Sagging

Hello,

As soon as I came home last night after driving through much unexpected snow, Leroy said, “So glad you are home safe and, stand up straight.”

A little shaft of irritation shot through me. “I’m standing up straight,” I rather shortly replied.

“I read your letter,” Leroy responded with a grin, I am working on my skill set.”

This morning without any mention from me, he got out the vacuum and proceeded to clean the traffic areas of the carpeting. Have I created a guy who has gone amok?

So I only told him to sit up straight two times this morning and not the five I would have liked to slap on the table.

It seems there is always room for growth and learning. I thought I might be through with that learning stuff when I turned 21. Now I know that it never stops, but I still gaze down the road and think at some time I surely will have arrived.

I was rather nervous about driving home last night as it had snowed all afternoon and was still snowing. I had boots in the car so I put them on after I gingerly put my feet in the snow to get to the car. Why did I not bring them inside since it was starting to snow when I got to work? The prediction was for just a little snow, not an inch or two. These boots are the best warm boots I have, but it is a bit awkward to drive with them on. Starting the car was the hardest part because I have to get the clutch in to a certain point and I seemed to miss it the first two times I tried, thinking, “What am I going to do if I cannot get this car started.”

The Ely blacktop seems to be the last road in the area to be cleared, but the snow was light and fluffy because of the cold so it was not hard to drive on it. It was slipperier as I got closer to more traffic. So I took it slow on the interstate. I noticed that I was not being passed by people especially on those notorious curves that are without ground under them which causes them to freeze more easily. It was no trouble for which I am grateful. For all I know I sagged the entire trip home. I certainly had an unnecessarily firm grip on the steering wheel.

My new Medicare card came in the mail yesterday. It will not be valid until February first. I am impressed that it came so quickly. The woman at the desk had assured me that it would come on time, but I had not thought it would be this soon. Am I now all ready for old age?

Paula

Posture

Hello,

I am constantly thinking about my posture, standing, sitting, and moving. It seems constant, but the truth is there are many times when I forget about it. Good posture needs to be a habit rather than a thought. When I see the chiropractor I get adjusted, do about thirty minutes of exercises, and have a mini massage session. This all ought to do something. Lately, have not had any neck fatigue. When I am at the computer at work I am trying especially hard to keep shoulders back even though they really want to hunch forward. Years of practice makes permanent not perfect.

I want Leroy to tell me when he sees me slouching, but that is not really a skill in his tool kit. He never seems to notice curling in. When I tell him to sit up straight he gets mad, however he will adjust if he notices that I sit up straighter. It helps to have good posture to imitate. Strengthening the muscles should help too.

One hard thing about getting the car washed was that I did not want to drive it again on the somewhat messy streets. I thought sure that the interstate would be dry, but instead it was quite wet and the street was dry. Because of the faster speed there is quite a lot of brown water sprayed over the car. Now it is not clean, but I know it has been clean. I can see out the windows much better than I had in the past.

Paula

Brisk Walk

Hello,

A brisk wind and cool, 21 degree, temperature help us to get to church in record time. We felt as if we had accomplished something. On the walk home we groused a bit as the wind was in our faces more and a check of the temp showed a drop of three degrees in addition to the stronger wind. “It is so nice to be home in the warm place,” Leroy stated as we got in with the door shut behind us. There is indeed a strong sense of well being.

Even though it is Sunday I am making bread because we are out and Leroy likes to have some for his lunch tomorrow. I am also making bean soup and cornbread for supper. Yes, the oven will run contributing to that sense of cozy warmth. We are so fortunate.

Leroy is busy working on stamps and I am on the computer in the same room, sharing space and breathing the same air, but occupied with different activities. Nice togetherness. Leroy has some vacation time that he must take so he will work Monday and then be home for the rest of the week. He is not sure what he will do with himself. I will only be gone on Monday and Thursday so I could keep him busy if he would like to do what I want to have done. Cleaning? We have not moved in about two years so there is some deeper cleaning that could be tackled. I do not want to push my guy, but I do not want him sitting around bored either. Although I did see that creativity comes from times of boredom.

We could even play some games. I enjoy doing that. Leroy likes games too, but he gets tired of it faster than I do. There is too much cold outside in the next few days so we will probably find indoor things to occupy our minds. Now the temp is down to 7, definitely indoor activities will be on the docket.

Paula

Technology

Hello,

I am grateful for technology and that includes computers as well as the many advances because of them.

On Christmas day we had a four way web chat with our children. Five years ago we could not have done this. We opened the gifts that we were given from these family members as all watched from different parts of the country. Stephen had this great idea, thanks. I felt connected. The suggestion was so the grandkids could see these cousins that they seldom get to see in the flesh, but I think I enjoyed it more than they did. The quality was not as good as when we only visit with one other person, but it was quite easy to see all if they got in line with the camera. For some reason they could not hear Leroy and I very well, but if we shouted they could figure out what we were trying to say. We could not find the right place to turn up the microphone volume. So technology still wins some of the struggles and hides its treasure.

Today I realized I forgot to pay the credit card bill last month. I have no good excuse for that, but I did not want to pay the service charge even though it was my fault. I called Miriam to find out what she does about such a thing. She is good at talking her way through many things. After three attempts to call and speak to a live person I finally connected. There is that phone technology working for us. The human being was quite helpful and got rid of the charge. Afterwards I paid the bill immediately on the computer. It will be a few days before it is completed, but it is in the works and will be paid well ahead of the next due date.

I even took the car to get it washed. Don’t faint, but it was probably six months ago when it was last washed. This place has humans and technology so it was cleaned inside and out. Most importantly to me, it was dried, including the door jams. They were quite busy in the warm weather that follows the slush attaching itself to cars from some snow melt. Cold weather is coming again soon.

Paula

Christmas Day

Hello,

It has been a wonderful day. I had not looked forward to just being Leroy and I, but time exceeded my expectations for possible good. First I am going to regress a little and confess that I was a little upset last night because the choir did not sing Happy Birthday to me. I figured that Leroy had forgotten to mention it, even though I had extended that surprise on his birthday last year, grumble, and grumble in my head. I kept trying to not feel bad after all I am a big girl. Surely it should not be something that I would notice very much. Finally I spoke to Leroy about it only to learn that he had talked to the director days earlier. She also had someone else with a birthday a day after mine that she talked about when he told her. We think she just had too many responsibilities with choir, bell choir, brass group, and other duets. Plus this was going on at two services with different groups that needed to practice. After that conversation I felt much better. At least Leroy had not forgotten about me.

Leroy had asked for a small toolbox. When we were out and about we saw a small one and a larger one. The larger one cost less than the small one. Leroy drooled a bit over both, so I got both of them. He happened to open the larger one first. He made a good stab at hiding his feelings of dismay but I could tell he had really wanted that smaller one because the hinges had broken on his. When he finally opened the smaller one the big grin came back. I was pleased to make him a little anxious knowing that he would be satisfied. He promptly worked on filling first the small one and then a bit went into the larger one as well.

We have eaten sweets today as I did not expect. I got a box of chocolate covered nuts from my job. I do not generally eat chocolate as I do not feel good after I eat it. I did take a little bit of two of them and gave the remainder to Leroy. That is going to be a gift to him. Then we are eating krumkaka, saffron buns, and cranberry apple crisp (although I made it was no sugar the apples are sweet).

It has been a wonderful day of relaxation. Leroy even got out his stamps and did something with them –maybe organizing. He was as happy as a clam.

Paula

White Chirstmas

Hello,

Because of the cold temperatures after the snow we are having that ideal of a white Christmas. I am amazed at how songs have influenced our lives. Surely people who have grown up in a snowless area would not think of this if not for that song that makes it seem the thing to have, snow. I do like a white Christmas, but then I like the beauty of snow at almost any time. At noon it is now up to zero at our house. Soon I will walk to the grocery store that is only four blocks away. I am hoping that the sidewalks are not slippery.

Leroy and I have been having trouble getting the cars into the garage. There is an incline just as we enter the garage. Unfortunately it is difficult to get lined up so that we can just drive straight up that incline. Last night I almost hit the side of the garage door as I made my second attempt to get in. I made it but the side mirror missed the frame by mere centimeters. When I told Leroy about it he had little or a lot of sympathy as he said, “The same thing happened to me.”

We have no ice melt stuff, but someone at work told him it does not matter because it is too cold for it to work. This morning when Leroy left it was -17. We do not have any sand, but I went out and swept out the garage as well as I could with one car sitting in there. So now there is debris on that incline including some sand that dropped off the tires.

Leroy is home from work and he declares he still needed two passes to get up the incline, but he had the car with the wheels pointing straight ahead and that helped to keep him from slipping. He did not think my sweeping made much difference, but that the garage is cleaner.

Paula

Leroy's Office Party

Hello,

We went to Leroy’s office party. Driving there was no problem as much of all streets were clear giving plenty of traction spots when there was a bit of ice. Those road workers do deserve thanks.

I am always a little nervous when going to gatherings where I do not know most people. Plenty of people spoke to me so that was all good too. One thing I did notice was that Leroy is definitely the oldest worker on this team. Some of these people look wet behind the ears, whatever that means. Certainly they were just out of school. There are some middle aged workers, but none older than that. How did we ever get to be the oldest people around? I suppose this will happen more and more if we live long enough.

This party was nice because families are invited so there were a number of children there from preschool to college age. I spoke with some of the preschoolers and one of the high schoolers, so there was not a lot of interaction. Those kids of a certain age all seemed to be on their phones, but still talking to each other.

On the way home we saw a great gas price so even though my tank was not so low, we filled up. Gas prices on the west side of town are almost 20 cents per gallon cheaper than our neighborhood. Why that should be I cannot imagine.

Now that we have a new camera we no longer can use the spare battery for our old camera. That is also true of the memory chip. I suggested that we try to sell them on some electronic media site. Just why they do not work I cannot say, especially since the chip looks much the same. New technology means all new stuff I guess. Oops, I forgot we are still using our 40 year old rabbit ears for our TV. Who would have thought?

Paula