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Last night Kevin and I went to Roundtop for the first run of the season. The temperature was in the low 20s but the wind chill brought it down to about zero. On top of that, they were blowing snow all night, so at times your goggles would freeze over. It felt as if you were being sandblasted, lol. But the conditions otherwise were great, the snow fairly light and not too many icy spots. Our friends from Alaska are down for a week and we’re going out with them on Wednesday again. They live in Nome, so they don’t get to ski unless they choose to fly to Anchorage and visit a site near there (an expensive proposition when you figure in flights, hotels, etc.).
It took a few runs, but it pretty much came back, though I’m still not as confident as I’d like to be. I could hardly get out of bed this morning. Skiing in those conditions really takes it out of you, and I awoke more tired than when I went to bed! Of course my shins are sore, too (it takes a while to get them used to the boots). We have a night pass over there and hope to get out a couple of nights a week. I think I can suspend my Skier’s Edge exercise as long as I do that (there’s no substitute for the real thing!). One must be careful, though, at my age. My knees aren’t what they used to be, and my right one still “talks to me” on occasion (I twisted it in a fall a couple of years ago). Oh to be young again :)
Seems hard to believe that ten years ago we welcomed the new millennium. This decade sure flew by. I think there are many people who are happy to see it go, and who can blame them. Most memories of the decade aren’t good ones: 9/11, war, Katrina, the housing crisis and a whole raft of economic woes. We’re still dealing with some of the fallout, but it’s good to be hopeful. Doesn’t mean that I am, though, lol.
I have no resolutions. There are some things I’d like to finish this year, and I’ll try not to start any new projects until I do. My friend, an art teacher, stopped by for a visit today and I showed her my chapbook, which she loved. She wants a copy (if I ever get around to producing the thing, that is). It’s not as if I can take it to a printer because the binding is complicated, but I’m being stubborn and sticking with that design. So once I finish my current project (a scrapbook for a friend), I hope to get serious about getting the chapbook done. It’s going to be a long, cold winter, so now would be a good time :)
So yeah, we watched the ball drop last night. Ty & Mary and her friend from Norway came over. We were planning on going down to the square and participating in that one, except it was canceled. The weather wasn’t so great and last year’s turnout wasn’t either. Maybe it’s canceled for good. I can’t say I won’t exactly miss the sirens blaring at midnight and the guns going off, but it’s just as well. Had the kids not come over last night I’d have probably gone to bed early.
Which is what I think I’ll do tonight :)
This will be the third or fourth year in a row that I’ve been sick over New Year’s. Actually I’m not sick yet but am coming down with a sinus infection which is strange because I didn’t even have a cold first (the usual progression). Well, I shouldn’t complain, because for the past three or four years that’s the only time I’ve gotten sick. At least it’s not the flu.
I received a Christmas card in the mail today for my father-in-law and forwarded from his address. The writing on the envelope was shaky, much like Mac’s had become in the year or two before his death. My heart sank as I realized this was probably from an old friend who didn’t know that he died. It turns out it wasn’t just from any old friend, but from the couple who introduced my in-laws back in 1955. Mac and Joe were both on the Kearsarge at the time, and Joe had been put on restriction because he was late getting back from his wedding. So Mac told Joe if Millie would take the bus down to San Diego from L.A., he’d pick her up and bring her to the ship. When she came, she brought a friend named Frances, and Joe asked Mac to entertain Fran so he and his new wife could have some time alone. The rest was history.
I wouldn’t have known any of this had I not started reading the letters Mac & Fran wrote to each other (and to his mother). Tomorrow, I must write to Joe and Millie and be the bearer of the bad news. I’m sure they were wondering why they didn’t get their yearly Christmas card from Mac, and may even have tried to call. If so, the disconnected number would have made their hearts sink. I’m thinking of sending them a copy of the DVDs of Mac’s footage while he served on the Kearsarge. Joe would love to see it, and in all likelihood he is probably on some of the video footage. Perhaps it would make the news easier to bear somehow….
It’s Christmas morning, and the house is quiet. I’ve been up for a little while. Despite having gone to bed past midnight, I wasn’t able to sleep in (I rarely can). This morning I awoke with “Away in a Manger” playing in my head, especially the lines, “Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay close by me forever and love me I pray.” When I went downstairs to check the Weather Channel it’s the song that was playing! Just a little thing, but God is in the details, and I love when I see these types of “little things”.
Last night Ty & Mary came over and we had a good time exchanging gifts and laughing (until we cried!). My husband spoiled me this year with a 25th anniversary ring (like his dad did with his mom on their 25th). Actually we had my diamond remounted, and it’s lovely. I look at it a lot and it reminds me how lavishly I am loved. Slowly, very slowly, it’s sinking in, and this stony heart begins to turn to flesh.
I have some cookies to bake today, scrapbook pages to work on, and maybe (if the Lord leads) I’ll do some writing (which is what I’d like most). Through it all I’m going to try to keep focused on this day’s true meaning. I read at a friend’s blog something that’s really struck a chord, so I’ll post it here, too: ” Jesus Christ is the only person who actually wants a broken gift for Christmas. He was born to take you, bad habits, dashed hopes, infirmities, and all, and to make you whole again. No one can know when they will answer His call; sometimes the personal resurrection comes after a night or season of agony. If you have been in the wilderness, please do consider a prayer for guidance, do consider offering yourself with all your flaws, and you will walk again in the light, your burdens removed.” And what a gift it is to walk in that light, all burdens removed. All gifts pale by comparison.
I’m in a bit of a writing slump and haven’t been posting much. Haven’t been writing poetry, either. I suppose it’s partly due to the season–we’ve been quite busy, first with a trip to California, then Thanksgiving, and just yesterday a Christmas party at our house. I’ve been working on some homemade Christmas presents, too, that are quite time consuming. But the desire to write never goes away. Unfortunately the inspiration does. The more time that passes, the harder I find it to is to fire up the engines and get back into it. It isn’t that I’ve had no inspiration, I just don’t have much time. Or maybe I just don’t make much time. Yeah, that’s probably more like it. We find time for the things we want to do, don’t we?
Speaking of Christmas parties, we had one last night. Have you ever seen something with your eyes but your mind just can’t get around it? That happened I was in the kitchen talking with some guests and I looked up and saw Rev. Mansaray (from Sierra Leone) walking toward me with a huge smile on his face. My mind just couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing! It was awesome, and such a blessing to have him here in our home. Definitely a highlight of this season. We would have gotten to see him again this morning, but we had an ice storm and didn’t make it outside of town before we started spinning, so we turned around. By now he’s somewhere over the Atlantic headed home. He was here for two weeks with 4HIM, and somehow managed to fit in a one-day visit to us before he left. I’m so grateful to them for allowing him to work this in.
I guess I’ll call it a day and head to bed. Last night my dreams were punctuated by African memories. Makes me long to go again…
I’m so thankful yesterday’s sale is over. The weather was good but the turnout was light, which (added to the tough times) amounted to a lot less in sales than we’d hoped. But the house is nearly empty now, and the rest of the stuff is going to be carted off and sold and we shouldn’t have to deal with much after that. I had mixed feelings watching some of the stuff go. A lot of things went for pennies on the dollar, but it went, and in the end that’s what mattered. My in-laws weren’t into collecting things, so there really wasn’t much to show for 45 years of living. I think that’s because they put their money elsewhere–into their family and into biannual vacations to California to visit family. Oh, the memories they made with their children! A much better investment than stuff any day!
If you have the money to buy and a way to resell things, public sales are the way to go right now. I’m wasn’t kidding when I said things went for pennies on the dollar. There was an old tacklebox with tons of old lures in it, some of which could bring $30 apiece–the whole box went for $30. A couple of times I heard the auctioneer trying to spur people on, but “you can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip” (hmm, I’m going to have to search for the meaning of that idiom sometime!). I was glad my son and his wife came. He bought a good drill press for a fraction of the cost new, and he got one of his grandpa’s old Navy uniforms, too.
I hope the house sells soon. Kevin’s younger brother said he was going to buy it, but after two months changed his mind, and now the person who was going to isn’t so sure he wants to anymore. Oh well. God is already at the end and I just need to trust Him to work things out. Sure would be nice to wrap up all this estate stuff, though. Then I can turn my focus to my own house so that my children won’t have to deal with this when we’re gone!!!
Off to Lancaster County one more time to give the “flyboys” another opportunity to buy some of Mac’s RC airplane stuff (and he still has tons of it, though only a few planes left). I’ll probably work in the house the whole day. There’s still a lot to be done, and I doubt anyone has done much of it. Weary? Yes, but the finish line is in sight….two weeks from now is the auction. I hope that day is as promising weather wise as this one. Nice to see the sun again after so much rain.
Why is it that when you put in a long day at work all you think about is what you want to do when you get home, and then when you get home, you don’t feel like doing anything? A lot of things I could do, a lot of things I SHOULD do, but I am totally unmotivated. I need chocolate.
Well, I was tempted, but here it is October 31 and I just don’t see how I could possibly do NaNoWriMo again, though I was mighty tempted. Kevin and I are going away for a week soon, and between that and the auction on the 21st, there just isn’t going to be enough time. Maybe next year, if I’m still walking this earth!
Speaking of October 31, it’s trick-or-treat night here in New Bloomfield. I bought five bags of candy, 108 pieces total, and was out in 34 minutes. I can hear the kids still parading up and down the sidewalk, but they’re passing me by (I put a sign on the door that we are out of candy). It amazes me that some parents will take their six-month-old babies out in a stroller and collect candy for them. Then there are the twenty somethings out there collecting, too. So when I run out of candy, I don’t feel bad. There aren’t even 50 children in this town let alone 108! People drive many miles to come here because it’s a pretty generous town. I’m not just quite as generous as I used to be, I guess!
