Am I doing something wrong?

My tree is up and decorated and my Christmas poem is almost ready to mail, I've even strung some lights on my balcony railing.  But, according to the media I've missed out on the most important steps. I didn't shop on Black Friday, I didn't shop on Small Business Saturday and, so far, I haven't shopped on Cyber Monday. Since I'm retired and can shop when I want to, I think I'll wait for "The Mall's not Too Crowded Today Wednesday."

High tech, low tech, no tech

I spent much of this evening addressing envelopes, by hand, to mail our my Christmas poem by snail mail.  All very low tech by today's standards and yet 50 years ago a ball point pen was considered very forward thinking.  I searched for addresses in my address book and other paper directories, no tech, and on my phone, high tech by my standards, and even went back to my good old Sharp Wizard to find names and addresses still stored there.  I think I got my Wizard about 15 years ago as a Christmas bonus at work. Everyone in management got one and they were seen as cutting edge.  Not only could you enter data like names, addresses and phone numbers of your clients in this nifty little hand held devise, you could also keep your calendar, notes from meetings, expenses, and even check the time.  For some reason mine is showing the time in Norfolk, VA and Chicago right now and also a date of September 22, 2003. Obviously I didn't use that app much. I guess it was just quicker to look at my watch.  Of course the wonderful Wizard didn't make phone calls, send texts, access apps and games or other internet sources or allow you to check your email. So my little old Wizard has been relegated to the land of low tech which is probably why I'm still using it.

50 years and counting

I went with friends today to celebrate with other friends their 50th wedding anniversary.  It was a fun afternoon of seeing old acquaintances, admiring the grandchildren of the celebrating couple, and eating cake, nuts and mints (the ingredients of a successful reception). My daughter-in-law has commented that she thinks I'm very lucky to still have good friends that I've know since college, and, in some cases, since elementary school. I agree, I'm very blessed.  I've been trying to remember how four of us and our husbands (who all knew each other since college or soon after) started getting together almost every year, allowing us to stay close friends. The group pictures we've accumulated over the years show us gathered at everyone's houses or lake cottages or in mutually agreed on vacation spots, young, slim newly weds, parents of toddlers, posing with our teenage children, at each other's children's weddings, and on and on.  The pictures seem to prove that we really have known each other for over 50 years, but I'm still puzzled about how 50 years can possibly have gone by so quickly?  A joyful mystery I guess.

not too old yet

I invited my four grandchildren to come to my place this afternoon to help me decorate my Christmas tree.  This has become a tradition over the last many years, but this was the first time in my new apartment. Some years it's not all of us, sometimes one or more of their parents pitch in, but every year I have some help.  This year however I found myself wondering if they are getting too old to want to help.  At 14, 13, 13 and 11 they're not babies any more and there was a little bit of grumbling last week when I mentioned the idea. But, once we were all together they pitched right in, got all of the ornaments on the tree in two hours, snacked, laughed, teased each other, and ended up on the floor playing a rousing game of Jumping Monkeys. My tree looks just as cluttered, busy, messy, sparkly beautiful as it always does. I'm glad they're not too old yet.

One more thing to be thankful for...

Happy Thanksgiving.  I had a very pleasant Thanksgiving Day, full of the usual family fun, delicious food of which I ate too much as is traditional, and general good feelings all around.  Then I came home and watched a PBS special about the Pilgrims, their early years and the first Thanksgiving, based heavily on William Bradford's journal "of Plimoth (his spelling) Plantation".  This was a fascinating program and has left me feeling very, very grateful that I'm living now, not then.

Thanksgiving Eve

I'm really enjoying the fact that I'm not cooking Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.  My son and daughter in law are hosting and my daughter is bringing dessert - mint chocolate cake and two apple pies. I'll be bringing sweet potatoes.  Up until a few hours ago I thought that would be my only contribution. Then I got a call from my son asking if I had a card table.  As a matter of fact I do, so I'll be taking that.  Just a little while ago I got another call asking me to bring two special serving dishes, so they are packed up and ready to go. It's good to still be needed, especially for the easy stuff.

never say never

I remember back in the 1980s when we bought our last house.  The buyer of our house in Ohio got a VA loan at 17%.  We were able to assume a mortgage to buy our house and got a read deal at 11%.  Soon after we moved I got my first job as a mortgage loan officer and was introduced to an amazing array of creative mortgages.  Adjustable rates and negative amortization loans were common place and the wisdom of the day claimed that we would never see single digit mortgage rates again.  In the last several years mortgage rates have held right around 4%.  So much for the wisdom of the '80s.  Now we are enjoying a drop in gas prices and I know I personally never thought I would see gas prices under $2 a gallon again. It's really fun to fill my car's gas tank for less than $20.  I think one gas station couldn't quite make the adjustment though. I was driving on the day that gas prices really started dropping and every gas station I passed had $1.99.99 posted as their price, except for one station. The price posted there was $9.99.99 a gallon. I thought maybe they didn't have any ones in their stock of numbers but my granddaughter theorized that perhaps they were trying to appeal to rich people - those who don't care how much gas costs. Interesting theory but I noticed by the next day they had corrected their price. Enjoy it while it lasts.