Getting Back to Normal

 Ever day is a new day and with each new day comes a little more normalcy in our lives.  Today was the First Day of Sunday School again.  Of all the things that I missed the most during Covid was my Church family, especially the children.  

Tammy, bff and co-teacher and I are blessed with a great group of children.  They are smart, even when I think they aren't paying attention, they are.  They are funny, they do and say the funniest things, I am always laughing with the.  They are our future leaders and I don't mind leaving the world to them.

The most popular spot in our room is the hot chocolate corner and of course, the marshmallows.  We had all kinds of marshmallows.  Big ones, small ones, flavored ones and the kind that are in marshmallow cereals.  I seen them wear marshmallows on their head, spear them with coffee stirrers and finally put them in their hot chocolate.  

I learn, as I teach them and I have been learning for over 30 years.  All the children that have come through have blessed me in some way.  When I see some of the ones that I had years ago now married with children I realize how old I am.  But you know what, the new ones keep me young.  They give me energy that I usually don't have and let me tell you, covid  had sucked a lot of my energy away.  Even though I worked every day, nighttime was mundane.  Come home, eat and sleep - repeat.  

When I cleaned the room last week I found a lot of spider webs, one daddy longlegger, which Linus tells me is the most poisonous spider but is unable to bite humans with its fangs, and the world's most hardest  marshmallows that ever existed.  Along with out dated snacks, candy that was 2 years old and some other outdated items.  

Today is was only Linus and I.  We did the lesson about Deborah and Barak, talked about what we can do for others in the church.  Talked about the food bank, the church carillons and daddy longleggers.  Being it was only the two of us, we were done early so we threw yarn balls around and then did some origami, unsuccessfully.   But I was never happier.  

Yes, maybe we are taking baby steps to becoming normal and some things may be never normal again, but for today is was at Salem UCC Sunday School, and that's another day in Catasauqua.

Let's have some Cheese with you Wine, oh wait that gets delivered on a Tractor Trailer

 It's a rainy day, a soggy Memorial Day weekend.  I can't help but read Facebook and one of the Catty pages is really getting bogged down with whining about noise and tractor trailers.   Especially Fed Ex tractor trailers.  But we need to face one big fact - none of use could live without tractor trailers, they bring us our food, our clothes, our medicine and basically everything.  Unless you live your life on a farm, raise animals, butcher them, and grow all your food you rely on tractors trailers.

• Of the 1.9 million semi-trucks that operate in the U.S., one-third of them are registered in California, Florida and Texas.
• In 2015, commercial trucks traveled an estimated 279.8 billion miles collectively.
• A typical semi-truck diesel engine weighs 3,000 pounds.
• 70 percent of American goods are transported via semi-trucks

During Covid we even relied more on Fed Ex  and Amazon.  Let's face - some of us didn't go out to shop and we had everything delivered. 

I worked for Fed Ex (for a whole week) and do you know what that truck was full of - everything.  Chewy.com; medical supplies, rugs, furniture, box after box after box going somewhere around the United States.  It gets from place to place by tractor trailer.  

Yes I know that the tractors trailers are big and our streets are small - I live on Howertown Road, I hear it all, trucks being the quietest.  Motorcycles and loud cars don't bother me like they bother my mom, who has to say OY every time they go by.  

I lived at 2nd and Mulberry Streets growing up and I am old enough to remember the noise from the Brewery.  And lets talk about the airport, I could hear planes start up and roar overhead.   They are much quieter now.  Oh, and what older Catasauquan cannot remember the banging from the Phoenix Forge.

Oh our poor ancestors.  Historically, manufacturing was Catasauqua's principal industry, and, in 1839, it was the location of the first manufactured anthracite iron in the nation..  Betcha that was a nuisance at the time.    

Let's face it, there always something to gripe about, but I love Catasauqua, the small town charm, it might not be the best place to live but it surely is not the worse.  I love the trees, the parks, and yes I to will miss the pool this year but it is what it is.   We have Skelly on Race Street that makes me smile and we have a lot going for us and that's what we should be happy about. 

You can complain if you wish, but the next time you have get a box from Amazon, or Zulily or anything for that matter, remember it probably was on a tractor trailer at sometime.  and that's another day in Catasauqua