Is that all there was?

The big ball drop here in Fort Wayne was kind of a bust but Happy 2017 anyway.  More tomorrow.

Happy New Year, almost

I am going to watch the first ever New Years Eve "ball drop" in Fort Wayne tomorrow evening. It's happening less than three blocks from my place so I thought I would just walk over and have a look. I have managed to talk one intrepid friend into doing this with me. Hopefully it won't be too cold. They did say, on TV today, that there will be a warming tent but I can't imagine everyone will fit in there. We are not planning to head over when the festivities start at 7:15pm (or 8:00pm). I've heard and seen different times posted on different sites. We will take the much more sensible (senior citizen?) approach of having a late supper at Hall's and then heading over about 10 or so.  I will report on New Year's Day on how it all went (after my fingers thaw).

Variety is the spice of life.

Every year, for the last several years, I have treated each of my four grandchildren out for a day of shopping and lunch. The agreement is that I will give each of them a set amount of cash and I also treat to lunch. They can shop where ever, and for whatever they want (as long as it's legal and moral) and they may choose where we lunch. I will never say "Hurry up." or "Make up your mind." we shop at their pace.  The only restriction these days is that we need to be home before dark because I don't drive after dark. Of course, these days are great fun for me too. Over the years we have shopped for antiques, roamed all around Glenbrook Mall, built bears, played games at Chuckie Cheese and spent a lot of time at Target. This year, so far, I have taken two granddaughters out for their shopping sprees, one Tuesday and one today. The first thing I noticed this year is that, at the ages of 12 and 14, these two girls have become much more decisive. They each knew exactly where they wanted to go and what they were looking for. I also appreciated how different the shopping experiences were. One granddaughter spent a lot of time at "Pink" (a part of Victoria's Secret) and the clothing department at Meijers. We lunched at Penn Station. Today the second granddaughter also headed for the mall but her focus was the book store, two shops that sell graphic tees and a shop where she could buy Japanese candy. We lunched at Olive Garden. I can't wait to see what the other two want to do. Talk about "the gift that keeps on giving" (to me that is).

better than Boxing Day

Today, are you ready for this?, today is National Chocolate Candy Day. I think this is a fine idea for a celebration half way between Christmas and New Year's Eve. Luckily I was given two excellent boxes of chocolate for Christmas so I have been able to celebrate all day, giving this day the attention it deserves.

yet more things to be thankful for

While I'm very pleased with the Christmas gifts I received this year I realized today, as I strolled the mall with my youngest granddaughter, that there are some things that I'm really glad I didn't receive. No one signed me up for Ancestry DNA, or named a star after me or gave me any of the endless varieties of Chia Pets. For that matter no one gave me a real pet either. Life is good.

Happy Boxing Day everyone.

I was pleased to learn, after a little Google research, that I have celebrated Boxing Day in an acceptable way. 

"For many people Boxing Day is a time to recover from the excesses of Christmas Day..." That's what I did. After a busy, fun time with family yesterday i basically spent today relaxing and reading a good book. I did not deliver gifts to the serfs or participate in a fox hunt (old time Boxing Day traditions), nor did I participate in shopping for post-Christmas bargains, attending a sporting event or taking a hike in the country (more contemporary BD activities). I think a day for relaxing after Christmas Day is an excellent idea and I may celebrate Boxing Day every December 26. 

Christmas Eve Joy

Just got home from a glorious Christmas Eve service at First Presbyterain here in fort Wayne. The music is still ringing in my ears (in a good way), and so, in the words of a not so reverent poet, "Happy Christmas to all, and ot all a good night!"

All wrapped up

I finished wrapping all of my Christmas gifts today, those that I'm giving to family on Christmas Day. I sent a package of gifts off to Spokane, Washington 10 days ago. Through the magic of the UPS tracking system I confirmed that it did arrive yesterday. Always good to know. Anyway, I couldn't help remembering the many Christmas Eves, when my kids were young and I was still wrapping gifts after the late night Christmas Eve service. Those were the days. Funny, I really don't miss that particular Christmas tradition at all.

Who knew this could be a diet aid?

I like to watch "the Great American Baking Show." You would think that watching the contestants create lavish concoctions, some of which I've never even heard of, would send me scurrying to the kitchen to bake something wonderful, Their creations all look absolutely delicious. Well, almost all. Sometimes the judges determine that something is a flop - the filling too gooey or the flavor just not quite right (maybe he shouldn't have mixed chocolate and fennel?). But the benefit to me is that, as I watch them stress to create their perfect offerings, it all looks so complicated and time-consuming that I just decide to eat some grapes instead. See? It's a perfect diet aid, at least for a basically lazy person.

not an intentional Scrooge

I had an interesting encounter today.  As I was loading my groceries into the back of my car a young lady pulled up behind me, rolled down her window, and proceeded to tell me that she had a four year old child in the car with her, had to get to Lafayette (or somewhere) and desperately needed money for gas. I told her that I didn't have any cash. She pleaded some more and I told her that I was on my way to the Kroger gas station and if she would follow me over there I would use my credit card to put some gas in her car. She then said that she didn't think she had enough gas left to get to the station (this while her car was running?).  OK, I may be a little slow, but by this time I was beginning to suspect a scam. I pointed to the gas station, just across the drive, told her again that I would be there in a few minutes to get gas myself and, if she would meet me there I would put some gas in her car. Well, I went to the gas station after I finished stowing my groceries, pumped my gas, didn't see any sign of the lady who claimed to be in such extreme need, and drove on home, a little wiser and happily no poorer. By the way, I did have some cash with me but I'm not totally stupid.

Sharing is not a natural instinct.

This morning was my once a month turn to help babysit the Moppets while their moms enjoyed a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting. The moms always look refreshed when they come to pick up their toddlers after the meeting. No comment on how we grandma-aged babysitters look at the end of two hours. I do find it fascinating to watch the interaction between the children. As a former Junior high teacher I feel like I can already spot the personalities in the three-years-old that they will exhibit in later life. Some boldly charge into the melee and stake their place while others hang back a little, carefully considering the situation before they start to play. While we spend some of the time reading to them or playing with them in small groups, some are quite comfortable going off and playing on their own. The one consistent truth as they play is this: when one child finds a particularly fascinating toy -be it Darth Vader mask, fireman's hat or little toy truck, three others will instantly decide that that is the very toy they must play with right now. They have heard of sharing and taking turns but, let me tell you, hanging on firmly and shouting "mine!" seems to come much more naturally. Ah well, they will all become good citizens eventually - we hope.

for better or worse, done for another year

I finished my annual Christmas poem today, got all the envelopes addressed and ready to go out in the mail tomorrow - which, I understand, is the last day to have a hope of getting them to people before Christmas Day. I figure, worst case, it will give people something to read the day after Christmas. I have a loose leaf notebook where I have kept copies of all the poems I have sent out over the years. I glanced through it today, as I was adding a copy of this year's effort, and was interested to discover that I sent out my first poem in 1993. At least that's the earliest one I could find. As I paged through them I relived a lot of highlights; college graduations, children getting married, grandchildren being born, Also some sad times (in the years I could only write prose), but all in all these silly little poems present an interesting look at the last 20+ years in our family life. I'm thinking I might assemble a set for each of my kids. Based on my usual speed for getting things done, if I start planning now, I may finish that project by next Christmas.

a music and memory filled day

We sang some good Christmas hymns at church this morning. Then three friends and I attended the Heartland Sings' Spirit of Christmas concert in the rotunda of Fort Wayne's beautiful historic court house. The acoustics were marvelous and the show was excellent. The choir finished with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and that brought back my memory of the year my mother was teaching kindergarten is a spare room in the high school where I was a junior. She brought her class from room to room and they sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" to each high school class. They were so cute and I was so embarrassed. It didn't take much to embarrass me in those days.This evening I decided to watch a few minutes of the classic movie "The Sound of Music" on TV. Needless to say, it is now three hours later and I just finished watching the whole thing. This movie always brings back sweet memories. When the movie first came out I took my little brother to see it at a movie theater in downtown Fort Wayne (alas, no longer there). He was 11 and I was 21. When we got to the theater the afternoon show was sold out, standing room only, so we bought tickets for the next showing, and spent a couple of fun hours downtown shopping and window shopping. Back then there were big stores downtown. We saw the movie, finally, and loved it and I still do, even though, when I was in Austria a few years ago I learned the "true story," not quite as exciting as the movie but still pretty exciting.

rough draft

Each year I write a 'poem' about my year just past. I don't claim to be a great poet, or any kind of poet really, I just decided, over 20 years ago now, that I could tell the basics in a few quick lines and if anyone wants more detail, they are close enough friends to call me. So here's my rough draft for this year. I expect to add and change, but it's a start. I really need to get this mailed by Monday or it will become a New Year poem.

Apartment living agrees with me.
I've put down roots and put up my tree.
And I feel so free!
"But where do you keep all your stuff?"
a friend asked me recently.
This is it, this is all.
A two bedroom apartment still hold plenty of stuff.
But I feel so free.
When I travel I just lock the door and leave.
They even take care of my mail.
This year Scotland, England, Portugal and Spain
Favorite city Barcelona
favorite people, the Scots.
About that swiming pool.
I did swim and discovered
that I have reached invisibility
no one looks at or cares about me in an bathing suit.
no one shreiked or fainted and so I swam on.
And I feel so free

Too cold for me

I saw on this evening's weather report that Monday night the temperature will drop to 12 degrees BELOW zero. I'm sorry but I don't believe that's a real temperature. I really think that, if this is the way this winter is going to go, I need to go one step beyond retirement (or re-retirement this time around) and consider hibernation. I'm not exactly sure what bears take into their caves when they get ready to hibernate but I'm envisioning snuggling under my toasty warm electric blanket with some snacks and good books, reading til I get sleepy, then putting my sleep mask over my eyes and sleeping in until spring. I think I'll go do a practice run.

Here's a challenge for you.

I celebrated my birthday earlier this week. Never mind which one. Suffice it to say I'm closer to 70 than 60. I received several nice birthday cards but the one that still has me chuckling is from my brother and it said you're not old until you have trouble saying IRISH WRISTWATCH three times fast. Needless to say I flubbed it the first time through, but then so did each grandchild I showed it to so I don't feel so old after all.

A burglarious thaumaturge

My youngest granddaughter, a seventh grader, won her school spelling bee this week.  In February she will participate in the Allen County Spelling Bee. I'm very proud of her and a little bit astonished.  She certainly didn't inherit her spelling ability from me. The word she won with was 'burglarious'. If she had needed to go on to another word it would have been 'thaumaturge'. A burglarious thaumaturge is a larcenous magician, but of course you knew that.

Color of the year

I heard on the morning news the other day that the color of the year (I think they mean for 2017) is a light yellow green, a spring color that reflects life and plant growth. 60 years ago the color was called chartreuse and my mother painted our living room that color. We also had a living room sectional sofa in a slightly darker shade of the same color. Was my mother ahead of her time or has history simply taken a long time to repeat itself? They say that clothing styles repeat every 20 years, maybe it takes longer with colors. But thinking about clothes and colors, I am old enough to remember when every year (but especially during the sprint pre-Easter season) seemed to have "the color of the year" and department store windows would be filled with clothes, shoes and hats all in the same color.  When I was about 14 the color was a beautiful royal blue.  I really liked that year but I don't remember that color coming back when I was 34 or 54. Maybe when I'm 74?  Only two years to wait.

Snow kidding

In honor of our first substantial snow fall I thought I would share some interesting snow facts courtesy of an Old Farmer's Almanac Calendar. The weather person says that we had over 7 inches of snow and I believe that.  I helped a girlfriend clean her car off and there were certainly seven inches of soft, fluffy snow all over that car and every other one in the parking lot here.
I'm assuming these facts are true because who can doubt the Old Farmer's Almanac?
Fact number 1: When cows bellow in the evening expect snow by morning. Who knew?
Fact number 2: A single snow storm can drop 39 million tons of show. Hopefully not all on one roof.
Fact number 3: Every winter at least 1 septillion (1+24 zeros) snowflakes fall from the sky. Who counted?
Fact number 4: Chionophobia is a fear of snow. I'm not sure what a fear of driving in snow is called, maybe common sense?
And that's enough about snow for now.

A fun theatrical weekend

I haven't blogged for a couple of days because I had company for the weekend, and a busy, not to mention snowy, weekend it was. On Friday evening we attended the Fort Wayne Youth Theater's production of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever." This was very well done, good humor and quite moving. The young actors all did a fine job.
On Saturday afternoon we attended the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Holiday Pops Concert. . As usual they did a wonderful job of presenting a purely Christmas concert, some religious, some secular but very definitely all Christmas and lots of old familiar favorites. The guest soloist, Anne Runolfsson, was really excellent.
On Saturday evening we attended the play "The Cemetery Club" at the Arena Dinner Theater. The dinner, beef and noodles, mashed potatoes and gravy and corn, didn't thrill me although it tasted OK but the play was fun with some ironic twists. It was the story of three widows who had been friends for a long time and met once a month to visit their husbands graves (all in the same cemetery) together. There were several hilarious moments and, since I was attending the play with two also widowed girlfriends, I couldn't help seeing some humorous similarities in our own lives. Although we travel together rather than visit graves (much more fun I think).

Remembering John Glenn

John Glenn died today at the age of 95.  I'm happy that he lived to such a good age. I honestly hadn't thought much about John Glenn over the last few years but there was a time when he was quite an influence in our lives. I never knew him personally you understand but for four years, while our children were in elementary school, we lived near New Concord, Ohio, the home of John Glenn. If we had stayed longer in Ohio (if my husband had stayed longer at his job with NCR) our children would have attended John Glenn High School. As it was, New Concord, a lovely college town, was very proud of their native son, and rightly so. Astronauts and space exploration were big topics of conversation in the kid's classrooms and elsewhere.  It was from a friend there that I first learned about Space Camp in Huntsville, AL.  From the first week that my son attended Space Camp we were all hooked on the Space Camp experience. Our son and his sister attended the camp for several years.  Then each of them went on to spend time as a counselor there. My son now teaches at the Air Force education program for 5th graders called Star Base where the students spend an intensive week studying science with a heavy emphasis on things space related while my daughter serves in the Air National Guard. When I think about this I realize that John Glenn and his fellow early astronauts really were a big influence in our family and I'm glad they were. It's good to realize that my children had such fine heroes.

Whatever happened to Cabbage Patch dolls?

I heard on TV yesterday that this year's hot, must have toy is something called a "Hatchamal". Not sure of the spelling but that's what it sounded like. Evidently it's a toy stuffed animal that 'hatches' out of an egg. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Over the years we've seen Tickle Me Elmo, Pet Rocks, and my all time favorite, the Cabbage Patch doll. I have a friend who was the manager of the toy department at JC Penny's the year they were most popular. He tells me it was a mad house. He still shudders at the memory. No wonder he gave up retail sales for the peaceful joys of being a Realtor. I bought a Cabbage Patch doll for my daughter that year but, thanks to an ingenious friend, I didn't need to stand n any lines. She persuaded her brother, who was living in Germany at the time, to ship home a selection of CP dolls for her and her friends. Evidently they weren't such a big deal in Germany.  Of course my daughter's doll came with adoption papers printed in German, but hey, lots of people adopt foreign babies, right?

Feeling blindsided

I joke a lot about the fact that I don't have much peripheral vision in my left eye. Because of this, I sometimes bump into walls (or sometimes people) and some times it hurts a little. But I was really blindsided today and it has nothing to do with my eyesight. Our head pastor who has been with us for five years and who I like very much told the Session last night and the entire congregation, via e-mail today, that he has accepted a position in a church north of Chicago and will be leaving us in January. While intellectually I understand his reasons - a move up the career ladder, closer to his and his wife's families and more - I still deep down am feeling bereft. How can he do this to us? I know I'll get over it and we will probably call an excellent new pastor but right now I am not at all happy about this. Not very Christian of me I know but there it is. OK, I've vented now and I already feel a little better.

smooth, very smooth..

I saw a performance by "Smooth Edge 2" at First Pres this evening. They are such an amazing a cappella  singing group. I love their blend of voices and, speaking of blends, their performance this evening was a delightful blend of fun and frivolous pieces and beautiful traditional Christmas music. On the silly side the "Christmas Can Can: and the "Reindeer Rodeo" were my favorites. On the traditional side the soloist for "Silent Night" was outstanding and the blending of voices in  "Mary Did You Know" was just blissful. All in all, a lovely evening.

A Delicious Day

I found my December apartment calendar/newsletter on my doorstep when I got home from church today. I immediately turned to the calendar page to see if today is a special day and guess what? Today is "Cookie Day!" What a great day. However the title isn't very specific. Are we supposed to be enjoying the leftover coolies from Thanksgiving or baking Christmas cookies or both? No matter how you interpret it, it seems like a fine day to me, so go eat a cookie, but only one. It's not Cookies Day.

And speaking of retirement....

I went with a friend this evening to see Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain in his famous one man show. I've heard about this show for years and was excited to see it. Sadly, while the Twain lines were, in general, as pithy and humorous as I expected, Holbrook's performance was painful to watch. He fumbled notes, repeated whole segments, was hard to understand at times and generally gave a very poor presentation. I know he's older and I know he's portraying an older Mark Twain but I think someone should tell him kindly that it's time to retire. We left at intermission and we were not alone. The high point of the evening was going to DeBrand's for hot chocolate after. Yummmm.

Pondering Gingerbread Houses

How did gingerbread houses come to be associated with Christmas?  The only story I'm familiar with that features a gingerbread house is Hansel and Gretel and that ends up (at least in the original version) with the wicked witch planning to eat the children and being killed in her own oven.  Not very Christmasie in my mind. Now gingerbread I can understand. Gingerbread is delicious to eat, fragrant to sniff while baking, but not necessarily that exciting to look at. It is fun to make into gingerbread boys or girls but then you face the dilemma of how to eat them - head first or feet first? Maybe gingerbread houses were created to give the gingerbread people a place to live, but they don't last long enough around my place for that to be a necessity. So, while I may be baking some gingerbread in the next couple of weeks, I won't be making it into a house. Does that make me a '"ginger grinch?"

Re-retired!!!

"Re-retired, re-retired!!" sung to the tune of "Alleluia", It's official, today was the last day (half day actually) of my temporary return to work.  The "couple of weeks" that I agreed to help out after the friend who had replaced me was in a car accident stretched into four months but it's all over now. I spent the morning helping to train my replacement and then I walked out. This afternoon two of my granddaughters and I decorated my Christmas tree and this evening we ate out and I got a free burger at Red Robin because my birthday is this month.  So, altogether a great day and a fine way to start December.