Drive Carefully

Labor Day weekend is one of the most dangerous on the roads, because of an increase in drunk driving. So be careful out there.

And please remember to drive responsibly. There are no excuses for:

Driving Drunk
Driving after smoking pot
Driving on drugs or medications that make you drowsy or affect motor coordination and reaction time
Driving exhausted
Texting and Driving
Calling and Driving
Speeding and being reckless on the road.

Just don't do it!! Your life and the lives of others are at stake.

In 2010, I lost a friend to a drunk, drugged, wrong-way driver. Tom was just 24 years old and left behind a wife and two very young sons. Gone far too soon, because someone was irresponsible.

Another friend lost her husband to a drunk driver over Labor Day two years ago.


Please be careful. And please, bystanders, take those keys or that phone if the need arises!

Love you all and like you alive!!

Learn more about Tom and how to end drunk driving here:

Drunk Driving
Ending Drunk Driving
Drunk Driving
Celebrating a Life
Drunk Driving: In Memory of Tom Serewicz

The Thomas J. Serewicz, Sr. Foundation for Kind &Responsible Living remembers Tom’s loving and generous spirit by supporting a variety of charities and hosting an annual memorial picnic.

I met Tom and his wife, Cherise, at the Christian YouthConference at Ocean Park (CYC), when they were teenagers. It was where they met and decided to marry. (I looked after Cherise’s engagement ring once while she was out on a service project doing physical labor.) CYC meets for two weeks every August in Maine and is open to all high schoolers. The 2018 Conference will be August 5-18.


Usually I post a blog about Tom on July 17, the anniversary of the accident. But my blog was on hiatus this year on that date. Hopefully, I am back now for a good run!

Beginnings

As far as calendars go, I am most attuned to the academic one. I suppose because I was a student for 17 years and then a teacher for more than 18.  So September always feels like a time of beginnings to me.

Perhaps even more so because my family of origin had it's beginning then. My parents were married on September 1, 1962. Today would have been their 55th wedding anniversary. Sadly, they both died young. My father of ALS in 1995, my mother of a virulent form of cancer in 2011. They were a blessing and I miss them. And I am grateful to them as will. So there is no celebration today. Just a quiet acknowledgement.

Still beginnings resonate.

So today feels like a good day for a beginning.

I am beginning anew with this blog.


I will be posting about youth ministry, escape rooms, family stuff. The sort of thing I posted about before. Just trying to restart.


Hope you'll come along with me!

Have a blessed day!

April 7, 1933: The Return of Beer

My great-grandfather was a poet. An unpublished one, but I have his poems in a little green book with little red labels saying "My Poetry Book" and Vol. 1 on the side. It's not full, so I don't know that there ever was a Vol. 2.

He wrote about his world, what was happening to him, and his own family. On April 7, 1933 he penned his only poem with a date. That was the day that Congress repealed the Volstead Act, allowing the sale of beer with less than 3.2 percent alcohol. Eight months later, Prohibition was repealed altogether. My great -grandfather wrote a poem rejoicing in the return of beer, but also sounding a cautionary note.

To the Return of Beer

April 7, 1933

Well, good old beer is here again

And has caused quite a sensation

And with it comes prosperity,   

And an income to the nation

Now a man can drink a glass, 

And not feel he's doing wrong, 

He has gained a new freedom, 

That he has wanted, so long.

Let's hope he will enjoy it,

and not abuse, this new right,

Let's hope he'll be contented, 

And drink in a way that's right.

There is no harm in drinking, 

Amongst a gathering of friends, 

But the beer, let's have cheer, 

And good fellowship to the end. 

                                               ~ John F. Henderson, Sr.

What do you think of the message of this poem? 

Do you have any writers in your background who have left a perspective on history?

For more information on the repeal of the Volstead Act and Prohibition, go here: 

April 7, 1933: Gimme a Tall, Cold One - Wired

It's my anniversary

I think I will just ramble a bit today.....

It's my 17th wedding anniversary. We are going out to dinner tonight, child in tow. It's a busy place but you have to have at least four people in your party to make a reservation. Hmmmmmm.....this could be interesting.


My living room is now colonial blue with navajo white trim. It looks lovely. I am going to like it. (Thanks to my brother-in-law Bret and sister Pam who did the painting! And to my brother Glenn who supplied the paint for the trim. And to Pam, Glenn, and my friends Denise and Hannah for stripping wallpaper...Your work is appreciated!) It's amazing what a coat of paint can do if properly applied.

I am planning my yard and garden...need to plant vegetables, want to plant flowers. The landscaping needs some work. It's graded toward the house. Well, this an "over the next few years" project.

Right now I need to get my house organized. Things unpacked and put away. It's getting there slowly but surely.

I think that's all my ramblings for now. Ramble back if you like.


Have a good day!


I am participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge: A post a day for 31 days! I am not really keeping up though....