Bob Skelton

When I was young my family would travel to my Grandparents house to visit for a week or two in the summer time. It was our “vacation”. Usually it was Mom’s parents we stayed with and at some point we would go visit with my Dad’s mom. My Grampa Skelton was dead by the time I came along. At any rate Mom and Dad spent the time visiting with everyone they could before it was time to go home.

Now nobody goes visiting even when they live close by. Now everyone visits on line and they are all able to visit together even while doing it at different times. While this is the acceptable way to visit nowadays, I guess, it’s just not the same. One misses the presence of the other person. The unique way that they move their hands and arms when they talk. There is no familiar smell of the other person. No essence of their presence. No watching their mouth make the sounds that emanate from it. Mouths are unique too, you know. No hint of how their eyebrows move or the translation of their words showing in their eyes. I miss those times.

It feels like it’s only the first part of January here still. We have had temps in the sub-zero digits every night for months now. That is the time that I pay attention to the temperature. I always want to know what the temp is so that I know how to dress for work. The accuweather website says it will start to warm a bit in another day. I couldn’t come soon enough for me.

I work for a trucking company that not only employs drivers like me but also uses dock workers to load and unload our trailers. Last week one of the workers was discovered dead on the dock. He was one of the early ones to come to work so there was nobody else around his work area. But, as others slowly arrived, his body was discovered slumped over a low barrier on the dock. Apparently a heart attack victim. It was a sad day, for he was also a friend of mine.

It got me to thinking about how to dig a grave in the frozen ground. Not just a grave, but any hole. Is a backhoe powerful enough to dig through frozen ground? I suppose so.