Christmas Comes But Once a Year

We've lost our sunshine today, but at least we don't have snow. Doesn't do much to put one in the Christmas spirit. I had a long list of things to do today, but the lack of sunshine rather sapped my initiative. I'm in the stage of going through the gifts I have purchased to make sure I have "enough". My car may very well dictate that. When it was idling as I was unloading things at Goodwill today, it started making a high-pitched squealing noise. The noise stopped, but my experience is that high-pitched squealing noises are never a good sign. I am financially ill-prepared for car repairs right now!

I will be in Grayslake, IL, with my daughter and her family this Christmas, and I THINK we will all be here at my place for New Year's. It's a two-pronged celebration. Christmas is America's big deal; New Year's is Russia's. If things go as they did last year, we will be on Skype with my son-in-law's parents in Russia on New Year's Eve twice--once for their midnight traditions, and again later for ours. (I believe there is an 11-hour difference.) There will be champagne, Olivier salad, and other goodies that are traditional in Russia. Last year, we would have had fireworks, but a thunderstorm hit just before midnight that kept us in the house!

I'm sorry I will be missing Christmas Eve services at my church. There will be an orchestra with the choir, and the music will be wonderful. Our Director of Music is a very talented young man who oozes talent and showmanship from every pore. He is also our organist/pianist...with a sense of humor. On Sunday, the postlude after the benediction was supposed to be "Christmas Fanfare", but because the pastor had sent us with the message that we should pray for a couple of committees that are looking at building projects for the church, the postlude that came out of the organ was the theme song from "Mission Impossible". I loved it! The best part was that I am quite sure he didn't know what the pastor was going to say by way of benediction, and I'm ever surer that he didn't have the sheet music for Mission Impossible in front of him. He never plays a song the same way twice and can get all kinds of fantastic sounds out of the pipe organ. I just love hearing his work!

I'm not sure what the portent is for all of the mild temps we've been having. Understand that I'm not complaining....just suspicious! I figure things can go any one of several ways: A) We will have a mild winter (which is not what has been predicted), B) Winter is just being delayed and we will get socked later, only to drag out the beginning of warmer temps in the springtime, or C) It will be a regular winter, just not starting as soon as it did last year and the year before. I'm voting for A! On that note, my daughter IMed me yesterday morning all excited because they had hoar frost. (I had just posted about hoar frost on Christmas Eve a couple of posts ago.) It usually doesn't last long, but it sure is pretty when it's there!

Oh...on a sort of funny note... I sleep with my TV on. It used to be like a nightlight, but when my sleep started being disturbed by life, it became a distraction for my troubles. (Too bad that late night programming is almost always infomercials!) Anyway, this morning, I was dreaming that Dr. Phil was visiting at my home, helping with repairs after I'd moved. He started to make horrible accusations about my granddaughter--that she was drunk all the time...calling people bad names...out of control...and I was aghast to think that my beautiful grandchild could be doing those things. Then I "came to" and realized that a rerun of his show was playing on OWN, and he was confronting a 14-year-old troubled female. I was so relieved to be awake!!!! I don't want to live long enough to see my baby Robin descend into rebellious teendom. I already paid my dues at that altar when my own daughter was a teen, then taught teens for many years. I would rather be oblivious!

Christmas comes but once a year...then the rest of the winter is blah. Enjoy the meaning of the season before the ugly stuff hits!

Hoarders

It's really good for me to watch the show Hoarders on TV. I think there is a tiny bit of hoarder mentality in all of us. We keep things we don't need just in case we might need them SOME day, so watching people whose homes and lives are out of control because of their need to keep "stuff" helps me keep perspective.

In my experience, it only takes two years to totally fill up an empty house. When the last of one's parents dies, or an adult child (with children) moves in, we end up incorporating their things with our things--and suddenly, there is no space left for a single other item to enter the house! I said several years ago that I was going to adopt the policy that something had to go for every new thing that came in. Have I followed that? Uh....well...not really.

I keep bedrooms for my grandchildren in my house. We remodeled and redecorated every bedroom and the garage when they moved in with me. When they moved out, I wasn't about to change their rooms. I kept them, as is, as their home-away-from-home when they came to visit. They would arrive, play like crazy for a day or two, clean up by shoving things under the beds or in closets, and leave. Over the years, the rooms have collected huge amounts of pieces of toys--some of them tiny and unrecognizable. (Did I mention that the rooms are small?) It became obvious that a deep-clean was needed. Where to start???

One of the things that bugs me is that I am finding Christmas gifts that are a year or two old that the children have never touched. Time to pare down, I guess. While they are here, they might rediscover something for a few minutes, but it doesn't last long. Robin plays with teeny-tiny things and creates her own little world of imagination. Ryan mostly just trashes stuff. To him, everything is replaceable, so I need to think about that before I contribute to it. (I just spent quite a bit on money on stocking stuffers that won't mean a thing two hours after the stockings are unpacked!!! Do I ever learn??)

I've spent some time today working on Ryan's room. OMG! I have found the most amazing things...dirty underwear behind the door...the lower-leg zippered part of a pair of pants that I threw out because I couldn't find the part...toy parts everywhere, including little tiny beads from a craft set that he only played with once, two years ago. And do you know what I have found myself doing? Sorting the parts to put them all together! Why?? He wouldn't even know they were gone if I just threw them out! But, ever my father's daughter, I can't just throw things out. I gather them together to take to Goodwill or The Salvation Army. Can you see my halo??

I really feel the need to de-clutter. As I go through things, I realize that I still have a lot of items that rightfully belong with my daughter. (She doesn't have room for them, either!) Still, I set them aside and take them up when I go. Maybe someday, it will all shake out. Hope I live that long!!

Thank God I'm not a hoarder, but I do need to start evaluating everything in the house for value. I picked up something today and asked, "What am I keeping THIS for??" It's a start!

Vectren

Before I left for Illinois for my sister's birthday party, Vectren (the local gas company) called me to say they wanted to come and check out my meter because it wasn't showing much usage. We scheduled for today. The rep told me it would be an 8-4 call. I assured her I would make it a point to be here. And I was. They weren't. I had no big plans to be gone today, but I even stayed away from cleaning in back rooms (although I was in the mood to do so) because I feared I wouldn't be able to hear the guy knocking on the door. Ugh!

When Vectren first called, I was concerned that I would somehow be hit with a big catch-up bill if they found that I had used more gas than the meter was showing, but I slowly became aware that it is to my advantage if the meter is broken. They have to be able to document gas used. If the meter isn't working properly, they can't. In my own defense, I have been gone quite a bit...but the furnace was still on (though turned down), as was the water heater, although demand was less. I'm not sure whether the meter is working or not...but the Vectren technician didn't show up today, so it will take a little longer to find out!

Radio club Christmas party is tomorrow evening. I have things I have to do for that. Hope it goes well!

I'm Home

Guess I should define "home".

I just spent the better part of a week at my sister's near Springfield, IL. It's not "home" but almost feels like it. Whenever I visit, I have a bed and a TV at my disposal, and I pretty much help myself to food in the fridge. Since Shari and her husband moved to Springfield many years ago, I have visited relatively often. I just put the car on automatic pilot and let it take me there. The trip takes anywhere from 3 3/4 to 4 hours over some of the most boring roads known to man, but boring is good when you're driving alone.

My grandparents' farm is a couple of hours north of there, near Streator, IL. That's where I was born...Streator...although I never really lived there for any length of time. The farm was the only REAL home I knew through my childhood because of our family's military status. We moved a lot, but we always went "home" to the farm. After my grandparents and parents died, we sold the property to our farmer. It was a wrench but inevitable.

Since 1988, my home has been in Indiana (because of my then-spouse). We were divorced a scant three years after we moved here. It took me awhile to get used to being a Hoosier--something we always made fun of before--but I bought my little house-on-a-slab as a newly-single woman and did my best to make it a home for Megan and me...and later, my grandchildren. It needs a lot of help, but it is my sanctuary, of sorts. Be it ever so humble...

Geologically, Indiana is by far the prettier state; however, I've never played favorites. And here's why: it's all about perspective. I've been to California many times. The rugged scenery and absolute beauty of the place is unquestionable. But it wasn't home. I've been to the Rockies, Appalachia, the Orient. They were all fascinating places, but they weren't home. It would be nice to claim the beautiful places of the earth as home...but sometimes, home is just what is there in the place that you love. In "my" part of Illinois, the only thing that stops your view is the actual curve of the earth. It is as flat as flat can be. Looking off in any direction from the car, one can see miles and miles of corn fields and bean fields....and grain elevators. At one point, I could see huge grain elevators in every quadrant of my field of vision. Illinois is a breadbasket for the nation...and it's MY state. When I am driving over that flat, boring, expanse of land, I am somehow comforted. No matter where I am in space or time, Illinois will always be home.

Christmas Party

Last evening, I was privileged to join my Sunday School class for our Christmas gathering, which happened at Martha's Orchard just west of Plainfield. It was most pleasant. The venue was nice. One of the evening's events was a scavenger hunt, of sorts, to discover things about our surroundings and ourselves. One directive was to share a "special Christmas" memory.

Every Christmas is special, of course...but I remembered one that has stuck with me all these years. Many Christmases were spent at my grandparents' farm in Illinois. It was a two-bedroom house, with a hide-away couch in the living room. To this day, I don't have a clue where we all slept when we visited--the five of us along with my two grandparents--but I didn't care. In those days, kids were expected to entertain themselves while the adults did their thing, and I was expected to sleep on the hide-away with a sibling. Their thing was to play bridge or pinochle around the circular card table in the middle of the living room while the rest of us were supposed to go to sleep mere feet from the festivities. Dad and my grandfather (Popo) smoked cigars, and they all were loud in their enjoyment of being together. I loved the festivity of it all!

The farmhouse had three picture windows--one in the dining room, facing west; and two in the living room, one facing east and the bigger one facing south. My grandmother always kept the curtains closed during the day, but at night, they were open. I never truly understood that, but it wasn't up to me. I didn't care!

One Christmas Eve--how old was I? 11? 12? Maybe not that old... We were at the farm. The card table was up. The adults were playing cards. I was so excited, I couldn't sleep even if I wanted to. I knew I should be asleep to make the night go faster, but it just wasn't going to happen. What DID happen around midnight was that a huge cloud of fog settled on the farmyard. I couldn't see past the light in the yard through the picture window. It was eerie. Then everything froze. When the fog lifted a bit later, everything--every blade of grass--was white with hoar frost. Christmas Eve magic! It was a crystalline world! God had wrought something to remind us of the miracle of the night. I have never forgotten it.

Guess I'm Gonna Live?

Had a routine cardiologist appointment this morning, early. (Had my blood work done for that yesterday.) The results: BP is good. Cholesterol is good (although the doc wants it lower, as always). Heart looks and sounds good. Weight is up, but not a word was said about that!!! We did talk about some issues with my back that are preventing me from exercising. The doc is a cardiologist--not a neurologist--but in the course of our conversation, he seemed to pin-point my problem right on the money, and suggested that he would talk to a neurologist about my situation. It sounds like stenosis (a narrowing of the hole in the spine that the spinal cord goes through). Might need an MRI, etc...but I have to check financial things out because I can't take on much by way of financial obligations. I have insurance, obviously, but I'm not a rich person to pay for what the insurance won't handle. We'll see. The problem with my back is beginning to affect my life. It might make a difference in my quality of life from here on out.

I thought about going back to Greencastle today to do more genealogy work for my daughter, but the sunshine and relatively warm temps were so delightful that I decided to stay home and take care of some things here. Got the Christmas boxes back in the minibarn. Went to Walmart to do some shopping. Took a nap. (Needed it!) It's all good!

What isn't so good is that I got a call from Vectren (the local gas company) saying that they want to come out to check my meter because it hasn't shown much gas use in Sept. and Oct...but did show use in November. I'm not sure what that means. I've been gone a lot, but the furnace has been on for months, even in my absence...as is the water heater. I have scheduled them to come out and look, hoping that there is nothing wrong with the meter because I sure don't need to be hit with some huge catch-up bill down the road! Let's all say a little prayer for my gas meter!!

Speaking of prayers...I have some friends who are having tough times. If you are a praying person, please ask God to bless Betty, Adam, Vern's sister, and the rest of us who keep on pluggin'!

Adventures in Microfiche

I took a trek to Greencastle, IN, today to look for some obituaries for ancestors on Megan's father's side of the family, by special request from her. She supplied the information needed. Obituaries are found in newspapers, and newspapers back then were somewhat disorganized--not much more than gossip rags and advertising. In short, I had to find microfilm for local newspapers around the date of the ancestor's death, then go through--page by page--in search of info just inserted anywhere in the paper. I pulled six rolls of microfilm out of the drawer at the DePauw University library and spent almost five hours searching--and only found ONE of the obits Meg had requested. (She requested 11. I only had time to search for six and found one. The later ones should be easier to find.) The print was small, and by the time I headed for home, my eyes were blurry...

Genealogy searches are long and arduous, but when you actually find something, it's like, BINGO! Gaps fill in. One's ancestors become more like people and less like birth-and-death dates.

On another note, I've been up since long before dawn. Had to go to the hospital today for routine blood work for my cardiologist appointment early tomorrow morning. I may go back to Greencastle tomorrow while I still have time...

Grandma is TIRED!