My friends and family often find what I am doing strange and tell me how crazy I am. I might take that seriously if they didn't often wind up doing exactly the same thing.
Example: I organized an ecumenical Christmas concert that continued for 29 years, with as many as 120 singers. One of my sisters said it was a silly idea, then started one in her town.
Second example: I wrote out my funeral instructions and gave a copy to my parents. My father was so, so upset that I wanted to be cremated. The idea must have grown on him over the years because when he died, we found out that he, too, thought cremation made sense. A sister and my mother followed suit.
Third example: on a whim, I ran for election to the city council and darned if I didn't win. I hated it and after two years, I quit. But by that time, my brother was on the Ashland city council. He is finding it just as awful as I did.
So it doesn't surprise me that after I started writing really depressing Christmas stories, Wade decided to try his hand at it, too. He decided it would be really depressing (and funny) to have his hero get arrested at Christmas and he was right. He posted his story yesterday: http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
Christmas Cards - Finished!
It's only December 2 but I've finished my Christmas cards.
I cut back a little each year, but there are still fifty names of people who require cards. I've lived in several states, moving some seventeen times in the fourteen years that I was married. That meant always meeting new people, many of whom became friends. Some of the cards go to people I haven't seen in over fifty years, yet once a year we connect because of the holiday. Each letter requires at the least a note and at the most a long chatty letter. Some of the names are new on my list. They belong to Gary's family. When he moved here he gave me the job of sending cards to them as well. I don't mind.
I begin on Thanksgiving and "bash on" as a friend says. Every day, I work through two or three letters of the alphabetized list. Tonight, I dropped all but three of the cards at the post office. Those three require a day time trip because they will be mailed overseas.
The job done, Gary and I sit back and wait for Christmas cards to arrive in our mailbox.
E-mail greetings are never the same. I get some of those, too, but they can't be held in my hand. They haven't been touched by the special people who sent them. Somehow, the connection just isn't there as it is in those pieces of paper.
With the cards done, with the house decorated, we move to the next phase of Christmas preparation: baking.
Gary bought a room freshener with a sugar cookie scent and set it here in my office. I think that is a hint to get out the cookie trays.
I cut back a little each year, but there are still fifty names of people who require cards. I've lived in several states, moving some seventeen times in the fourteen years that I was married. That meant always meeting new people, many of whom became friends. Some of the cards go to people I haven't seen in over fifty years, yet once a year we connect because of the holiday. Each letter requires at the least a note and at the most a long chatty letter. Some of the names are new on my list. They belong to Gary's family. When he moved here he gave me the job of sending cards to them as well. I don't mind.
I begin on Thanksgiving and "bash on" as a friend says. Every day, I work through two or three letters of the alphabetized list. Tonight, I dropped all but three of the cards at the post office. Those three require a day time trip because they will be mailed overseas.
The job done, Gary and I sit back and wait for Christmas cards to arrive in our mailbox.
E-mail greetings are never the same. I get some of those, too, but they can't be held in my hand. They haven't been touched by the special people who sent them. Somehow, the connection just isn't there as it is in those pieces of paper.
With the cards done, with the house decorated, we move to the next phase of Christmas preparation: baking.
Gary bought a room freshener with a sugar cookie scent and set it here in my office. I think that is a hint to get out the cookie trays.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Tonight with Evan
Tonight I was taking care of my six year old grandson while his parents were busy at meetings.
It was pretty easy. He worked on a computer game, trying to better his score while I read a letter from my pen pal in France and started writing a reply to put in her Christmas card. We were so busy with our own tasks I almost forgot his bed time! Bad grandmother, we were ten minutes late getting started.
He did all the tasks he had to do. We fed the fish. He ate his granola snack. He changed into his pajamas and brushed his teeth. He helped me lock the two cats, Brodie and Dante, in the basement. Then we sat and read four books. He read two to me, I read two to him. I am so impressed with his reading skills. He reads with emphasis in all the right places. He understands the flow of the words across the page. Perhaps a future writer?
Then it was time for him to be in bed, but he popped up almost immediately to tell me he was afraid to go to sleep because of something he had seen in the movie. Well, I could understand that because I used to have the same kinds of thoughts when I was young...still do, sometimes. The trick is to think about something pleasant.
He thought it would be pleasant to play a computer game. I thought not.
Instead, I told him how I put his daddy to bed when he was a boy. Did he play computer games, too? he asked. No, I said, he never did, because there were no computer games. They hadn't been invented yet.
This astonishing fact was just settling in when his daddy came back from his meeting to tell his son goodnight. I'm sure Evan went to sleep thinking about that amazing pre-computer world.
It was pretty easy. He worked on a computer game, trying to better his score while I read a letter from my pen pal in France and started writing a reply to put in her Christmas card. We were so busy with our own tasks I almost forgot his bed time! Bad grandmother, we were ten minutes late getting started.
He did all the tasks he had to do. We fed the fish. He ate his granola snack. He changed into his pajamas and brushed his teeth. He helped me lock the two cats, Brodie and Dante, in the basement. Then we sat and read four books. He read two to me, I read two to him. I am so impressed with his reading skills. He reads with emphasis in all the right places. He understands the flow of the words across the page. Perhaps a future writer?
Then it was time for him to be in bed, but he popped up almost immediately to tell me he was afraid to go to sleep because of something he had seen in the movie. Well, I could understand that because I used to have the same kinds of thoughts when I was young...still do, sometimes. The trick is to think about something pleasant.
He thought it would be pleasant to play a computer game. I thought not.
Instead, I told him how I put his daddy to bed when he was a boy. Did he play computer games, too? he asked. No, I said, he never did, because there were no computer games. They hadn't been invented yet.
This astonishing fact was just settling in when his daddy came back from his meeting to tell his son goodnight. I'm sure Evan went to sleep thinking about that amazing pre-computer world.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Promise of Spring
Just when I was settling down to accept winter, I received an e-mail that promised that spring was on the way.
The missive was from the International Crane Foundation based in Baraboo, Wisconsin. This organization works to save cranes all over the world. It brought the sandhill crane back from near extinction in Wisconsin and now is working to save the whooping crane as well as cranes in other continents.
The Foundation was sending the results of the Annual Midwest Crane Count held last April 15. Counters in the Midwestern states spend a Friday in the middle of April counting sandhill cranes and if we are lucky, a whooping crane or two. The report said that in 2011 we counted 338 cranes here in Outagamie County. Three of those cranes were on my site on the northern most edge of the county...or rather above it since they came flying over just at the end of my two hour stint.
By 10:00 a.m., we counters all meet at the Mosquito Hill Nature Center to compare notes, drink coffee and eat sweet rolls. We're old friends who come back year after year.
The Crane Foundation announced the date of the next crane count. On April 14, which is likely to be a cold morning, I will be on site, searching the skies and listening for those calls that announce that spring is indeed here.
A week or two later, Gary and I will be guarding sturgeon along the Wolf River and perhaps two weeks after that, we could easily be at our first campground of the summer.
The e-mail was a reminder that in only a few months, there will be a spring morning when I can go back to nature to find my serenity. Could there be a better Christmas card?
The missive was from the International Crane Foundation based in Baraboo, Wisconsin. This organization works to save cranes all over the world. It brought the sandhill crane back from near extinction in Wisconsin and now is working to save the whooping crane as well as cranes in other continents.
The Foundation was sending the results of the Annual Midwest Crane Count held last April 15. Counters in the Midwestern states spend a Friday in the middle of April counting sandhill cranes and if we are lucky, a whooping crane or two. The report said that in 2011 we counted 338 cranes here in Outagamie County. Three of those cranes were on my site on the northern most edge of the county...or rather above it since they came flying over just at the end of my two hour stint.
By 10:00 a.m., we counters all meet at the Mosquito Hill Nature Center to compare notes, drink coffee and eat sweet rolls. We're old friends who come back year after year.
The Crane Foundation announced the date of the next crane count. On April 14, which is likely to be a cold morning, I will be on site, searching the skies and listening for those calls that announce that spring is indeed here.
A week or two later, Gary and I will be guarding sturgeon along the Wolf River and perhaps two weeks after that, we could easily be at our first campground of the summer.
The e-mail was a reminder that in only a few months, there will be a spring morning when I can go back to nature to find my serenity. Could there be a better Christmas card?
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Celebration of Lights
It was a cold blustery day that kept us inside. Gary busied himself putting up decorations, while I worked on Christmas cards and publicity for our upcoming choir concert.
But tonight, the wind died down and though it was cold, it was time I got out and walked. The night was dark, with only a crescent moon in the sky, but now we begin the month of the celebration of light. In the Christian calendar, it is the period of Advent with the lighting of the Advent candles. In the Jewish tradition, it is the eight days of Chanukah, also called the Festival of Lights. African Americans celebrate Kwanzaa beginning December 26 with its tradition of seven candles.
As I walked through the town tonight, I enjoyed the Christmas lights beginning to pop up at houses here and there. In another week, the lights will glow up and down the streets. In mid-winter, I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, but the seasonal light displays fend it off until the middle of January.
My friend Margaret, from New Zealand, used to think American light displays were foolish until I explained to her that in the darkest of days leading up to the winter solstice, those lights helped us keep our sanity. In New Zealand, the seasons are just the opposite, so her Christmas falls on the hottest of days.
After visiting her country, I suggested that the Kiwis could use some festivals of lights, too, but in June and July.
So Gary and I move on to Christmas with four trees and candles flickering here at Mathom House. It is a quiet joy that will not last, but for now, it suffices.
But tonight, the wind died down and though it was cold, it was time I got out and walked. The night was dark, with only a crescent moon in the sky, but now we begin the month of the celebration of light. In the Christian calendar, it is the period of Advent with the lighting of the Advent candles. In the Jewish tradition, it is the eight days of Chanukah, also called the Festival of Lights. African Americans celebrate Kwanzaa beginning December 26 with its tradition of seven candles.
As I walked through the town tonight, I enjoyed the Christmas lights beginning to pop up at houses here and there. In another week, the lights will glow up and down the streets. In mid-winter, I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, but the seasonal light displays fend it off until the middle of January.
My friend Margaret, from New Zealand, used to think American light displays were foolish until I explained to her that in the darkest of days leading up to the winter solstice, those lights helped us keep our sanity. In New Zealand, the seasons are just the opposite, so her Christmas falls on the hottest of days.
After visiting her country, I suggested that the Kiwis could use some festivals of lights, too, but in June and July.
So Gary and I move on to Christmas with four trees and candles flickering here at Mathom House. It is a quiet joy that will not last, but for now, it suffices.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Once camping season is over, Gary and I have to keep fit somehow. The canoe is in storage and I no longer have trails to hike on for miles. Winter limits us.
I walk around town instead of taking the car. I go to the pool whenever I can. From time to time, Gary and I go to the Fox River Mall and walk two or three miles. I exercise at home and sometimes do yoga.
But to really keep in shape, we go to the fitness center in the high school. It is part of the wonderful package we older Seymourites are entitled to. For $35.00 a year we have the use of both the aquatic center and the fitness center.
People who have used other gyms tell me that Seymour's is just about the best. It is state of the art, they say. There's plenty of equipment so we seldom have to wait for any of the machines.
( check out the photos at http://www.seymour.k12.wi.us/fitness_center.cfm )
I start off in the fall with light weights and add a few pounds each month. I am more interested in upper body strength than cardio when we exercise. I am trying to build muscle tone. I can take care of the cardio stuff at the pool or walking downtown.
Gary likes the elliptical equipment but that's too hard on my knees.
We are getting to know the other people working out so the fitness center is part of our social life. It will do until we can go to the woods again.
I walk around town instead of taking the car. I go to the pool whenever I can. From time to time, Gary and I go to the Fox River Mall and walk two or three miles. I exercise at home and sometimes do yoga.
But to really keep in shape, we go to the fitness center in the high school. It is part of the wonderful package we older Seymourites are entitled to. For $35.00 a year we have the use of both the aquatic center and the fitness center.
People who have used other gyms tell me that Seymour's is just about the best. It is state of the art, they say. There's plenty of equipment so we seldom have to wait for any of the machines.
( check out the photos at http://www.seymour.k12.wi.us/fitness_center.cfm )
I start off in the fall with light weights and add a few pounds each month. I am more interested in upper body strength than cardio when we exercise. I am trying to build muscle tone. I can take care of the cardio stuff at the pool or walking downtown.
Gary likes the elliptical equipment but that's too hard on my knees.
We are getting to know the other people working out so the fitness center is part of our social life. It will do until we can go to the woods again.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Six to go
Yesterday was Thanksgiving with Chris, Tisha and Evan and Tisha's family. It was a fine meal and a good time, but what pleased me the most was that Evan read to me. Before, he was sounding out the words without really getting the meaning. Now he reads with a dramatic flair, even making sound effects. He will be moved into the second grade reading group next week.
Then I met my best friend Norma in Oshkosh for a quick meal. I would have liked to spend more time with her, but I hate driving at night at this time of year. It was the end of deer hunting season, so the deer were in motion. It was raining and if the temperature dropped, it could mean slippery roads. Then there are drunk drivers to worry about. To add to all that, the brake light went on last week to show a drop in brake fluid. That seems to have been fluke because the problem hasn't been repeated, but I still checked the well from time to time.
This morning was church, but when that was done, I could come home to finish decorating the big Christmas tree. This takes hours, because each ornament comes out of the box along with memories. At the top of the tree is a red bird that once was on my mother's tree. It is probably older than I am.
There's a glass ornament my grandmother gave me when I was perhaps five years old. I've kept it safe all these years. It is high on the tree, safe from my grandson and Rascal. The ornaments on the bottom are often batted around by that cat, so they have to be unbreakable. (This is an improvement on two years ago, when he hid a dead bird under the tree.)
There are ornaments that Chris made when he was young, and now I have ornaments from his son. I love the electronic ornament with a recording of Evan saying, "I love you Grandma. Merry Christmas!" It's two years old now and is an important memory because that sweet little voice is maturing.
I always have candy canes on the tree. Years ago, old Jake Dog used to munch all the canes off the bottom of the tree. These days, one or two will leave here with Evan. I don't mind.
It's a rather crowded tree, but I love every ornament and the memory attached.
Not to be outdone, Gary put up his own more contemporary Christmas tree in the living room.
Christmas has come to Mathom House. No turning back now.
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