Sandi Chats

Welcome back! Things got a bit crazy in my world for a few weeks, plus I lost my inspiration in all the busyness of things, but I am glad that things are settling down and to be back with my readers. Since I've been here, we had our annual McCoy Labor Day Family Reunion. It was a bit quieter this year as two families had other commitments and couldn't make it. But those of us who showed up had a good time.  This year we planned another water-park trip, this time to Watiki in Rapid City. At the last minute, several of us changed our minds and instead went shopping. So no repeat of last year's near drowning debacle! We also took a wine-tasting tour of a couple of the wineries in the area. I discovered that I'm not much of a wine drinker! And I'm pretty sure that in 4 days I consumed 20,000 calories, but I enjoyed each one of them! Then we arrived home to jump right into preparations for our Cowboy Fast Draw state and territorial shoot held September 15th through

This past week I read a Facebook meme that says: "I spent the first 2/3 of my life acquiring stuff that doesn't matter only so that I can spend the last 1/3 getting rid of it. What a stupid game of consumerism we Americans play." I could have written this (had I been clever enough to think of it) as I have more than my fair share of clutter and accumulated possessions. I have often criticized other family members for keeping so much stuff, but it's one of those times of "the pot calling the kettle black".  In recent years there has been a trend toward "minimalist" living. It's actually kind of cool, but I'm not sure I'm ready to pare down quite that much yet. The philosophy behind minimalist living is that you only keep enough stuff to meet the current need....two plates, two sets of tableware, one week's worth of clothing, and so on. In some ways that would be very liberating. And in others it would seem rather austere. We s