who he?

I put our our manger scene today 

    Our scene has a couple of camels, a sheep, a baby in a box, and a bunch of people.

    I arrange them as I see them.

    But Jackie?  Well, she is a little more detail oriented.

    I have no idea who the wise men are and who the shepherds are.  So I just put porcelain bodies wherever they seem to fit.

    She looks at it and then directs me to move them either left, right, behind, in front or somewhere else.

    I tell her it does not matter.  She says it does.

    Meanwhile, my aching knees are on the ground as I move people around, sort of like on a chess board.  But without squares.

    So, if you stop in during the holidays, please pay close attention to the manger.  And volunteer to move people  to save my knees.

    I started putting up garland on the railings, but could not find my bag of bungee cords.  I always put them in the garland box, except when I don't.  Th cords hold the garland in place.

    So with the garland spread out on the porch, I gave up.

    Julia came home and I mentioned it to her and she knew exactly where I had put the cords.  Now I don't have an excuse. 

    It is one of 6 things on my to do list for tomorrow.

    We'll see how that goes!

Peace and Love

dear friend

I do a dreaded Christmas letter 

    Actually, I do 2.  One is real, the other fake.

    I have been doing this since Julia went to Switzerland, maybe the year or 2 before.  I sure wish I had kept the first couple because I think they were my best.

    If I remember, one friend opened the card, saw the letter, and put the letter aside.  His daughter picked up the letter and was laughing and telling her dad that he had to read it.

    Since then I have changed computers.  And I did not save a hard copy of it.  C'est la vie.

    I actually love getting Christmas letters.  I know!  A lot of people dread them, but I think it is great to read what has happened to people and families over the years.

    And the creativity people show! Friend Beth always comes up with something unique and fun.  I know we get others who exercise creative juices in the use of pictures and stuff.  ...letters written by dogs, or cats, or little children.....they are all fun to read.

     I save them until the middle of January when I read them again.  That way I can think about them a little more than I can during the pre Christmas confusion.

    I know Christmas can be a difficult time for a lot of people, for many reasons.  It is not merry for everyone.  I wish it was.

     I hope my little attempt at humor helps brighten  a holiday.  

    That's it.

Peace and Love

brrrr

 I am chilled to the bone tonight

    Not to be confused with Bad to the Bone, that classic rock song from way back when.

    But cold.

    I walked with the Rochelle Area Community Foundation people in the Christmas Parade.  It was a bit damp, and cold, and I was woefully underdressed.

    Surprised?

    I parked downtown and walked to where the parade units were assembling, but there was no one there.

    I asked someone if the parade had been cancelled, and they said no.

    In previous years the kick off was at Sixth Street and Lincoln Avenue.  Or is it highway?  After 50 years here I am still confused.  

    Moot point.  They assembly point was Main Street and Eighth Avenue.  And yes, that was sent to me in an e-mail but I often don't real the whole e-mail.

    I wandered up there, met the group, tried to have adult conversations, which is really hard for me for some reason, especially with people who are not close friends, and then passed out candy along the parade route.

    I tend to fall behind the rest of the people because I stopped to talk to Renee and Wendy, then Joe and his family,  and a couple of other people.  So when I got to the end point, the truck and trailer were long gone.

    Luckily I was parked downtown, so I was close to the car.

    I stopped at the museum and stood by the fire as about 300 people filed through to visit Santa and Mrs. Claus.  I realized at the end I was damn cold, so I am settled down with a cup of hot chocolate.  The only thing missing is Rum Chata.

    Despite the drizzle that fell most of the day, and the 34 degree temps, it was not a bad night.  The rain stopped, the wind blew, and the season officially kicked off.

Peace and L

 Ok, so why do I look like Quasimodo??

When I came back from Emily's surgery, we got stopped on 90 because of an accident.  The guy in the red car had quite an interesting load.  I think it is a rowing scull?  Or a very long canoe.

Yikes

 I am a tired puppy tonight

    I finally got my butterfly bushes put away for the winter.  Normally these plants survive, but the first year is crucial.  I took the hay bale from the porch and piled hay around the plants.  Then I put a rose cone over them and piled up dirt around the cone to hold it in place.

    Hopefully the plants will come back next year.

    I also moved the potted plants into the garage, spread hay on top of my raised gardens, moved the pumpkins and gourds to the back of the yard where deer may or may not feed on them, stacked and piled crap in the garage to create some space, and finished putting ornaments on the tree.

    I was going to put the lights in the 3 unlit Dickens Village houses, but my knees are not cooperating right now.  Maybe later, or maybe tomorrow.

    I just have a couple of chairs to bring in from the porch and the grill from the deck and I will be ready for winter. 

    I also worked on finalizing my brother's obituary.

    I submitted it to the Rockford paper, went through all the steps to have it in the print and on line editions with a picture, and got to the last page.....which asks for payment.  It was over $1,000!  Holy cow!!

    I cut some info out, eliminated the picture, but it is still over $600.  I am not sure what his family will decide, but it is still a chunk of change.

    It's a tough decision, at least to me.  You can spend the large sum, or use that money to support an agency he favored.

    You can opt for the shorter obit, but it takes a lot of the personality out of the person.  

    Then you have to consider the person.  Carl was 83.  The people he went to church with know, the people he worked with know, his neighbors know......the only group of people who don't know are his former clients.  

    And you have to consider ages.  Younger people will get the info on line, while us older folks may be more used to a newspaper for our information.  If you only do one form, you miss the members of the other group.

    I also realize an obituary is permanent record of a person's life.  If we are still here as a humans, a great great great great great grandchild may be curious about their distant relative.  

    I never thought it would cost that much.   Of course, I called the customer service number and they are going to call me back.  That was at 10 a.m. and I have not heard from them yet.

    I am not holding my breath either.

Peace and Love

fears

I may have some problems to overcome 

    Not finishing things is one.  

    Being on time is another.

    Disorganization in all phases of my life.

    But fear is a big one.

    Some fears I have overcome.  Like a fear of needles.  I can actually get a shot or have blood drawn without passing out.

    Other fears I won't overcome, but they should not be a problem in normal life.

    Like a fear of bears.  I went on a camping trip once in an area where black bears were active.  I could not sleep and ever step I took I scanned the trees for bears.  I eventually abandoned the group and went to a public camp site rather than a deep in the woods site.  I did not have that fear years ago in Alaska, so I am not sure why I have it now.

    Alligators.  Jackie's brother Bob and his wife Anita live in Florida and see gators once in a while.  I get nervous seeing them in a zoo.  The gators, not Bob and Anita.  Just to be clear.

    Jet planes crashing into our house or losing an engine and having it hit our house.  We don't get a lot of planes flying over us, but this time of the year seems to bring an uptick.  FedEx, UPS, Amazon all fly into Rockford and sometimes they seem pretty low.  

    A Trump presidency.  Enough said.

    Burglars.  We have an alarm system because I watched some crime shows and became convinced we needed an alarm system.  I also gave up watching crime shows.I do sleep a little better.

    Tornadoes.  Still debating with myself about a home shelter in the garage.

    Being alone.  Not just for an hour or two, but a permanent loneliness.  

    Teaching again.  I could not do it.  If today's standards were applied when I was teaching I would not have lasted 2 years.  I would have gone crazy with what teachers have to put up with today.  It's insane.   Luckily, I am too old and too ornery to ever go back into a classroom.

    Success and Failure.  Both?  I think that explains why I write books but don't trey to get them published.  What if they are terrible and get bad reviews?  I would be devastated.  But what if they were successful and got rave reviews?  I would be devastated because I could have written so much more.  So, I am the only reader of what I write.  Crazy, eh?

    So much for my fears.....and psychiatrists who want to take a shot at redeeming me are welcome to try.

Peace and Love

Whew

 I am one tired boy tonight

    I actually got up early because I drove Emily to a hospital in Barrington for some surgery.

    It was not major surgery, but it was surgery. And any surgery is a major thing.

    We had to be there at 10, which was great.  Anything earlier than that would have been a real struggle for me.

    Julia is going to pick her up tomorrow.

    We had help come in to take care of Jackie because Julia isn't strong enough.  Seems the help wasn't either and Julia had to help her get Jackie into and out of her chair.

    Surgery went fine.  Doc came out and told me all was ok and she was on her way to recovery.

    She was supposed to spend 1 to 2 hours in recovery.   That meant she would be in a room about 3:30.

    At 5:30 she was still in recovery because there was no room available!  

    No  visitors are allowed in recovery.  But, since I was such a nice guy, not demanding or impatient, even after over 2 hours,  they bent the rules and took me back to see her.

    She was wide awake and we chatted for a few minutes before I left for home.

    Julia let the dogs out today and fed them tonight.  I will go over about 10 and let them out again and Johanna will feed them in the morning.  

    Ny plan was to go to Target in Lake Zurich, hit a Starbucks, then go back to the hospital to read my e-book.  But I did not bring my e-book reader, so that fizzled right away.  I did get to the Target and Starbucks.

    Some things I learned today:

    Houses in Barrington can be rather large.

    A car looked like it overturned and burned on 90 west of Marengo on my way home, closing 2 lanes.

    It is impossible to sleep in a chair in a waiting room in a hospital.  And I can sleep darn near anyplace.

    Nurses qualify for saint status.

    No matter their age, they are still  our little girls.

Peace and Love

Bear down

I am sort of watching the Bears tonight 

    But to be honest, this is a boring game.  Neither team has much of an offensive spark.

    The Bears have 4 interceptions and 9 points.  That is pathetic.  I imagine Minnesota will score and win the game. And the Vikings just scored to take the lead.  Pathetic.

    We got the tree up, shaped, lights strung and almost all the ornaments on before I got tired or bored, not sure which.

    The dining room table is filled with decorations that need a place.  I hope it is done before Jan. 1.

    I was talking to a friend and they said they were having memory issues. They were going to come over for a visit.  I said any day this week is fine.

    After I hung up, I realized I am busy Tuesday driving to a doctor's, busy Wednesday picking up my sister in law from O'Hare and maybe busy Friday for the downtown holiday walk.

    I told them memory issues seem to hit a lot of us at this age. I can't believe I forgot the doctor thing and the airport drive.

    Next week isn't much better.  

Peace and Love