It’s cold as heck outside right now….in the single digits and blowing wind hard….but I doubt that it’s rough like these guys have it.

Modern conveniences make things easier.

Easier….until a tree blows across a power line or something similiar happens and we’re plunged…..PLUNGED!!!…..back into the dark ages.

We still have power though…..so….I’m brewing coffee and trying to slam together a blog post before I have to get in the Mail Jeep and drive around for 6 or 7 hours.

It feels good to be back from our trip….but…I wish that we were still seeing more of the West….driving around in the minivan….stopping at unfamiliar places….eating unfamiliar food….traveling together.

I wonder if you didn’t have to come back if you’d stay away longer?

“Home” is a powerful pull….but….it sure is fun to see things that are a little bit different from what you’re used to.

Maybe I just don’t want to get out in the cold wind and put pieces of paper into small metal boxes all day?

Maybe my “getting away” is stronger than my “going to” impulse this morning?

That didn’t take long….to veer back into the “getting away” lane.

It is really cold.

Wherever you are…..wherever you are….make the place you stand in a good place.

Make it good.

But….could you stand in a new place….and use all you’ve learned…and make the new place a good thing, too?

These people who do these things….travel and experience….etcetera….aren’t any smarter or more accomplished than we are.

They just go out and do them.

What new things can a year hold?

What are we going to do in the coming year?

Time will tell.

And….this year more than any before….I am going to bloom where I stand….while I stand here.

I will bloom wherever I plant myself.

Awwwwwwwww.

Abba!

Now these guys look like they really know how to throw a party.

I hope that I don’t have to ring in the New Year like this.

I heard an interview with a man named Brian Buffini yesterday.

He wrote a book called “The Emigrant Edge: How to make it big in America”.

He mentioned this quote….and I thought that it was pretty powerful.

What a lesson!

What a thing to remember.

Maybe motivation isn’t just getting amped up for getting something done….maybe it’s remembering who we’re doing it for.

I could fight a lot more battles for the people I love.

I think that I could rise to a challenge like that.

I’m thinking about snow a lot these days.

There’s a certain romance in thinking about “rugged individualism” and the great white North….but, in reality, snow can be kind of a pain in the rear.

What good Norwegian would say something like that?

I’ll tell you who: a Mailman Norwegian.

If I’m just out getting some more wood to stoke the woodstove….coming in for hot choclate….learning to cross-country ski through a quiet forest…then I’d have to say that snow is the most amazing thing ever.

It doesn’t get any more magical.

IT’S “THE BOMB”!

But….being responsible for delivering a bunch of junk mail in bad weather sours me to all the white and slippery stuff.

I hope that I can just play in it someday and not worry about keeping the pieces of paper out of the elements.

I hope that snow is magical soon for me.