.  It was not fair to him either to leave him all day by himself. This is a true story. One day he pulled a book off the shelf and chewed it up. It was a book called Loneliness. I kid you not! Like the famous "Lassie" on TV, he was trying to tell me something. "Get me out of here!"

One of my favorite things to do at home it sitting outside on the deck, 

thinking and praying and dreaming up new projects.....

PARTIAL BEARD DAYS

...and the other is having a cigar with a seminarian friend (now Father Aaron Jenkins) before I decided it was better for me to give them up. 

NO CIGAR! 

Now I just sit, cigarless, on the deck thinking and praying and dreaming up new projects. I still crave cigars once in a while even after giving them up years ago. They were soooooo relaxing! I do enjoy a Tanqueray gin and tonic once in a while when someone comes over. I haven't given those up yet!

NO BEARD DAYS



The only bad thing about living alone is that you tend to eat way to much - especially at night.

A piece of heaven - the present deck at my condominium - where being home alone is wonderful.



Even feeding the geese can be relaxing.

                                                                           

FUTURE BEARD DAYS?

Maybe I will grow my beard back for my fiftieth anniversary!
Here's what I will probably look like!
Again, maybe I won't!