Goodbye to the good, bad and ugly

No, I am not going anywhere. But sometimes the dreams we build up get temporarily postponed. Now, the title is about goodbyes and I am not going to elaborate on who is the good or the bad, or even the ugly; you can figure that out for yourselves.

Goodbyes are difficult, no matter who you are. Well, I take that back. Sometimes they might be good, depending on who you are saying goodbye to. I will leave that one to interpretation as well.

My wife and I now live back in the Coulee. We said goodbye to the ranch lifestyle, not entirely by choice, but we are happy to be back in town. We sadly said goodbye to the awesome views, the deer and the other wildlife. We bade farewell to the large house and said hello to the smaller one. We will miss the drive and the talks we had on the road. We said goodbye to the stairs. Whew, a lot of stairs, now in the past. We said goodbye to the extra “stuff” that is now going into storage. We had a big dream when we moved into this home, and now it is temporarily put on hold. The framework remains and so does the desire. A three-strand cord is not easily broken. In the Lord’s time, the dream will be reawakened.

We also said goodbye to a very good friend. Jay Arnold is off to New York to go to culinary school. He will be missed, not just by our family, but by many many of you. We cannot wait for the two years to be over and for his return to our kitchens to whip us up something yummy to eat. The last few weeks have been cherished time spent with a great friend who is off to conquer an adventure of his own. So proud of Jay. Yes, he will be missed. They say sometimes you don’t know what you had till it’s gone. We are just starting to feel the impact of his absence. Miss you, Jay.

The Coulee area lost some icons of the area over the past few weeks. Jack Hilson, Ray Green and Warren Byam were important members of the community who left a lasting legacy among us. I am a young buck and don’t have a clue of what all they did for the area, but I know their names are mentioned a lot in the annals of the past. I, of course, know Hilson was a patriarch for the area and had a lot to do with its development, and Green and Byam have influenced business and overall community growth. All three were active members of our towns and left a lasting mark for generations.

Goodbye to meaningless political campaigns. In a year’s time, we will welcome a new president. In my mind, this election will be one of the most important of my generation. So, more than ever before, we must cut through the political showboating and really get into the facts of the candidates. We must make a good decision for the future of a drowning nation. We need to feel safe as a nation and take our head out of the sand (tongue in cheek). Maybe we will be able to say goodbye to terrorism, national debt and government misuse and say hello to a thriving nation. We must stay diligent this election year.

As a side note, we were welcomed to our new home by two big bucks, so maybe they decided to move here with us. Well, maybe they said goodbye to the gun-toting hunters and decided to be city deer. Look out, gardeners. I’m just saying.