Numbers

 Numbers sometimes confuse me

    I have a home security system.  One of my window's sensors has a bad battery.  It says dining room window 2.....but I don't know which one is 2.  I have put new batteries in both sensors, but window 2 is still not working.

    I tried replacing one window's battery.....but the message remained.  So I replaced the other window's battery....but the message remained.  Which one is 1?  Wjich one is 2?

    In fact, message center said they had lost contact with window 2.  I looked, it was still there, so I know window 2 didn't wander off.  Good thing too, with the wind and freezing weather outside!

    My printer keeps printing 4 of everything.  I don't check the number of copies before I hit print, so evidently it prints whatever the previous number was.  I don't know when I printed 4 of anything, except the Christmas letter.

    I finally went to buy a couple of calendars today.  Who would think the selection would be so limited 4 days into the new year?  I want a weekly one that I can use to keep track of my miles on the bike and my weight.  I bought one, but I don't like it.  That's what procrastination gets you.

    I started this blog in 2014.  When I  sat down tonight, there had be 229,907 visits to the site.  So.....sometime in the next two nights it will pass the 230,000 mark.

    I have said it before and I will say it again:  Thank you for reading this.  Maybe you don't read it every night, maybe you do.  In either case, I am glad we have connected.

Peace and Love

Coooookie monster

 I think I may have overdone it

    I always buy butter cookies after Christmas because they are cheap.  Instead of $1.99, you can find them for half that and even less than half.

    I always go hunting for them.  Sometimes other people help.

    Like Emily.

    She bought some for me.

    You decide if I have enough or not.

    I usually go through a pack every two weeks.  I make a tea, sit on the porch during the summer or on the patio, and have two or three cookies.

    Jackie likes them too.

    I think I have enough.  I had bought 12 packs and I think Emily got me 40 something.  So this summer, stop by for tea and a cookie.  Or stop by  this winter for hot chocolate and a cookie.  Or coffee and a cookie.  Or tea and a cookie.

    You get the idea.

    Today I started packing them in freezer bags.  Then they will go downstairs in the freezer until I start craving them.  And yes, they do freeze nicely.

    Munching them in July always brings back fond memories of Christmas.  A tasty reminder, if you will.

    I just wish they would not contribute to my weight!

Peace and Love

going, going

 We took the tree down today

    Jackie packed ornaments, Julia and I got the tree out the door ,and the first nail in Christmas 2021 has been pounded down.

    We usually don't take stuff down until Jan. 6, Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas.  I think today was maids a milking day, but I get so confused.

    Anyway, because I left the heating vent under the tree open, old Tannebaum may have dried out prematurely....like me.

    Needles were falling all over the place.  I was afraid it was becoming a fire hazard.

    So, down it came.

    After taking the tree down I went out to clear my driveway. Well, half my drive way.

    There was only snow on half of it because it just was blowing so much.  I guess the guy who plows my drive either forgot me or figured it wasn't enough to bother with.

    So I went outside when it was 12 degrees and took care of the snow.  I also filled bird feeders since I was already out and frozen.

    I do enjoy watching the birds.  I think we had a cardinal this week, but I am not sure.  We do get lots of finches and sparrows.  I imagine the snowbirds will show up in the next week or two and I love watching them.

    Such is my life.

    Here's a few pictures to round out the night.

Peace and Love

These were needles on the floor......a whole bunch of them!  And I am holding a bottom branch!!

Rebecca, I hope you read this blog!  I still have it, at least I did until this weekend.

I saw this before New Year's.  Seriously?

2022? Eh.........

Well, so far it has been anything but exciting 

    The tree is still up, the pictures not hung, and the desk is still a mess.  The two closets have not been organized, still.  Those were last year's tasks.

    But, I did manage a nap.  And I read the paper.  I also watched the second half of a football game of which I had no interest.  I also shoveled the porch off a couple of times.

    Now, Corki is weird.  When there is snow on the ground she often does her duty on the snow covered porch.  So,being smarter than an average dog,  I go out with her and shovel the snow off the porch before she has a chance to squat.

    I have to clear the snow off anyway, so it is no big deal.  And it saves me work, because it is not easy geting frozen pee off the cement.

    At the end of the first day of the New Year, I feel I have not accomplished anything.

    Plus, no celebration last night.  No special celebration today.

    Years ago, before I met Jackie, I had a crush on a girl in one of my journalism classes.  We would walk to class together, help each other with assignments, have coffee in the j-lab together.  Classic crush behavior.  One day I asked her to go see Blow Up, a movie about a photographer who captrues a murder on his camera, but he does not know it.  

    She said yes, and that her boyfriend would love to see it.  So, the 3 of us went to see the movie and that cemented what would be a long time friendship.

    Little Lynn was like a sister to me.  When I was dating Jackie, we would often end up at Lynn's apartment, which was right across the street from the NIU health center.

    We went to her wedding to Chuck, she was godmother to Julia, and we spent nearly every New Year's Day at their house in Western Springs, having dinner, catching up, laughing, and enjoying a friendship.

    This does not have a happy ending.  She and Chuck got divorced, she remarried (to a guy named Chuck!  And he remarried a girl named Lynn!  At least they didn't have to change monograms.)

    We must not have set a good impression at her  second wedding, because we drifted apart.  I tried getting in contact with her, but we had forgotten her new last name.  By the time I finally screwed up the courage to ask Chuck one, it was too late.  She had died a few years before I asked.

    Like with so many people in my life now, I regret not being a better friend and calling her more or seeing her more. 

    New Year's Day has just never seemed the same, even though it has probably been 30 years.  

    Funny thing, when I would travel to the zoo I would pass her street.  I would always smile, because she was that type of person.

    I really don't know why I digressed into such a dark space.  But there is a lesson in it, for all of us. 

    I just hope I learn.

Peace and Love

RSVP

Our last minute New Year's Eve party is a bust 

    None of the people we invited could attend.

    Michelle and  Barak had plans, Sir Elton and Sir Paul were performing, Sir Richard was munching on drumsticks, Jennifer was with her friends......all of them either ignored or declined our requests.

    So Jackie and I are spending a quiet night with Julia...well, Julia is downstairs watching a movie while I am in the den and Jackie is on the Hallmark channel because Christmas seems to have an endless supply of movies.  So I guess we are spending a quiet evening together in separate rooms.

    But, the quiet is fine with me.  Usually we spend it with friends, playing games, laughing, having some alcohol, eating food..... but for the second year in a row we have elected to not do that because of the fear we will get sick.  Thank you, Covid, for ruining another year.

    We did watch an episode of Ted Lasso and I have to say, it was one of the best episodes I have seen!  It was Christmas in season 2 and just featured a neat plot line.  We were a little late catching on to Ted, but it's a good show.  It is interesting to see how the characters grow and change from episode one.....all because of Ted, I believe.  And good writers.

    Anyhow, I hope you all have a Happy New Year and that 2022 is better for all of us.  I hope for a healthier, happier, kinder year for all of us...one without insurresctions and pandemics.

Peace and Love

next year....

I don't think I will be making any resolutions 

    I never keep them.  So, why bother to make them?

    Instead, I am going to set some goals.

            Finish the three books I am working on, and sending one of them off to a publisher.

            Memorize my part for Tuna Las Vegas, coming to you in August.

            Get rid of stuff I don't need or want anymore.

            Get four trees planted.

            Finish my wildflower garden in the back of the yard.

    Those sound suspicously like resolutions. 

    Notice, losing weight, exercising,  saving money, keeping my car clean, are not resolutions because I have said that every year and my car is a mess, I am fat, out of shape and certainly not in the Elon Musk class of people.

    So, goals.

    Now they are set.  I have pulled out the concrete slabs and chiseled them in.  Now all I have to do is wait 'till next year.  As a Cubs fan, that is something I am very used to doing.

    Have a Happy New Year.......I understand in France you can not say that to people until Jan. 1.  But, I am not in France!

Peace and Love

end of an era

 I made a life changing decision today

    Now I am depressed.  And relieved.  

    I bought an artificial Christmas tree.

    I swore I would never have one.  Never.  

        The tree this year has lost a lot of needles from the bottom.  I did not close the heating vent which is behind it, which may have caused the problem.  I will be taking the tree down Friday.  We always leave the tree up until Jan. 6.

    I had decided against an artificial tree just a few days ago.  But watching the needles drop, thinking of the clean up and disposal, worrying about a risk of fire, all led me to change my mind.

    Now I won't have to rely on anyone to go with me to cut a tree.  We have been lucky the past few years.  Emily, John, and sometimes Camryn, have humored me by going but the weather has been mild.  I can't imagine going out to look on a weekend when there is 6 inches of snow on the ground, the temperature is low and the wind is howling.

    With the artificial tree, I can put it up when I want and take it down when I want.  I won't have needles to pick out of the carpet for a month.

    Yet no matter how much I keep telling myself it is for the best, I have a hole in my heart. 

    Next year, if you remember, when you go to a cut your own lot, let me know if I can tag along.  

  Peace and Love