Bad dad

 Sometimes I am not a good dad

    I let Emily's dogs out yesterday.  She has crates for some of the more rambunctious ones.  For some reason, I let Kingsley out of his crate, but when I left I put Fiona in a crate.

    Kingsley created quite the mess.

    I feel bad about it, because it was my fault.  I should have paid more attention to what dog was where.

    I have dog duty this weekend and I guarantee Kingsley will be in a crate when I leave her house!

    I don't always pay attention to the details...the "fine print" in life.  That has been a problem all  my life, or at least as much as I remember.

    I did notice today that our Nest thermostat had a "low battery" message.  I did not even know it had batteries!

    So I did the modern thing, Googled it and found a video on replacing batteries.  Took me about 2 minintes and I did not yell, scream, or drop anything.  That may be a first.

    Our niece  Laurie stopped by for a few minutes before heading back to Ohio.  Her mom, our sister in law, is in a rehab facility in Rockford but may be moved soon to one in Byron.

    It was hard on her, and on her brother, to come here and then have to leave Mom and head back to their families and jobs.

    Just hope SIL Ruth makes a speedy recovery and can join them out east.

    Dang cold today!  Currently 15 but it feels like 0.  I can attest to that every time Igo to with the dog.

    Winter.  Love it or leave it.

Peace and Love

 

Bear Down

 I am looking forward to tonight's game

    Bears vs. 49ers.  Two teams with 11-4 records.  Something has to give.

    Unfortunately my favorite team is playing a team with one of my favorite players.  I love the Brock Purdy story; last guy picked in the draft, not well known when drafted, the butt pf jokes by being named Mr. Irrelevant and then thrust into a starting role and bingo!  A star is born!

    Kind of reminds me of me.  Well, except the football player part.  And being cast into a staring role.  And doing real well.

    But he has 5 letters in his first name, just like me!

    I can't believe I am saying this:  I have had my fill of cookies!  Good grief, I have eaten a lot!  I need some real food for a couple of days.

    The last pennies were recently minted.  The mint folks  put a set of 3 coins together....a penny from Denver, a penny from Philadelphia,  a gold coin, and sold 232 sets of those at auction.  Why 232 sets?  That is how long the penny has existed.

    The last set, 232, sold for $800,000!

    And folks think the rich should not be taxed more than they are.  People who can spend that much on a coin collection can certainly pony up some coin in taxes.

    Speaking of taxes, I have a taxing problem!

    I am assuming the ground squirrels are the culprits in this....not sure what else would be in the yard.  That would explain why the hawk hangs around so much.

    Oh oh.....gotta get ready for the game

    Where did I put my orange paint?

Peace and Love

These critters have dozens of holes in my yard!  And there are highways between them!!

My train tree

I hope you an read the poem

Hard to believe it is Christmas time!  Where's the snow??

White Christmas

 Jackie and I love White Christmas

    That is one of our  movies to watch  for the holidays.

    Today we went to see White Christas at the Paramount in Aurora.

    The stage version is a little different than the movie, just because you can do things on a movie set you can't do on stage.

    I think we all liked the show.  It was interesting to me to see the ways in which they differed.

    For one  thing, I was always bothered by The General's  granddaughter.  Why was she living with him?  What happened to her parents?  In the stage version, someone says that Susan is visiting from California. That explains her presence.  Next time I watch the movie that will be in the back of my mind.

    We ran into some former Rochelle folks and spent a couple of minutes with Amy, Russ, Baxter and Nikkos.  It was great seeing them.

    Anyway, we had a pretty good day.

    Problem is, I can't remember what day it is!  The Packers are on, which means it is Sunday, right?  But NOOOOOOO!  They are playing Saturday night!

    Not going well for the Pack.  There was an early snap that hit the QB in the head and I thought he was going to be knocked down!

    A  Packer loss helps the Bears.

    The weather here is pretty crappy.  Foggy. Windy. Chilly.

    Oh wait, it is December.

    And tomorrow it will rain.

    Go figure

Peace and Love

Early to bed....

I went to bed at 11 last night 

    I was really. tired.  

    I heard the cuckoo hit the half hour, then midnight, then the half hour und I finally fell asleep.

    No caffeine yesterday.  A happy day to recall.  Screen time lessened.

    What in the hell is wrong?

    I am going to try a little Bailey's before bed tonight.  Maybe that will help.

    Anyway, today was pick up day.  

    I finally got the dishes mostly done, stuff is put away, sort of; 2 loads of laundry done..... I am just a little busy bee!

    Yesterday during supper we had visitors in the back yard.  5 deer were out there, grazing around the bird feeder.  I did not see them nibbling on trees, but I will go out eventually and check.  I would have done it today, but I want to wait until the temperature is in the single digits and the wind is howling out of the north.  Makes life more interesting.

    We n ever found the 2 missing presents.  I know they will show up somewhere, but the question is where?

    To show you how my mind works, I opened Jackie's sock drawer for a pair of socks and found an empty toilet paper roll.  In with the socks.  Why did I put it there?

    If we find that answer, we will find the missing presents.

    And yes, I recycle the toilet paper rolls.  Years ago, when I volunteered at Brookfield Zoo, I would save them for craft projects in the play zoo.  It has carried over to putting them in the recycling bucket.

    Tomorrow we are going to Aurora to see White Christmas at the Paramount Theater.  I am looking forward to it.

    Usually we watch a lot of Christmas movies, but I have only seen 2 and have not yet watched "It's a Wonderful Life."  I must be slowing down in my old age.

Peace and Love

Well... that was. fast

 Christmas just flew past our family today

    Emily and Julia came over and we opened presents, then Camryn and Judy came.  That's when the chaos started.

    I was searing the roast before putting it in the oven.

    As I was doing this, Judy came in.  And my phone rang with my niece and nephew on a FaceTime call.  Ten the smoke alarms went off.  Then Jackie's brother Bob called. And the smoke alarm started saying "Fire.  Fire."

    And that perplexed me.  It sounded like, "fire" when it should have been FIRE...GET THE HELL OUT OF THE HOUSE!!

    We opened the back door, turned on the fans and after a couple of minutes the smoke alarms grew silent.

    Judy and Jackie talked to brother Bob while I continued searing the roast.  Someone told my niece I would call her back.

    Order was restored.  Thankfully.

    It was a great day. 

    Kevin, Jen, Sam, and Sandy joined us,  and our niece and nephew came after dinner but there was still enough food for them to eat. 

    I bought a variety of scratch off lottery tickets and put them in envelopes.  Everyone drew one envelope.  Jason, from Pennsylvania won $50 and Laurie, from Ohio, won $25.  Yes, 2 out of staters won Illinois lottery money!  Brother and Sister too!  Go figure.

    And of course we had cookies. And apple pie.  And pecan pie.  And pumpkin pie.  And more cookies.

    Normally after a gathering I would make sure all the dishes were done, the rugs and floor vacuumed, furniture checked for crumbs, and that everything was picked up and put away.

    I did none of that tonight, except load and run the dishwasher.

    Tomorrow is another day.

Peace and Love

PS...I accidentally hit the Google search button, so some words are highlighted in blue.  I can't seem to undo that.  I am sorry.

A Very Merry

 Merry Christmas to all

    Jackie and I made it to Christmas Eve service at St. Paul in DeaKalb.

    It was a lovely service.  I loved the music and the ;prayers......it was very nice.

    Plus we got to visit people we have not seen for a while.

    Kids have grown like weeds!

    Anyway, it was nice.

    The girls can over and we had pizza afterwards.  Again, it was nice.

    I am finishing wrapping presents.  I should have been doing this weeks ago, but that is not my nature.  I put off more than I should.  It always comes back to bite me.

    Oh well.

and to all a good night

Peace and Love

olio time

 Just a collection of odds and ends in mu mind

    Friend Pam told me how to check my stats for playing solitaire.

    On spider solitaire with 2 suits, I win 27 % of the time.  On 1 suit I win 87  % of the times I play.

    So, 1suit is not challenging enough, and 2 suits is too challenging.

    Thanks, Pam.  Now I don't have to keep track on paper.

    At some point in time I signed up for an Ancestry account.

    It was free for 6 weeks, and then I had to pay if I did not cancel.

    Well, I did not cancel.

    I tried to cancel on line, but can't seem to do it.  so I called today.

    I talked to a very nice lady who used my e mail, phone number, and part of my credit card number to traee my account and.....I don't have one.

    None of my numbers, or name, is in the system.

    But I can log in and look for information about my family.  Go figure.

    I always wanted a family history, but I have given up. 

    I am the last of my family.  Brother Carl was always able to answer questions about aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.  But he is no longer here.  I don't think Juilia or Emily are particularly interested in the family history.  And I am not curious enough to continue at a cost of $25 a month.

    We were in DeKalb today for a doctor appointment.  I pooled several errands, one of them being a stop at TAILS, an animal shelter.

    As I got out of the car a young girl was walking a small, brown,  older dog.  I am assuming the girl was a volunteer walker.  When I was leaving they were on their way back in and the little dog looked at me and I could hear her saying, "Take me home....please.  I just want love."  

    It broke my heart.  If our circumstances were different, she'd be adapting to life with Beth.

    I understand why Emily has so many older dogs.

    I read something in the Trib today that just does not seem right.

    The article said in the past 7 years we have had 1 white Christmas, and that was in 2022 when 1 inch fell.   They also said we average a white Christmas every 3 or 4 years.

    Since the early1970s the average December temperature is up 4.5 degrees.  The last time we had a snowfall of over 2 inches on Christmas was 2017.

    And two/thirds of the 2,000 nation wide monitoring stations are noticing the same trends.....less snow, warmer temps.

    Climate change?

    Hell, it's going to be near 50 Christmas Day.

    As my childhood friend Pogo would say, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Peace and Love