Taking the Day Off

 So proud to have channeled my energy into not politics nor news,

even though I was really concerned. I checked out videos of time travel, parallel universes, and other things that go bump in the night. The big treat was to get the TV all to myself when Bill went out for awhile. I kept turning up NADA until I got to the History Channel and learned about Carnegie, JP Morgan, and Rockefeller. It seems Henry Ford, hailing from Mi state, was the young entrepreneur facing the Monopoly players of the time. A little bit on Teddy Roosevelt too, who reversed the status quo considerably. Exercised too, which only seemed to enhance my appetite.

Well, letting concerns go for a spell is good for mental health, and the lame duck came to long enough to stop being a duck tail. 'Twasn't much, but it's necessary for now.

Christmas this Year

 Ah, the Christmas memories! I recall that my parents didn't warn me about much, and they gave me Jergen's Lotion. So, of course, I put it all over my face, and my entire face became red as a beet. I still love the smell of it.

I do think the chemistry set warranted some warnings as well, because I was apt to just combine everything all at once. I do think some intervention could have been done, since my dad had been a science teacher who'd earlier gone to ag school, where apparently, chemistry is big. Needless to say, my chemistry grade consistently brought my grade point down.

This Christmas Eve

 Awakening to Christmas Eve morning to see the first real snow on the ground (after Thor had made a tremendous lot of noise with his chariot of goats in the night), I was amazed at how precisely the ancient pagans had pinpointed the winter solstice. Good Jul, everyone! I admit I had a hard time getting into the Christmas Spirit this year. The neighbors put me to shame with all their outdoor lights, so the tree went up with its lights and some tiny hanging bulbs. That was fine with the girls, who prefer "little things", but I didn't actually feel it until the bigger bulbs were added and the top angel was finally found to put atop the tree.

Reorientation

 Musing: I wonder what we'll all be like when we come out of our huts, other than a little fatter. Will we have a hard time readjusting to the new normal? Will we still be a little hesitant about people being too close and personal when there's no longer a need for masking up (which I understand is not right away after being vaccinated). I'd mentioned that readjustment earlier when my dad came back from Hawaii, putting everything in the refrigerator (i.e. ice box), which puzzled my mother, because of the "cockroaches".

Commercial Longings

 How did I miss the experience of living in a penthouse, and my husband comes in to show me our new SUV's outside he's gotten us for Christmas, and when I claim the one he wants, he still doesn't slug me?

Going with your DNA

 I could comment on important stuff, because I just read a news article the length of a book, but what amazes me today is when it turned 6:00 p.m., it was more like midnight. So, I decided, okay, I'll just keep going with my to do list I haven't even started, because if I was in Norway where my DNA belongs, that's how I'd have to operate...just ignore that it's midnight for six months...

Memory when she was Two

 Had so much fun playing with Naia tonight. Her little house, I got her awhile back, has lots of noisemakers. So I made the phone ring, (ding a ling) and said, Halloooo! and she said, Halloooo! And then, I put Grandma (Marilyn) in the kitchen. (Goodness knows this grandma shouldn't be in there.) And Daddy, helping with the cooking. Then, when Mama went to get the laundry, (swish swish buzz) Daddy went after her, because baby was crying. Naia put baby on Mama. Then, the doorbell rang (ding dong) and in came Cousin Hal from Kansas, wondering, where is everybody? She liked Cousin Hal, even though he doesn't exist.

Still, there are Good Days

 It's a good day when your chocolate protein drink doesn't spill on your beige pants and your toothpaste doesn't land on your black sweatshirt.

Old Age is more like Purgatory

 I forget which poet wrote "Grow old along with me..." (I was told, Robert Browning) but we've demonstrated that tonight. I realized I couldn't go out and walk anymore right now, as my sinuses couldn't take it, though they finally went back to normal. So, Bill and I climbed up and down our basement stairs, carefully, holding the railing, ten times. Then, he showed me the paces he made at night walking the length of the house and back. (It's a small house, so that's quite a number of times.) I might try that sometime. After one or both of these exercises, you go out on the porch in your hat and coat and breathe the fresh air for awhile. The other thing you are trying to avoid is the ice. It's counterproductive to be laid up for months, if you fall. Of course, there are other exercises like Yoga and seated Yoga, which when I did it, surprised me as to its equal effectiveness. To your health!

Dream Deferred

 I confess to fooling around today watching videos

about things that go bump in the night... But earlier, I was diligent enough to fix a roast and accessories, only to find that when I'd unplugged the skillet, the cook pot got half unplugged. Thus, a "cool" roast, hard potatoes and onions, and stiff carrots.... Glad we agreed we didn't want to eat in the middle of the night (i.e. 3 a.m.) and to make quick fixin's.

The above seems uneventful and without drama, but true to my nature, the discovery that nothing had been cooked was crushing. Since I resort to practical prayer practices, things got straightened out in a hurry.

As for the roast, as Scarlett proclaimed, tomorrow is another day!

Then, the Printer

 I was going to exclaim with great joy that I got a printer that actually works! Except, it doesn't. Because: 1) It says it can't find my printer, and goes on and on, saying it can't find it, and 2) I can't even figure out where the paper is inserted. Why can't our conveniences be simplified, so we can just attach them and turn them on. Is it too much to ask? Dovetailing this for tomorrow.

• Okay, I once read a book that said I should get six things done each day. I only got one thing done. I don't think I'm premature in saying...I CONNECTED THE PRINTER! I even called Best Buy, waited through many Christmas Carols, and they thought maybe there was something defective with the computer, but understood why I wanted to avoid coming in unnecessarily. So as a result of that conversation, I resorted to HP to ask them why it wasn't connecting. I really don't know how I got it connected, but it is...Yay!

  
  

  
  

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First, the Computer

 Time to vent. We got our new server connected, and it looked good.

The guy even waited awhile, but not long enough. I turned on my PC only to find it didn't work anymore. All my other devices did, but not my PC. (The funny part was the installer was amazed at how many devices we had for just two people, and was somewhat amused at my "travel-size" laptop, which works rather clumsily. I didn't tell him I was the one who ran them all.) I wasted several hours in the afternoon "chatting" only to be informed that it must be my PC, whereas I insisted my PC was fine. People who know me know it takes a lot for me to cry, but Bill found me in tears after all this. After waiting for awhile, he decided to get a computer guy. "All's well that ends well." A computer guy is coming tomorrow more in line with our actual "awake" hours. I hadn't suffered too much as I went to bed earlier and slept through the night, (probably because I'm used to getting up for puppy sitting.) but Bill had been walking around sort of unconscious in the early morning. The sleep apparently focused him better than I could focus.

Fred of the Neighborhood

 Bill called me to the living room to see a documentary of Fred Rogers. Mr. Rogers covered everything: racism, assassinations, divorce, death, etc. He would have had a field day with these last four years. I could just hear him saying to the kids. You know, some people lie like they breathe, presidents, his supporting "news" channels, and they hang on to power, even when they've lost the election....Then, lame Donald duck would get on Twitter and blast the beloved icon, because Donnie considers no one sacred, not even the Pope.

Universal Grandma

 At Aldi's, some girl wearing an ornate mask,

came behind me, and I nearly jumped to the ceiling as she exclaimed, "You won't believe this, but you look just like my grandmother, and since I shop for her, I wondered why she was in the store without telling me!" I replied, "No, it's just me," and I added "I've heard people tell me that before." This is true, I'm pegged as somebody's look-alike grandma by a couple neighbors in the neighborhood. If people had said this to me 30 years ago, I would have been depressed. But since I AM a grandmother, that's okay.

Mouse Mystery

 Bill had a conversation with a mouse

in the foyer last night. He told him he really should go out (as he opened the door for him); Otherwise, he would have to kill him. But the mouse just looked at him and scurried off to his corner. The creature should have taken heed, because Bill came home with new rodent poison today.

His fondness for mice began when he was a kid. A lady who rented from his father lived upstairs, and they couldn't figure out from where the mice were coming. This kept his mother busy setting traps, while Bill played with his little ships on an oblong rug. As mice scurried over the imaginary "water", he adopted them as his "passengers". Finally, when the nurse left the apartment, he and his dad went up to check and possibly, clean. The latter was a strong possibility, as the former tenant had stacks of garbage all over the house, none of which had been disposed during her entire stay. Mystery solved.

So there you have it; this is why he took the time to be polite to a mouse.

Old Age is Hell

 Ma Fortney used to say, "When you're old, you're so much trouble to yourself." She also had a sign up that said, "Don't floss all your teeth, just the ones you want to keep." But she didn't tell me that when you're old, you might forget just which teeth you flossed half way through, so you have to start out all over again.

The Good Plumber and the Bad Window

 I spent months feeling guilty for accidentally dropping a fingernail clipper down the drain. You may recall that little tantrum. Every time I ran the sink faucet, I'd hear "gurgle gurgle" in the shower area and cringe. We kept pouring down Drano, and my son-in-law diagnosed that we had, in fact, dissolved it. So what was it? A clogged pipe, which happens periodically. Plumber

came today, kind of unexpectedly. (but we all knew to considerately wear masks) I did appreciate that he was a nice plumber with no religious or political agenda to preach at us as has been our experience. (Refer to Plumber Phobia on a previous page) But this threw my day into a tailspin, having to clean up afterwards.

Yesterday was a "blustery day", and the window fell off the house in one piece. Bill duct taped it up, proudly. But the wind tore it off again, this time not so nicely. So, I had to help pick up all the broken glass. Glad we no longer live in a mobile home the way the weather's been, as I have a feeling we'd be taking weekly trips to Oz.