As Time Goes By. . .

Sometimes I feel that life is passing me by, not slowly either, but with ropes of steam and spark-spattered wheels and a hoarse roar of power or terror.  It's passing, yet I'm the one who's doing all the moving.  ~Martin Amis, Money

     Next Monday, my wife and I will be celebrating our 19th wedding anniversary.  Life is passing quickly.  Just the other night I remarked to my wife how it feels as if we have always been married (in a good sense).  Much has happened in 19 years, and change has been the common factor in all of it.  From the one bedroom apartment we started out in to apartments, rental houses, the church duplex, and eventually our present house we have made changes in our dwelling places, not to mention locations. . . Chester, Virginia to Richmond, Virginia to Sanford, Florida.

     Change could also be spelled addition.  It was on our first anniversary we found that we would be adding to our family, and 9 months later there was our daughter, Rebekah.  It was almost two years after that we added Daniel to the family, as well as our first (and very short lived) attempt at having a family dog.  Needless to say, when it came down to choosing between our son Daniel and the family dog, we kept Daniel.  Caleb was our third addition.  He was our Florida baby, which explains his love for the water!  Another attempt was made to add a family dog--Pete!  Though Pete lasted a little longer than the previous dog (Alex), his days were numbered after leaving several smelly surprises for us.  Sadie, a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel, was the first to make the permanent pet of the Simpson family after some friends decided that she would be better off as a member of our family.  With the  kids growing older, we once again added to the family . . . Daisy.  I could easily write pages on Daisy, but if you have seen the movie Marley and Me, Daisy closely resembles Marley in her actions.  Just last year we added our newest, but oldest member of our family.  He already had the right last name, so when my mom passed away Dad came to live not just with us, but as a part of our family.  

     Hairstyles have also pointed out change.  The easiest one is my own.  Over the past 19 years, I have simplified my life by choosing to embrace hair loss with shaving my head.  It was a gradual parting of company.  As my hairline receded my haircuts kept getting shorter.   There was the final day that I decided to go all the way and shave the rest off.  It took some getting used to, but now I get more laughs from people when they actually see an older picture when I had a full head of hair.  My hair hasn't been the only one to change.  As any married man knows, a woman has to always be changing hairstyles.  I remember the long hair and spiral perms that were in when we got married.  We have come through short hair styles to the color streaked, highlighted (or is it low lights?), straightened hair.

     My kids have begun their own hair journey through life.  Rebekah couldn't get her hair to lay down when she was small.  We went through the hot curler stage, to big curling irons, to hair flattening irons.  She has even colored it once (though it really was the same color as before).  Daniel had the same problem as a toddler, coupled with cowlicks.  He went through the crew cut stage to the combing it up in the front to what I now call the rhino point.  (I know he's just trying to develop his own style).  Caleb has been the most consistent, by mostly not combing his hair at all, but rather just rubbing it flat down in the front.  Of course there was what I call the Grandpa Duncan stage, where he parted it down the middle just like his grandpa.  He grew out of that stage, just like he grow out of the cowboy boots with shorts.

     Modes of transportation have changed over the years.  We started out with a 1988 Chevy Nova (it was Chevy's version of the Toyota Corolla) and an 1980  something Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Brougham.  It wasn't too long before we had to part ways with the Olds due to repair issues and fuel economy.  After many long miles the Nova started to show wear and tear and a new vehicle was needed.  We purchased a used Buick Skylark as our first major purchase as a married couple.  The Nova finally had to be replaced, so we added a used Ford Explorer sport edition.  This was nice until we had more than one child and the lack of four doors made the use of car seats a major inconvenience.  The transmission in the Explorer cracked the main shaft on our move down to Florida (which is a whole different story).  It wasn't long before we replaced the explorer with a used Ford Taurus station wagon.  Something about having kids drives you to buy minivans and station wagons.  We downsized by selling the Buick (which was one of the more reliable, lasting cars we purchased) to some friends of ours.  I am not sure if it is just me and my bad luck or it is Ford, but the engine blew its head gasket and we found that it was due to a factory recall.  We sold the Taurus and decided it was time to buy a new car for the warranty.  Our new vehicle was a Kia Sorrento (which we bought for a great deal) with a 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty.  My wife's uncle gave us her dad's 1976 Harley Davidson Superglide 1200 (FXE) which (when it is up an running) has been a fun mode of transportation for me.  As my mom reached the point where she couldn't drive anymore, they gave their Ford Focus to us.  This is the car that my daughter has grown accustomed to driving.  She even named the car "Goldberg" after its color.  I am sure that in the near future it will be her car.
 Continued in the next post. . .