Ripe old age

I turned 66 yesterday.  I'm lucky to have many many friends of many many ages, some of whom insist I am still young.  Thank you, all who tell me that.  I feel young.  I also feel loved and fully birthday-ed.  What a lot of attention and good wishes I received.  I have collected a wide and wonderful crowd of loving generous kind people in my life, from my early years in Rockford to my years here in Hawkeye.  Phone calls, emails, cards, messages and just a lot lot lot of attention.  All making me feel fortunate and happy, very happy.

And now it's back to reality.  It's -7 right now.  The dogs have had their midnight snack and each went out for a short time.  Quite short, announcing to me that--BARK--its cold out there and could they please be let in NOW.  It will get colder before daybreak but it won't be -20, those are the temps that make me nervous.  "I can remember when" is often heard here, and I do remember when we first lived in this house it was -40.  I stayed home that day, refusing to put my car to the test and worried about my house.  Cold and snow, snow and cold.  "That's what winters USED to be like" I hear a lot.  I have to agree, we don't generally have the massive amounts of snow we had in my memory here but we still hit 100 inches I think.  At least that's what my plow bill indicates, at $50 a pop every time he plows my driveway--and he only plows for 6" or more.

It's a work day and there are 2 people who would like to use the resources of the Archives.  OH NO!  One person is researching the boundaries of the Town.  I'm not sure what exactly he's hoping to find, we have a map collection in the library, not in the Archives but it's in the mountaineering collection.  I'll sic Margaret on these people and she'll find something akin to what they're looking for.  She's a wonderful assistant, she is actually my assistant but it's foolish to call her that.  She's my colleague and does the research while I just mess around with metadata and scanned images and pleasing the Board members by being charming to them.

I have half of my Christmas shipping wrapped and packed but not yet shipped.  And lying in my driveway is my tree, not yet cut to size or brought indoors, looking more like a carcass than something of Christmas.  I'm hoping to get to the post office this afternoon.  More like committed than hoping.  Tomorrow is lunch with a friend who shares a December birthday, I've yet to wrap her presents.  There will be errands taken care of in Plattsburgh too, then maybe I'll be close to completing my Christmas present-like tasks and I'll focus on the tree.  In my younger days I made a point to have my tree up by my birthday but that seems less important now.  The tree will be viewed by my book group in January and probably the friend I see several times a week but other than that the dogs and I will enjoy it.  I like seeing my collection of ornaments, and I really like having the little colored lights on that side of the living room.  Maybe some year I should just spread the ornaments on the table, surrounded by the lights.  Yeah, that sounds like a plan.