Tree or No Tree

Hello,

As a person who does not feel obligated to put up the Christmas tree very far before Christmas, I find myself in a dilemma. When I was growing up my family did not decorate for Christmas until right before Christmas. Actually I do not remember any decorations when I was small, but the Christmas tree would appear Christmas morning.

 Leroy and I will be gone from December 19 to December 26. We usually put the tree up on about the 14 or 15 of December and leave it up through the church’s official notice of the Christmas season. I am not sure that it will be worth it this time as we leave so soon after putting it up.

I am a little annoyed at my second favorite radio station for now playing only Christmas music. I listen to the radio in the car. At first when I heard the music I simply turned it off and rode home in the silence around me and the noise of my thoughts. Since then I have listened a little.

I was also astonished when I came out of the library in the dark on the Monday after Thanksgiving to see the town tree next to the library was all lit up for the new season. Many houses also had festive lights. There certainly is a strong tradition for getting the season going early, right after Thanksgiving. Even though people complain about the commercial aspect starting too soon, I wonder if they secretly enjoy it.

I do have out a Christmas note pad that I saw the other day. I am determined to use it up so I broke my own rule and put it out. Guess I do not write very many notes. I also got out some small Christmas cups because I often forget about them on the top shelf in the cupboard. I was looking for something else today and got them out instead. Sunday we will have our advent wreath on the table. For a change I checked ahead of time and we do have candles for that.

We have some fall decorations and I have seldom remembered to get them out. This year was a typical year. Decorating for seasons is not my strong suit. Maybe I should just throw in the idea of decorating as I spend little to no time thinking about it.

Paula

Miss Paula

Hello,

We wear name tags that produce our first names in large, readable letters. Often children, because we are all women, call of Miss and whatever our first names are. Hence I am Miss Paula to many children and adults. Probably many people have no idea of my last name.

Yesterday a man came in with his youngest who might be 2.5 years old. The father told me that they had gone to the public library while on vacation in Estes Park, CO. They had not been there very long when their youngest asked, “Where’s Miss Paula?”

I laughed with surprise as this kid, while in the library, hardly acknowledges my existence unlike his older brother who almost always greets me. In the meantime, he is standing over by the gum machine checking out the knob and the slot to see if there are any missed treasures.

His dad called to him, “Here is Miss Paula. Say hello,”

The boy turned around with obvious reluctance, looked at me, made a funny face, and turned back to his task. It seemed like normal behavior to me. I am still astonished that he even knew my name.

When they left, his dad said, “Wave good-by to Miss Paula.”

This kid raised his head from his father’s shoulder, grinned at me, and waved a great send off.

Life is full of mysteries, some with great gift wrapping.

Paula

Nervous

Hello,

Last night I was once again a wake for a while before morning. Is this becoming a habit? It is a habit I do not want. I saw in a sleep coach article that we should set an alarm so I do not continually try to look at the time. The alarm will take care of getting up. We have set the alarm for three days now. I have managed not to look at the clock. It takes some effort on my part to see it because of my limited distance vision so that was not too hard to get down. Leroy has learned how to reset the alarm with just one button push. This was a three day experience. But he had it down now. Tomorrow maybe I can sleep a little longer as I know for sure that the alarm will go off.

This morning I took care of book keeping our money information. I had not intended to do that, but our credit card bill was unusually large, demanding a look at it. I had forgotten that our flights at Christmas were on there as was Leroy’s Medicare bill. Since he does not collect social security that is a bill that must be paid if we want to receive the benefits. He does want those benefits. There are some pluses to aging and we consider that one of them. Just those three expenses explained the large payment due. At least our account was not compromised. Everything else was something for which I had a paper record.

I also ordered the books that I will distribute to the Little Free Libraries in the neighborhood. That took a little bit of adjusting to get the total to come out so I could spend the entire action team money. Now it is just a case of waiting for the books to come and get them ready to distribute. I am looking forward to doing that.

For the church book club in January I need to order books through ILL at my library. Now the trick will be to figure out the proper time to order and get those in people’s hands before the February meeting. Last night I just realized that I will not be home from our cruise yet. That caused a sad feeling to move through me. At least I will read the book before I go. My real joy in book clubs is the discussions and I will miss that.

My nervousness is gone because I have tackled some of these “hanging over my head” tasks.

Paula

Leroy's Sunday Off

Hello,

Leroy did not have to work at church services or do his class tonight. When he got home from church he took a big nap. Since then he has done some reading. But friends called and said they were cleaning up the garden so we both went to help. It was great to spend some time visiting. I think both of us like to visit while we are doing some not so difficult task. We took out a lot of paper that we had put down to keep the weeds at bay. Some mulch had blown off and paper threatened to become debris in the neighborhood. I was pleased to see some new cilantro about an inch high. Someone told us this morning that the weather could hold for two weeks yet. I think that would be great as more chard is also growing. The oriental greens are still good along with some of the kale. Other kale looks like it has had it. It must be colder there than by my house as my kale still looks quite fine.

After he came home Leroy cleaned off his bike wheels and some of the frame. Air also went in the tires. His brakes had been complaining mightily. It is better now. He said, “Riding the bike in the winter is dirty business.”

Then he got the idea to clean out the rain barrel which had collected quite a lot of unwanted settlers. I went up and down stairs to bring down small buckets of water. That gave me enough steps to get to 10,000 today and the rain barrel’s openings are not clogged with roof run off. It was wonderful to be outside and that is a plus.

Next Leroy cleaned off his stamp storing shelves. It is a nice day off when he feels like he has accomplished so many things around the house.

We scheduled the tours for our cruise in January. I had been concerned that we might forget, but we got it done. Maybe I can sleep better tonight. Both of us logged a lot of awake time.

Paula

This is us at the garden two years ago. We have not changed that much neither has the garden.

Cleaning

Hello,

Yesterday I noticed dust on the furniture in the spare bedroom. This morning I tackled that task. I did fairly well with everything except the bookcase that Leroy uses for his stamp collection. I know better than to touch that well organized, stacked this way and that area.

I decided that it had been a long time since I had seriously cleaned out the book cases in the hall. Two of them have pictures and other memory type things there. That is harder to get through. Someday I will have to eliminate more of the pictures. A year or two ago, I took pictures and showed them to the grandchildren. They all wanted some of them, so I gave them away as most were extras. Some were pictures my parents had and I did not even know some of the people in them. Sophia showed me once that she has her share in an album. Nice to know they have gotten a little more life or interest for them.

Leroy is participating in a secret Santa gift exchange at work. He will buy some things for this person, but they also like art books so he is going to give them a book of Russian art that we got on our trip to Russia. Leroy did some consulting at the seminary library in St. Petersburg. We did not go to the Hermitage, but went to a Russian art museum. The book has seldom left the shelf so it is moving to a new home.

Once in a while I see recipes in a magazine that look good. Apparently the intention to make them is all that I have because they mostly just sit on the shelf. Today they went into the recycle bin. It cleared off a bit of real estate. We both have books that we intend to read. For me it is being saved for that day when I do not get to the library. So far that has not happened. Those books are so patient. Perhaps I will move them as that might be a time when I cannot get to the library. Reading each day is essential to my sense of well being. Leroy’s books are mostly by the author, Louis L’Amour. Leroy’s goal is to read every one of his books. He might be over half way to that goal.

Paula

Holiday

Hello,

Leroy and I had a quiet day yesterday. We ate a little more food than usual because we ate using my Mother’s china. The plates are quite large. During our normal life we eat from small plates.  In deference to the holiday, I made mashed potatoes. This almost never happens at my house.

In the afternoon, Leroy and I went to a park close to our home. Walking for two hours through the woods and in the prairie soothed the soul and added steps to my Fitbit. We both like getting in the woods and outdoors. We would have liked to see some wildlife, but besides other humans, birds were the only visible creatures.

We also visited on the phone with each of our children’s families. That was good as well. Grateful for all these people in our lives.

Leroy is working today and tomorrow. I have, as usual, both days off. This morning when looking at the IPod I got a message about how I needed to call Apple because my device had been hacked. It seemed strange to me, but I could not get rid of that message. As instructed, I called the number; however I could hardly hear the person with a little bit of an accent. They told me they would call me which they did. I answered, but did not hear them right away so I hung up just as they answered. I decided I had better call some family to ask questions about this. Since the people on the east coast were likely to be awake, I called Sarah. They were able to tell me that it probably was a hacker and I should completely log off. After doing that the IPod seemed normal once more. They also advised me to change passwords on my emails, etc. I spent some time doing that as some programs are easier to navigate than others.

I am a bit disgusted with myself as it did not feel right in the first place, but I went ahead and called. Does that mean I am easy to scam? I know better than click on links on the computer that do not seem legit, but there is more to learn.

Paula

New Toilet

Hello,

We have a new toilet. Leroy and Clark, mostly Clark, were able to get it hooked up and functioning. It is great to have this water sparing, properly working tool in the house. The old one still worked, but it occasionally needed quite a lot of persuasion to get the entire job done. It reminds me once again how much we take for granted in our lives as I know many people in the world do not have such a possibility. It is just one more thing to be thankful for. Even the old one that was a bit cantankerous required my thankfulness, even though I did not give it, for the job that it did without out complaint for such a long time.

What would it be like to go through every room in the house and note all things that are an asset in my life? Leroy and I could do that tomorrow along with being grateful for the many wonderful people in our lives.

I am reminded of the time we were in Paris along with Miriam and Andy. It was cold and rainy. By the time we went up to the top of the Eiffel tower the rain turned to snow and we could mostly just see gray air outside the windows. Back on the ground it was rain once again. The guide book told about touring the Paris sewers, or storm sewers. So we did that. Leroy and I found it particularly interesting. I had read some things by Victor Hugo who wrote about the sewers. I learned on the tour that he had actually been down there. We took pictures with us by the balls down there, but they are not digital pictures and I would have a long time finding them. On the internet you can find pictures of the balls that were used to keep the sewer cleaned out. This invention allowed the city to stay clean and to enlarge its scope. Seems to me we should honor that inventor, but I do not know his name. Those same balls are still used today. What a simple thing, if you can think of it, to keep us healthy. If seems to me it was stated that if the sewer pipes were put end to end they would reach from Paris to Istanbul. Guess it says something about my nature that I was more impressed with the sewer museum than the Eiffel Tower. Practicality, practicality!

I am grateful that I can live in sanitary conditions.

Paula