Back to normal

Christmas was good. Liza, Mark and I always have a good time. There were some problems, which I may or may not go into but don't feel like talking about right now. There was no snow on the ground and it was 50 degrees and sunny most of the time. My mother and I went for a walk on the beach. I gave her a copy of Rockwell Kent's This is my own, which she read and quoted and really enjoyed. I was happy to have found it for her. I love online shopping. I got her a new coat, which she seemed to like. Mark and I (mostly Mark) got her a shed to store things in. This met with mixed reviews, depending on degree of sobriety.

We drank appletinis (too many, apparently) and gin rickeys (not enough). We ate lobsters on Christmas Eve (our tradition) and prime rib on Christmas (also tradition). We lit all the candles and it got incredibly hot in the living room. I slept in the bird room, where I love being with my dogs. They had a great time, especially Tess. She and Liza's dog play and roughhouse endlessly and have a fantastic time together. Chances and Tina not so much. At one point Tina had Chances nailed to the floor and was snarling at her, grabbing her by the tail, pulling on it hard. Chances takes it like a true subservient trooper. Duck and cover.

When I got home last night I could drive right to the house--there had been no "measurable" amount of snow, despite the predictions when I left. I talked to Ken, who said my livestock there were fine (he took care of my fish at his house--this involved emptying 2/3 of the water out of the fish tank and taking the tank, heater, filter and power strip to his house and setting it all up on the counter there, but he offered and I knew he'd enjoy having them there). He said he says good morning to them every day, and the day they answer he'll know he's crazy. I'm stopping there tonight to pick up my mail and visit and may or may not get the fish. I'm wondering if I should set him up with a small aquarium and a couple of fish.

Last night I read Esquire and came across an article about a graffiti artist of great reknown in London named Banksy--www.artofthestate.co.uk/Banksy/banksy.htm. His stuff is amazing. The article was about the Best and Brightest of 2005 and included two men who design new fonts which are widely and exclusively used. Way cool. Anyway, I thought the Banksy stuff was really great.

Now I'm at work and have finished reading email, checking phone messages and am ready to open the ILLs that came in the mail and via UPS and start working on the 50 or so correctional facility requests that arrived while I was out. That clerk will be back next week so I can quit doing her job and get back to the real work I'm supposed to be doing, which has piled up a mile high during the past month.

It's raining here, which means the foot & a half of snow at home is now the incredible shrinking white blanket. All the way home I pondered the magic of trading in my car for a 2005 CRV and taking advantage of the year-end eagerness of car dealers to get rid of their inventories. It would cost me at least $50 a month more in gas and who knows how much more in car payments. So no, I don't think so. Instead I think I'll just have my chimney cleaned.

The world is looking pretty good

In spite of the cold, the snow, and the pressure of impending Christmas. We had a storm on Friday, threats of ice and actual sleet and heavy snow in some places. In spite of that I drove the 30 miles to work on unplowed roads, following very poor drivers. Schools were closed so towns and the county didn't plow even the main roads very much, let alone the side roads I travel. But I made it! Only half an hour late. Guess what? Not a single car in the driveway. No one at the public library, no one at our library. Yes, we were closed, but no one called me until long after I'd left. So I came inside anyway, checked my email, paid my online bills, stayed for an hour and left to run the errands I was planning to run during lunch and after work. Actually I wasn't bummed, since it was like found time in town.

First the post office, where I mailed the Italy packages (2) and bought stamps. Second Christmas shopping, finishing up stuff for cousins in Vermont. Third the grocery store, getting stuff to cook for Ken's Sunday dinner and return $6 worth of soda cans from under my desk at work. Fourth the liquor store, wine for Sunday, liquers for my staff and Mark and Wild Turkey for me. Fifth the dump, which was a huge challenge because it's on a back road that had not been plowed at all and by now there was about 7" of snow. I made it, though, and was embarrassed to be there at all, getting a look from the dump lady like "What are you, nuts? Bringing one bag of garbage on a day like this?" Then I stopped at Ken's for a visit and a drink ("Well you're going to have a touch of the Creature, aren't you?"). Home by 1 and of course a nap. Wasted the afternoon, once I woke up, but kept my house warm. Got my car completely stuck in the bank of snow the plow piled up at the end of my driveway. This was not my regular plowman, who never leaves a pile of snow at the end of my driveway: he always sweeps it so there's no pile there. I went to bed Fri. night with the car stuck there, the hell with it.

Saturday I had hoped to get to the post office in AuSable to pick up a package that's waiting for me but it took a long time to get the car unstuck and I didn't start early enough. Shoveling and rocking and more shoveling, but finally I did it. Got to town 15 min. after the post office closed. Oh well, went to the hardware store and got a new tow rope for my car (just in case...) and a new door knob for my bedroom. The good kind of champagne from the liquor store, and cheesecake makings from the grocery store, which I forgot to get on Friday and our Christmas party at work was coming up. Whew! My car had so much snow packed against the axles that it vibrated really intensely when I went above 45. Swell. Home to install the new doorknob, so now I can latch the door against Chances' invasions during the day.

Sunday I cooked for Ken--he wanted Cornish game hens, with mashed potatoes and gravy, of course. We planned an exit strategy for my fish tank--he's going to take care of the little darlings while I'm in Rhode Island, and rather than putting them in a goldfish bowl, he wants the whole aquarium at this house. Has a spot all picked out on the counter where they'll go. I'll empty half the water out of the aquarium to transport it and fill it up again once I get there. He's very excited about having them there, which is very sweet. "But what if one of them dies?" I don't think we need to worry about that, we certainly know they can be replaced--I'll give you the net to scoop out the dead body with.

Monday I got confused and thought our work Christmas party was Tuesday so I had not made the cheesecake I was supposed to bring. What a dolt. I had planned to leave at noon, using my Use it Or Lose It time, which I will now lose because there isn't really a time I can take it. I had to stay because we had our huge luncheon and Secret Santa. I hate Secret Santa. I had left my S.S. gift at home, but luckily I had the presents for my cousins with me so I could just rip the label off of one of them and give it to the van driver instead of my cousin. Worked out well, I thought.

Because I didn't take the afternoon off I did not have a chance to cook for my book group, so I had to buy something to serve them. Hated that. I had made meringues on Sunday, at least. Coolest of all was that we got to eat the giant apple I got for my birthday. That was vastly entertaining and very tasty. They came over at 6:30, I was barely ready because I'd worked late so didn't get home until just before 6. Lin came early, knowing I could use help. She's certainly a good friend and I wish I could find her a job. We had a good book group. Martha needs to have her baby soon but she will and it will be wonderful. We all enjoyed being together and actually did talk about the book, but briefly. It was a Janet Evanovich, which we read to give ourselves a break during December. This month's book is an Adirondack book, Sweetwater. I think I'll put together a list of a bunch of Adirondack fiction, that will be good for work as well as book group. I know there are a bunch of titles out there and it will be a fun project to do. We really enjoyed the last Adk. book we read (except for the lesbian sex--I thought that wasn't really necessary. Let's see what kind of sex this book has).

And now it's Tuesday and tomorrow is my last day at work. Having trouble getting motivated. I'm off to Rhode Island for 6 days. I found someone to plow my driveway, but his truck is huge and he doesn't like the "cramped" space by the house. It's big enough for most people's trucks, he's just plowing with a truck that's not really meant to be a plow. It's also not really fit for going up my tiny little hill and he got stuck when he first started. I'm really happy to have a plowman, but he said he didn't know what he'd do if we got a big dump. Well hell, that's when I'll really need him. We'll worry about that when it happens. I've decided my motto is "I'll deal with that later." I'm going to design a crest that says that in Latin and put it on my wall.

I talked to my ex-husband yesterday. He'd left a message (called at 11:00 a.m. on Friday--now tell me, did he really think he'd be able to speak to me?) asking if, by any chance I had his passport. Well guess what, I did, and I was even able to find it. I figured out that he probably has a chance to go to the Olympics, and I was right. As mayor of Lake Placid, he might get to go. I called him yesterday (wasn't going to call him on the weekend when he was home with the Little Woman) and we had a nice conversation. I asked him if he would please pick up his passport at Ken's house and visit with Ken for a while and he said he would. Lin says he'll never do it, but I figure that, since there's something in it for him he just might. Lin says he's just way too important for that. Jaime had this fantasy that Anna would be his interpreter--I love the way he's always assumed that everyone in the world wants to do whatever he wants to do. He was very disappointed to hear that she's in Milwaukee. Anyway, we had an ok conversation but when I hung up I realized that we ran out of things to say and stayed on the phone just a little too long. I think he wants to have a relationship (as friends) but I'm not sure we have anything in common except our past and our family. I don't care one way or another but if we don't have anything to say to each other it'll be a pretty boring relationship, won't it.

And now I have to finish my year-end self-assessment. I didn't complete my goals, humble though they were. I have to report to our new director, who can't evaluate me anyway because she only started in October. She was my Secret Santa and knit me a beautiful blue and green scarf out of wonderful Italian wool. It matches my blue jacket, which she planned because she said she knew what color my jacket was. What's that? A thoughtful director who notices things about other people? I don't know how to deal with that.

This mornings headlines, and it's not even April Fools Day:


Reversing Its Stance, Ford Will Advertise In Gay Magazines


Drug Dealer Names Police Dog In Lawsuit


Woman Killed In Crash After Husband Chokes On Coffee


Parents Outraged After Teacher Says There's No Santa Claus


I guess it's a slow news day.

House Supports Ban on Torture

For some reason this headline just struck me as incredibly funny. Hooray for our legislators, they don't favor torturing people. Maybe they'll feel the same way about killing people someday, too.


-14 this morning, up from -17 yesterday. No frozen pipes or pump today. Last night I got to drive without headlights, by moonlight to my house. I can see the lights on my outdoor tree from almost half a mile away, through the forest. Way cool.

I like friends

Who know you really well. My friend Barb gave me a really cool present for my birthday. When I was at my mother's for Thanksgiving, Mark and I were looking at the Williams Sonoma catalog and came across this giant apple with a reported girth of 17". It was dipped in caramel, then chocolate, then rolled in nuts. We were fascinated by it and wanted to try it really badly but of course it was too expensive and we couldn't justify ordering it for ourselves. We read the description of how they get the apples to grow so huge: they put paper bags around the individual apples as they hang on the trees (if you choose to believe this) until they're ripe. When we went to the WS store, Mark said "I want to see that apple!" but alas and alack, there was no apple in the store.

Well guess what Barb got me for my birthday? A giant apple dipped in caramel, covered in chocolate and rolled in nuts! And I never told her about the WS apple or anything. Aren't good friends a thing of wonder. When she gave me the bag she told me it had to be kept in the refrigerator until I opened it. I carried it in from the car with Tess' nose attached to the bag the entire way, so I knew it must be good. Book group is meeting at my house on Monday night so I have something cool to serve. As Barb says, I'd never be able to eat this whole apple by myself.

Barb also gave me a windowsill herb garden--flower pots and seeds, etc., ready to plant. I suspected that if I left the box on the dinner table Chance would have to take a closer look and sure enough, when I got home last night the box was on the floor with a corner nibbled open. Apparently Chances is not interested in tarragon (fortunately).

Mick Jagger was right

When he said "You're so god damn cold." I had my union party last night (which included management this year, which I didn't approve of, but was outvoted on so what can I say. There were a record number of people there--everyone who works at the library system, plus a few spouses, and we all had a pretty good time) and didn't get home until 9:00. Outside temp was
-10, indoor temp was 54. The light bulb assigned to keep my pump and cellar pipes flowing had burned out so my pump froze. I found this out when I flushed the toilet and didn't hear the welcome sound of the humming pump below. Swell.

I had made plans for an elaborate heat-source set up this year. My cellar is a hole, 8' X 8', accessed through a trap door in the bathroom floor, down a ladder. I bought cinder blocks to put the heater on because the crushed stone on the floor is too wet, due to the holes in the sump pump's hose, which rotted the chair I used to use to put the heater on. Fine, except I never took the cinder blocks down the ladder into the hole. I bought a heavy new extension cord too, and put it in an unknown place when I cleaned for Sunday dinner. These are not things one wants to ponder at 9:00 when it's 10 below. I retrieved the cinder blocks from the trunk of the car, found the extension cord, plugged in the heater, found the other heater I have and started cooking the cellar (slam the door and walk away from the whole thing, my favorite part of fixing winter plumbing problems: set up the solution and wait it out).

Had to bring in huge amounts of wood to stoke the fire. While I was doing that the ice on the lake was talking, making the most wonderful sounds. Like short bursts of a jet plane's roar. I loved it and stood on the deck for almost 10 minutes, with no sound but that in my world. The dogs love being outside in the winter, roaring through the snow, but their initial contact consists of moments when they lift one paw at a time high off of the ground surface because it's painful due to the cold. Last night Tess stood in the woodshed with one hind leg elevated way high, trying to figure out her next move. Three minutes later she and Chances were galloping around the yard.

I got the fire roaring, sat next to the thermometer and watched the temp. rise by degrees to 67 AT LAST. Cuddled under the down throw Jenica gave me for Christmas a few years ago. What would I do without that? I have to wash it frequently because it gets a really heavy dog smell--Tess sleeps under it and on top of me, while Chances sleeps on top of it. We're a very cuddly bunch in the winter time.

The pump finally came on at midnight, but wasn't completely thawed until 1:00--it wouldn't come up to pressure, kept running and stopping so I had to shut it off for the extra hour until the temp in the cellar got warmer. I don't like going down into the cellar at night like that, even though I carefully prop the trap door open, sometimes I worry about its slamming shut. How many days would I be down there for before someone would figure out where I was? My friend Barb would know exactly where I was, but who would know to ask her? When I first went down there last night I had just come inside so I was wearing a down jacket and boots and was very pleased with myself.

So now I have indoor plumbing, a fire in the stove, cranberry bread and coffee at my desk and must face the odious task of original cataloging of probably 50 classical music CD's for Lake Placid. I've finally familiarized myself with new subfields: m, n, p, and r. The opus numbers are imporant, and it's crucial to know whether these are concertos or rondos. Whatever rondos are.

After the Bicentennial

I watched a tribute to Johnny Cash on PBS last night--an old show, filmed before he died so that he came on at the end and sang, along with June. He looked awful, said it was his first time on stage in 19 months. He was old and puffy and truly had something wrong with him but his voice was wonderful and true when he sang about Folsom Prison. The performers who sang were all great, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews (who sang "Long Black Veil," which we used to listen to when I was a kid, sung by the Kingston Trio), Lyle Lovett and of course Kris Kristofferson, who sang a duet with Trisha Yearwood of a song deeply embedded in my past, "Sunday Morning Coming Down." This was the theme song for my pack for a while during the second half of the 70's, and at the time I thought it was cool. Now I see it as a very depressing song, especially the following:

'Cause there's something in a Sunday

That makes a body feel alone.

And there's nothing short a' dying

That's half as lonesome as the sound

Of the sleeping city sidewalk

And Sunday morning coming down.

Basically the song is about an alcoholic who's alone, and at the time I was living with an alcoholic who'd just ended his shotgun marriage and was a career waiter, embroiled in the lifestyle that that entails. I'd never been exposed to that life before and, being in love and naive thought it was interesting and cool. This man was charming and intelligent but was of course wasting his talents. He had a 4-year old son who stayed with us 2 days a week, another experience I was ill-prepared for.

The country was in an odd way too, facing a recession, just recovering from Vietnam so we were dealing with a peacetime economy for the first time in decades. There were no jobs for people my age. At first I was a Kelly girl, then I got a job at Rhode Island Trades Shops School, where "Auto Body Technicians are always in demand." I worked 4 nights a week. Finally I was lucky enough to be a librarian in my first real job, making a whopping $9,000. We had a hard time identifying an enemy other than the Soviet Union until Iranians took Americans hostage, then we couldn't figure out why they did that (Why would anyone dislike America?) but middle America knew they had to hate Iran. We were coming down as a country from the high of celebrating our Bicentennial, which we'd been psyching ourselves up for for several years. Did it live up to the hype? In some ways, I suppose. Jenica was born, that was the best part of 1976 for me. I spent 7/4/76 on a campground in New Hampshire with my pack, watching fireworks reflected in a small, calm lake with a relatively small crowd, drinking a lot of beer.

We listened to odd music, since there wasn't that much music that was really good to listen to. Kris Kristofferson, who we got to see live with Rita Coolidge, when they were married to each other. Fleetwood Mac, who we also got to see live early in their career. These crazy people liked Tom Waits and Leon Redbone, so we saw them live too. I thought that was a really boring concert. At the end of it Tom Waits brought out an easy chair and TV and started watching the TV to convince the audience that the show was really over. We listened a whole lot to Elvis Costello, the bright spot in it all for me. Who else were we going to listen to? Wham?

I bought my first new car, a 1975 Fiat 128. Three of us living in the same house had Fiats, of which there were many in Rhode Island, for some reason. They were wonderful cars (still are) and I adored mine. I paid $3000 for it. It was great in the snow, invincible, but only had 2 doors and you had to lift the front seats all the way up to the windshield to get into the back seat. And of course the real kicker about Fiats was that they wouldn't start if it rained really hard or dipped below 20 degrees. Needless to say that was my last Italian car. But there aren't many cars I've enjoyed driving more than that one.

I had my first dog, Megan, a 90-pound female who looked like a beautiful black golden retriever. She was an incredibly sweet dog I got when I graduated from college in 1974. Her mother was a golden retriever and her father was a Lab/husky/St.Bernard mix owned by someone I was in love with in college. She sort of had the best of all breeds and lived to be 14. I got my second dog, a mutt who wandered in to my night job as a puppy with a broken leg during a blizzard on Valentine's Day. I named her Solo and she became Megan's best friend. She was my first dog to get hit by a car and killed (Megan had been hit by a car and broken her jaw earlier, but that didn't phase her, probably damaged the car: it was at night and I never saw the car). I adored Solo and mourned deeply for weeks. It was after that that I got my first Lab, Jestr, whose name was an acronym for my boyfriend's and my initials. Ah, sweet love.

And that, my friends, was me during the second half of the 70's. Brought to you by Johnny Cash.

Zero and Snow

You wouldn't think you'd have both of those so early in December, but oops! there we go. It was 0 on Monday morning, 3 on Tuesday morning, and snowing heavily this morning when I drove to work. I got behind a snow plow driving so slowly it didn't measure on my speedometer, on the part of my drive that's so twisty and windy that it's impossible to pass. Then I got to the good road, and after a while came upon someone driving a Dodge Durango (SUV, AWD, invincible tank meant to be driven in conditions like this morning's) and going 22 mph where the speed limit is 55 and the road was clear. I wanted to pull up next to her, roll down the window and scream an offer to swap vehicles, since she might as well have been driving my Civic. But of course I couldn't pull up next to her because there was too much oncoming traffic, or else I could have passed her. So my 40 minute trip to work took more than an hour, but since I was planning to be an hour early I wasn't late.

I ran errands at lunch: Walmart errands. Got presents for my friend's son, who was born exactly 50 years after I was. I had already bought 2 Wiggles DVD's for him but he needs a vroom vroom toy as well. I bought new lights for my Christmas tree--half of the old lights I put on it were burned out when I plugged them in last night. What? A broken Christmas tree? How many things are going on about this damn tree? This weekend I'm planning to stretch 200' of extension cord from my floodlight socket out into the woods by the end of my driveway and decorate a tree with 300 small white lights so I'll be able to see it when I come home (my new floodlight fixture comes on at dusk and goes off at dawn, when it's turned on: pretty fancy!). After my seasonal shopping I went to the grocery portion of our store and got some groceries. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Walmart has my favorite:

Pink Lady apple
This is a cross between a Golden Delicious and a Lady William. It's sweet and crisp, and good in salads and pies.

So I got some of those, lots of Romaine, cheese and some good Lean Cuisines, the Mexican kind that only Walmart has. Then I came back to work for the second marathon meeting of the day and now I have to spend 1 1/2 hours looking up bookmobile stops for individual patrons so we can do a mass mailing on Monday to let them all know that the bookmobile is now too dangerous to drive so has been taken off the road and there will be no service until we get our new one in January.

So I must go.

OK, here goes, tagged by Molly

10 things that make me happy

1. Sitting on the boat house porch at night by candle light
2. Watching my dogs gallop side by side like horses pulling a chariot
3. Lying in my bed in the morning sunshine, staring into space and thinking about nothing
4. Being with my family
5. Driving at night in the winter with no headlights because the moon and snow are so bright you don't need them
6. The feeling of sun on my skin
7. Pulling into my driveway and driving up the hill: the moment my house comes into view
8. Standing in the middle of the lake in bright sunshine on a dead calm day in the winter time
9. Swimming way out into the lake when the lake is dead calm in the summer time, especially at night
10. My tea rose bush in full bloom: I've had it for 30 years and even though it's just a thing, it's been with me everywhere I've lived.

Way to go, J.Crew, welcome to the rest of the world. It's not really fair that we think dogs and cats should be treated better than other animals, but I guess if it helps promote more compassionate treatment of animals, what the hell. Anyway, watch out for any fur product that comes from China, that's for sure--if you insist on buying and wearing fur.



J. Crew to stop selling products that contain fur

CLOTHING CHAIN MAKES MOVE IN WAKE OF COLORFUL PROTESTS
By Paul Rogers

Mercury News

In the wake of a series of colorful anti-fur protests outside shopping malls and stores in San Jose and other cities around the nation, clothing chain J. Crew has announced it will stop selling fur.

``It was for business reasons,'' said Owen Blicksilver, a J. Crew spokesman. ``Fur was a very small part of the product line. Less than 1 percent of all products that J. Crew sells have any fur.''

The announcement was hailed as a victory by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the group that led the campaign.

On Oct. 12, three women wearing flesh-colored leotards and tights lay in a pile on the sidewalk at the entrance to Westfield Shoppingtown Valley Fair in San Jose for an hour. They were covered with red paint to depict blood and surrounded by placards featuring anti-J. Crew messages and depicting skinned animals. Motorists honked and shoppers snapped photos.

PETA staged similar protests in New York, Santa Monica and other cities after J. Crew included jackets and hats with coyote, rabbit and mink fur in its fall line. Many of J. Crew's competitors, including the Gap and Banana Republic, don't sell fur.

PETA officials noted that some of J. Crew's fur-bearing garb is made in China. Their Web site features a graphic video shot by a German filmmaker in a south China market where cats and dogs are crammed in cages, thrown off trucks and subjected to broken limbs. Chinese fur sellers bludgeon and strangle dogs, cats and other animals with wire nooses, PETA says, then mislabel their products and sell it to American and European clothing companies as coyote, rabbit or fox.

``There's a world of suffering in every bit of fur trim,'' said Heather Mills McCartney, a PETA celebrity spokeswoman, in a statement.

``But J. Crew has finally adopted a `no fur' policy that will save countless animals and send a strong message of compassion throughout the retail clothing community and beyond.''

O Christmas Tree

Yes, that's right, I have a Christmas tree and it feels good. My mood, not the tree. On Saturday, when it was cold and windy, very windy, I took my bow saw and wandered around the house. I almost gave up, the stand of balsams I was sure would yield a good tree ended up having only really skanky ones, but then I saw one that was ok. It was hard to get to, had 2 downed trees on 2 sides, but I got it, cut it down and dragged it to the deck. Turns out it has this great curve in it, really cool, like a quarter of an "s." I love it. It's pretty sparse, as homegrown balsams are. Yesterday Bill and Ken came for Sunday dinner and I had Bill help me move the loveseat to make room for the tree.

After they left I brought in my tree stand, which hasn't been used for at least three years, sprayed WD-40 on all the screws and put the tree in. It has a very small trunk so this, coupled with the curve, presented a great challenge. Since it's sparse, though, it's light and wasn't hard to put up alone. Now it's done and will have dried for the mandatory 24 hours by tonight so I can put the lights on it and decorate it tonight. Yea me! Chances may knock it over, since it stands in her sentry point in front of the window facing the driveway, where she watches for my return each night. But perhaps not.

I cooked Sunday dinner yesterday, which meant I had to clean first. The bathroom needed a good scrubbing and vacuuming, but worse: I had to organize my shoes. That effort was not wasted; Ken said this: "I thought I had a lot of shoes..." I reminded him that the collection was not only my winter shoes, but my summer shoes as well. He was not impressed. I was supposed to cook salmon in my clay pot, and you start the process by soaking the unglazed lid for half an hour. The bottom of the pot is glazed on the inside. I wasn't paying attention and soaked the bottom, so couldn't cook the fish the way I intended. This made the meal much less exciting. I roasted the brussels sprouts as an experiment. I liked them but I could tell by the fact that there were 4 left over that Bill didn't like them as much. I used the last of the tomatoes from Ken's garden, which were practically tasteless (as they become when you store them in a paper bag) but were very exciting to Ken. I made apple crisp with whipped cream, always a hit. I used the Rockwell Kent plates, which I love using, and used the RK teapot to serve the coffee from. It was a nice meal and we had a good time. I had a grackle at the feeder, which is a rarity. I showed it to Ken, whose reply was "You have one?" He always has better birds than I do, due to the edge effect location of his feeder. I'm in the woods more than he is.

Saturday night I watched Monster (Showtime had a FREE MOVIE weekend), which was painful to watch but was really an excellent film. Charlize Theron is really a good actress, isn't she. I had to mute the shootings, but I thought she did a masterful job and was glad I saw the film. Unsettling but good to see.

My mother called last night while waiting for my niece Anna to get there from Milwaukee. Poor Anna got to O'Hare too late to catch her flight to Providence (deja vu from this summer) so had to catch a later flight. She's visiting Liza this week. Those airlines have it in for Anna, but at least this time she didn't have to spend the night or fly to Cincinnati.

Cold today but due to get colder this week. We had snow Friday and yesteday, must have about 5" on the ground but it's fluffy powder. I guess that should put me in the holiday spirit, huh.

A new look

It's getting close to my birthday so I decided to make a change. I'll have to change my profile after the 12th. I was thinking last night, while talking to Ken (who's 91) that I'll probably have to wait until I'm 62 to retire, but that's only 9 years from now, and 62 suddenly doesn't seem so old. We were talking about people who die shortly after retiring (like my father, who died 3 years after retiring, and who didn't really enjoy his work situation for the last several years of his career). Ken knew someone who drew one pension check before he died. We concluded that the dead people couldn't really be resentful or mind that they didn't have a long retirement, since they were dead. OK, that helped with my constant worry that I will die shortly after I retire and never get to enjoy the retirement that I've been looking forward to for the last 30 years.

Then we talked about Christmas trees. I had been thinking about getting one on Saturday, actually paying money for one. I've done that twice before, and I figured that if I bought one in town I could have Bill help me put it up when he came for Sunday dinner. I mentioned buying one to Ken last night and he was stunned. "How much would you pay for one?" Maybe $20. He couldn't believe it. "Why wouldn't you just go out your front door and cut one?" Because that's a pain in the neck. So we talked some more, I told him we always used to cut down 40-foot balsams & take off the tops for our trees, and that I had cut down smaller trees by myself since I've lived alone (I've concluded that it's truly easier to pay money for a tree). I thought, at the end of the discussion, that maybe I really would cut my own tree, maybe just a small one this year. Of course, in the light of day this morning I feel completely different and want a bigger tree, a nice one I wouldn't find on my property--all the trees that are 8' high are skanky looking. Plus we're supposed to have 6" of snow, which makes getting a tree in the woods both more difficult and unpleasant. So we'll see what happens on Saturday. Maybe I'll skip the whole thing until next weekend. Or for the whole season. My living room is small and Christmas trees are big.

And now I have a meeting that's set to last an hour to see what reports (that might be useful) we can pull from our automated system. I love statistics, it's just a matter of making them relevant.