10 Hours in a Climate Controlled Box

A happy family is but an earlier heaven. - George Bernard Shaw

When you are on the road for an extended period, there is a lot of time to muse. During the 10 hour car drive home from Tennessee, the outside temp dropped from 73 degrees to an Autumnal 55 reminding me that I lived in a Northern climate and that snow would soon be blanketing those of us living in Chicago. Hopefully, there will not be as much snow as we had last year. Unfortunately, the prognosticators are calling for a whiter winter than 2011.

Some find the change of seasons joyful with each change demarking the important stages of the year - Spring flowers and budding trees, Summer beaches and barbecues, Fall crispness and colors, Winter snow and holidays, changing again to the awakening that is Spring. I am not one of them. I would be most happy if every day was in the 70s and sunny. For me, winter with the short days, with darkness when I arrive at the office and when I leave for home, the bitter cold, and the snow is a dreaded season to endure, a season of the year that is endured rather than enjoyed, a season that if for me rather depressing.

I would love to move to a warmer climate but the move would bring about a change even more depressing than the arctic like days of January and February. That change would take me far from those I cherish most in my life for they (we) all have deep roots in the Chicago area that, if severed, would result in much sadness on many branches of our growing family tree (one of my cousins had his 10th child, still unnamed, on the day of this writing). For my entire immediate family (Mom, Siblings, Children, Grandkids, Nieces, Nephews) and most of my extended family (Uncles, Aunts, Cousins, Cousins kids) live in the greater Chicagoland area and we are a very close knit bunch.

The entire clan gets together at least twice a year. We gather on 4th July at my Mom's as we have for 30ish years and at the Feast of the Epiphany in January a relatively new event to replace those long ago Christmas Eve's at Grandmas. The January has been dubbed the Cousin's Christmas and is a time we use to celebrate our living family members and to honor those who have already passed. We reminisce about our youth, talk of events over the last year, and share dreams of the future. We are a raucous bunch that is quick to share in a hearty laugh or to share in tears from heart wrenching loss. We have no black sheep only cherished family members where all are as close as brothers and sisters.


They say home is where the heart is. Well my heart is definitely with all my loved ones in Chicago so this is where my home will be for as long as blood flows through my heart.