Christmas Kindness Long, Long Ago

When I was a little girl, at Christmas time, my parents took me and my little sister to a candy shop that was way up on a top floor of a department store and you could see the skyline from the windows.  I remember that clearly, but I remember more what happened there. 
I was gazing at the wonderful glass candy cases with the most magical and sparkly candy treats nestled inside.  I spied this little round bellied elf, with his big cheeks and his velveteen little red suit. There were two elves, but he had the most sparkly crested head of shiny,glamorous glitter.  His cone hat looked like it was encrusted with diamonds and to my mind back then, glitter was just as desirable.  Anything that sparkled caught my eye.  My favorite color was sparkle.
 Mother was busy buying the lemon filled dark chocolate bonbons and the delicious honey comb candies covered with rich, dark chocolate.  I asked Mother and Daddy if I could have this little elf of Christmas with his belly filled with colorful fruit filled hard candy.  They could clearly see I was enraptured by this faux diamond spectacle, but they smiled and sweetly said no, not today and my Daddy held my hand gently as he picked my sister up in his arms.

My face must have fallen to the floor.  I fought back the tears, longing for my little magical guy, but I turned to follow mother and daddy from the shop. As I turned from the candy case I was so disappointed to see an older man step up in front of us and ask to buy the little gem of an elf, the very one I was looking at with the most glitter of the two in the glass case.
My heart just sank.
  Just as swiftly as Ole Saint Nick himself, the man thrust the little bejeweled elf into my hands and ran out the door.
  I never even saw his face or got a chance to thank him. I'll never forget this miracle of kindness.  My mother said I must have reminded him of a little girl he once knew. I prefer to think he was the real Santa Claus. 

Daddy quietly purchased the other glittered elf for my sister and I was glad for her.

Vintage Pixie Christmas

Boy Friends

This week has been interesting~this week of Thanksgiving.
  I have had 3 men from my past contact me...43 years from my long ago past. Old boy friends but none that I ever dated. Some I remember a lot about and some that remember a lot about me that I never knew was known or thought about by them in those bye-gone days. All the  'shoulda, woulda if I coulda' memories come blurting out. The holiday of Thanksgiving brings the "reach out to the familiar" in people. We're getting older and want to connect..didn't know they wanted to 'connect' in our high school days.  They were all too shy. But now that we're older we can tell each other 40+year old thoughts. Quite flattering actually, but it is reassuring to know that there is no pressure other than friendship now.
  I'm thankful for the way they have made me feel this week.

New Moon Promises....

It's the New Moon....write yourself a check for an enormous amount...the more the better.  Doesn't matter if you have it in the bank or not...like the little kids say "you have checks so you have money".   Theory is that if you write yourself a check or shake an empty purse at the New Moon by the next New Moon you will have money in your pocket or in your purse.  that's what they say....

A repairman came this morning to fix the siding a bit. He put the ladder up and went back to his truck. When he came back to the ladder, our squirrel Wynken, was sitting under it with her little hands up to her chest as they do, and she was staring at him. He looked at her and then at me. I said, 'She wants a peanut'. He again looked at her and then at me and then at her again...and said nothing.

NOVEMBER 9

November 9, 1968 at 11:02am, Indiana and Illinois felt an earthquake.
 I remember it like it was yesterday.
 It was my maternal grandparents' 50th Golden wedding anniversary. They would have been married 94 years today. November 9, 1918.
 My sister and I were at my Aunt Florence and Uncle Russell's house eating lunch while preparing and decorating for the big party that evening.
My aunt was in the kitchen bringing the luncheon plates to my sister and I as we sat across from each other in the small dining room.  My uncle was down in the lower level of their split level house in his fascinating radio room with all the radios and Morse Code contraptions and radio wave sounds from all over the world. He was a Short Wave Ham radio operator.  I always wondered if he could pick up sounds from Mars. 
 My chair started moving and shaking and I looked at my sister accusingly as my chair rocked and slid..  She exclaimed that her chair was rocking too and then we heard the windows rattle and we looked at each other as the blood ran out of our faces.  I said "I think we are having an earthquake! What should we do?"  We both envisioned the earth cracking open and swallowing us right then and there and realized there was no place to run to get away...It was an awful sick feeling.
We asked Aunt Florence if she felt anything but she did not. She'd been moving too fast on her feet in the kitchen.
  My uncle came upstairs when he heard the panic in our voices. He said he thought it was his heart beating hard enough to jolt his chair around and he was waiting for himself to keel over.  He announced that we indeed had just experienced an earthquake as confirmed by the other Ham radio operators he was talking with who were privy to seismographs from around the country and the world. 
 We have had several earthquake tremors since that day.  One was on my own wedding anniversary in 1974, but that was my first, and now, every November 9, I remember my grandparents 50th Golden wedding anniversary and my first quake. 

Today's Thoughts

"Do you think we choose to be born? Or are we fitted to the times we’re born into?" — Lincoln

The new movie "Lincoln" is coming to theatres tomorrow. I want to see it but just watching the trailer I about flooded my keyboard. I know it will be powerful and what perfect timing for what is happening in the USA right now. This is my take on things: This is not our granddaddy's America any more and we should stand united, not untied. The only true Americans are the Native American Indians and I am not sure they even have the right to vote. Perhaps we should have a Democratic President and a Republican Vice President or vice versa. Become one for all and no more separation. Both parties want the same things for the country....is this not true????? But ah, human nature seems to always have differences~it's just the way it is and probably always will be. Maybe it would be different if we weren't born with opposable thumbs.  
A set of little twins were just born...their names are Barack Obama and Mitt Romney...let us hope they will grow up in a house undivided~they will have individual choices having lived under the same roof with the same economic restrictions~let us hope they will respect each other.

Pumpkins for Squirrels and Little Monsters

Nothing makes a better Halloween

Musical Sistahs

Let me share a little story of when my best friend Suzanne and KennyRogersLookAlikeBeforeThePlasticSurgeryWentWrong and I  were in Reclamation, a locally owned Arts and Antique mall,  a couple Fridays ago.
Two women working behind the counter appeared to look like sisters to me so I asked the slightly older one if they were sisters. They looked at each other and said no, neither one of them had a sister....Suddenly the slightly older gal started singing 'Sisters, sisters' from the White Christmas movie. Then all of us and the other customers

in the store started singing 'Sisters, sisters, never were there more devoted sisters'.....then tra la la we continued the song to 'Lord help the Mister who comes between me and my sister, and Lord help the Sister who comes between me and my man!'

The slightly younger gal looked wide eyed at all of us and said  " I don't know what just happened here!"
See what impromptu fun you can have with perfect strangers.  It was like a musical! 

Sometimes I think we might need a film crew tagging around with us.

Too Emotional

I can't go to the cinema anymore because I am afraid I'll have a cryin' jag and have to be carried out.  I had to be carried out of ET and my kids were humiliated and then while watching 'Karate Kid', I got so upset with those boys beating him up, my kids had to pull me down into my seat because I kept jumping up yelling,' Kill those boys!' They urged," Mom!" as they tugged,  "we are not in the living room and this is not Little House on the Prairie!" That television series used to really rial me up!    HaHmmm.  Sorry...but I did have to run out the back door of the theatre when I watched Driving Miss Daisy because I was sobbing so loud.  Been a loong time since I have allowed myself to go to the cinema... as you can see by the movie titles I have mentioned!

Soothing

Sounds that are soothing:
Sound of the spoon in the mashed potato bowl
Sound of a broom sweeping*
Sound of typing
Sound of a man's beard over the telephone (actually very sexy)*
Sound of crickets
Sound of squirrels barking
Sound of the clatter of my grandparents' teeth while eating
Sound of a lawn mower
Sound of a ticking clock*
Sound of children playing quietly with gentle toys
Sound of a mother's voice reading a story
Sound of the turning of thin pages of a bible in church
Sound of purring
Sound of Captain Kangaroo's crayons on construction paper
Sound of Bishop Sheen's chalk board
Sound of my children's lullaby box*
Sound of good china and silver
Sound of people murmuring in the distance
Sound of car motors way off in the distance
Sound of children reading aloud
Sound of early morning bird songs
Sound of the ocean waves
Sounds of Halloween
Sound of drums
Sound of my kitty's heavy stride

Suzanne and Me and 33 Years

Somebody pretty special is comin' to visit me.  It's been a long 2 years since we've seen each other. I'm gonna lay on the bed while she unpacks her suitcases of 12 pairs of shoes and 15 outfits and light weight jackets that she will not get to wear because it is a bazillion degrees here with 400% humidity~She is gonna cook and I'm gonna eat~we'll give each other gifts and shop till my feet cry out "No More"~and then when she goes back home we will talk for hours on the phone 'cause when we are together, we are just happy to be together~too much happiness for words~so we'll talk about everything in about a week..That's how we're the happiest together!

There's Work To Be Done In That Thar House

    Endless days and nights of bright blue days and midnight blue starry nights. Sounds like heaven doesn't it?  Just don't look inside the house.  You see the kittens of dust scattering about, felting the surfaces and fading the colors from our sight. Ya'grow used to seeing that speck of tree mulch on the foot rug in front of the door.  I should stoop to pick it up, I should get the micro cloths out and sweep away the protective covering from the sideboard. Seems like I remember those orange glass vases being much more brilliant.  My, I never noticed that mirror to look so antique...wait it isn't antique, it is dusty, swirly film from living with the overhead fan on for 5 months straight.  Things are sliding out of the freezer...a refrigerator should look like a magazine page with all sorts of goody treats and delectable meats, cheeses and vegetables.  Instead it looks like a tupperware convention, only the containers are not tupperware~they are the least creative pieces of previously used plastic. Why do I keep them?  My daughter uses glass containers for leftovers~I should be less thrifty and vow never to have plastic in the fridge again.

KennyRogersLookAlikeBeforeThePlasticSurgeryWentWrong uses hair spray and powder...man-scaping stuff he calls it.  I call it 'glue for the fuzzy powder dust' on the bathroom walls. I just don't seem to have motivation to vacuum the furry walls every week when the sun is shining~I believe I need rain.  But the squirrely thing is, I don't get motivated to clean on cloudy days.  I may have to buckle down and ignore the sunshine.  My English friend is coming for a visit and if you remember the last time she came she vacuumed the same spot for 10 minutes and then we had to take the vacuum cleaner apart to change the bag and the engine belt. We had to clean the rug well enough so we could roll up in it.  I wrote about it. She made me clean the spot in the oven before she baked the scones. Better get off here and get some house-scaping done. We've got a lot of rollin' and bakin' and baskin' to do while the sun is shinin'.

Looking forward to Autumn~in a way.  I don't really mind the heat but we have had tons of heat this summer...I say tons because heat in Indiana feels heavy..and it feels heavy on your body...making it difficult to walk...your thighs stick together and your legs feel so heavy you can barely put one foot in front of the other... you look and feel like you are walking through water...in slow motion. It makes you sigh and your neck feel damp and drippy and then the mosquitos come and feed on your damp, hot, heavy, drippy skin.  They like to gather on my wrists and ankles in particular...these Black Asian Tiger mosquitoes that have little white rings around their legs like they have stripey socks on.  Oh, how I long to just sit outside on my swing during the day and evening without the sheen of mosquito repellent on my skin.   But no, I have to be a shiny bauble slick with DDT or whatever is in this repellent spray so that I can just go out and fill the bird and squirrel feeders.  I know they see me coming and they just hope in their little black heads that I have forgotten to spray the crap on me so that they can have a nice big swig of fresh, non-repellent blood.  Doesn't matter what time of day or night it is, these little stripey vampires are out and about.  They seem to love the bright, hot sunshine.  Darned if I know why.  So I am looking forward to a little cooler weather just so that I can sit outside and enjoy the endless blue skies that we have been having since April and so that I will no longer be a picnic basket for a nit!

NEVER TRY TO BE A TECHNO GEEK AT 1 TO 3AM. IT'S JUST NOT RIGHT. I was looking at the shots that Michael took at the car races yesterday that he will send to the newspaper he shoots for and tried to put them in files or folders or whatever that I used to do so smoothly on my pc but not so smoothly on my laptop. wellllll....when I put the SD card back in the camera the photos are gone! I did not... delete, I repeat, I DID NOT DELETE. What the heck happened to them? Luckily they are on my laptop but still..what did I do? I didn't sleep a wink. I burned a dvdrw from the ones on the laptop so hopefully this will be good... I am not a techy person...obviously.I am a  "learn while you goof it up" type of person!

Threadbare First Marriages

I've just meandered through a couple of blogs tonite and soaked up some inspiration. One about making hexies for quilting and how not to become 'undone' by the word quilt  and another blog about threadbare and nearly departed tea towels that we can not ever seem to let rest in piece~so to speak. The third blog was a really nice story about the past when some of us of an age can remember being freshly in love and penniless...so as to enjoy our meager surroundings.
My memories come to life when I see the skeletons of my tea towels.  I still put them into use although, now,  they are unable to soak up any liquid to quench their once insatiable thirst. 'Those bare threads are the sinews of strong women in the kitchen.' But I still use them because they remind me of the long ago...the very long ago when I was first married and I adored being a housewife.  We had very limited income..very limited.  I sent away for a computerized (one of the first back in 1971) list of recipes for a month spending $10 a week for food to feed two to three people three balanced meals a day.  It was from the Hunt's Tomato Sauce Company. I still make those recipes and they are delicious. No way could I buy all those ingredients for $10 a week in this day and age. I remember taking my grocery list and pad and pencil to the grocery store with me each week and I would round up the price of each item I placed in the cart so that I could make it just under $10 so that I could perhaps have a couple dollars left over to buy a magazine or a little basket.  What excitement I would have hurriedly putting those groceries away so I could sit down and day dream into a new decorating magazine.  It felt delightful like cheating on your diet with a cookie and hiding in the closet to eat it. I miss those feelings of really getting excited over very simple pleasures and making a little tiny efficiency apartment feel like a grand home.

I decorated with an old quilt as a table cloth and hung the baskets that I was able to squeak into the budget.  Since we didn't have any furniture to speak of I painted the walls of the living room a beautiful deep ochre and the dining room nook a burnt rust color...those colors warmed up the apartment and made us feel like we had more furniture than we did.  I laid beautiful scarves that I used to wear on my head over the lamp shades in the bedroom area.  I hung pretty stationary box lids as art on the walls and sometimes painted my own very folk artsy portraits. I hung beads in the doorways and the windows (it was the '70's of course) and I put my pastas and flour and sugar in mayonnaise jars with hand painted lids.  When I couldn't afford wallpaper I stenciled my hallway wall with a block print that my English best friend helped me make from spare wood we found and layered cardboard. We didn't follow any instructions from a book~ we just made it up...me being creative with nothingness and her being a former art teacher from Darlington. Those empty pocket days were a creative time for young homemakers.  

Tumbling

our cousin in southern indiana said that they will soon be losing the old family home.
"yes, he said, there are many, many memories in that house but that is life and the way it happens"

       I wonder.....are memories in a house just sitting there upright waiting ~ like dominos~one falls forward and all the rest tumble across your mind?

Time Traveller

I am a time voyager...I travel almost every day, researching family lines. The past..why do I search? Perhaps it holds truths to the present and future. I wonder about the people that ate off the antique plates and stirred with the spoons that are stored in my cupboards ~I wonder about the lips that have touched the glasses and cups that I use every day~ I strain to listen, hoping to catch a faint ghostly uttering of what was discussed over the mashed potatoes and gravy boat so long ago. I wonder if the creak I hear in this old chair is the same creak my great grandmother heard under her long, black skirt or if she found the tick tock of her old kitchen mantel clock as soothing as I do. I wonder about how it felt to live in that big old farmhouse when it was first built and I realize that nothing in these old trunks smelled musty when they were newly tucked away. It makes me long for the past~ to briefly be in the presence of my ancestors~just for a little while to get the feel of their lives. Did they ever wonder about me? I feel I know them~I stare at their photos, I lie awake at night and imagine them moving about in their daily lives. I search through old photos and hope that I will perhaps someday have a revelation about the identity of the nameless faces that have been kept boxed for over 100 years. Many long hours are spent endlessly researching with cousins and newly found friends as we passionately seek the secrets of our family ties..some things we find we just keep to ourselves...too complicated to tell the others~too hurtful to tell some~relationships too overwhelmingly complex to share in a short email with relatives that just don't have the time to take it all in. And then there are some stories that are just truly myths, but have been so believed for so long that we will never have the heart to dispel. Yes, I travel to the past in my mind.

Chair Fixation

New chairs...oh the thrill of it all. 14 months ago I purchased new chairs for the tiny living room...they were leopard print and you had to sit straight up and at attention...not so comfortable...so moved them out and about to other rooms...now found some relaxing chairs...much better fit. We already had the funky high heel chairs from long ago...KennyRogersLookAlikeBeforeThePlasticSurgeryWentWrong loves these new ones...he says though that I have a mass collection of chairs to match the mass collection of pillows that are tucked away in bins...which I do but you can never have enough chairs and pillows..(don't know the reasoning behind this statement, but it sounded good when I typed it...

Easter Eve

I've gone off chocolate and jelly beans as last year I ate so many jelly beans I broke out in hives! Now Chocolate is giving me headaches and not tasting so good to me anymore. I usually boil and color Easter eggs but I haven't done that this year either..too busy working in the yard and spring cleaning the house. But that is a good thing and I will think about what Easter is all about on Easter Day, appreciating all the nature around me, while I am with someone close to me named Easterday! Now, that being said, I have shamed myself into putting the pot to boil..

Driving to work...random thoughts. All three of those cars turned right without stopping at the red light..they didn't have an arrow..does one doing it make it right? The Beavers make a dam and the humans have to tear it down...over and over...but what can we do..we can't reason with them to stop the madness. The woman that just passed me in that car had her hair so taut and had such a firm expression on her face it made her look like a middle aged man. The geese are pairing up...will have little goslings around soon and more green poopy. Talked to my friend on the phone right through the scheduled tornado drill at 7:30pm. Was I supposed to practice running to the basement? uh oh The whole moon is reflected in a lake and also in a drop of water. The Universe can be very big or very small...depends on where you are in it. And how big or small you are. We may be seeing all of it and don't know it.

Just took a little evening nap after reading some Zen sayings in a little square book that I have had for years that sits next to my chair in the sunroom. It's amazing how that relaxed me. I miss my naps..I used to always take one a day and I haven't for about a year now..no wonder

my energy feels like it is all whacked out. I also get a much better night's sleep if I take a short nap right before I go down for the night...Well, I have been called an enigma by some who think they ought to know!♥

Irish Squirrel

It's incredibly warm here, has been and will be for the next several days.  All the trees are budding and the magnolia two doors down probably has about 3 good days left, for she has bloomed in extreme force..everything is much earlier now...sprouting wise.  We had a very mild winter and although some portions of our state have had terrible tornados we have had very pleasant weather..I am relishing in it.  KennyRogersLookAlikeBeforeThePlasticSurgeryWentWrong came home early from work and we sat out in the long lingering sunshine eating blue chips and salsa and beer and a couple pieces of pumpkin bread.  And then like clock work here came our darling squirrel to spend the next 3 hours with us.  She actually is a new one...we named her Wynken Pretty Tail...we have had a couple Wynkens in the past..and funnily enough, she acts just like them.  She comes to the door of the sunroom and stands there and looks in, knowing I will come out immediately and give her a peanut.  So there she came at 4pm and we sat and fed her almost a bag of peanuts in the shell.  She is still a little too shy to take it out of our hands yet, but she stands very close and then scurries off to bury them.  She ate a few, but mostly she was putting out her breakfast for the morning.  It was cute..it was very warm and humid today, so she laid on her tummy sprawled out flat to eat her peanuts She stayed with us till dark...very unusual...squirrels usually go in when the sun is starting to set.  

We said to each other that we could have gone to the tavern to drink green beer for St. Patty's Day, but we both agreed we had a much better Irish time feeding our Irish Squirrel. Simple pleasures are the best.

Abundancy

A friend of mine told me yesterday that she lives Abundantly and that by living Abundantly, abundance comes to you.
...............but isn't it so much more fun to scrimp and save and wish for...invites creativity in my mind...
Just a thought....

Team Spirit

Some of you might know, the Super Bowl Football game was here in my home town of Indianapolis. I must admit, when it was announced about 3-4 years ago, I questioned whether our town, which used to be called Nap Town, would be able to boldly host a colossal event as this is.
I, myself, have never gotten into football so I just assumed it was a regular game... you know they run with a ball and fall down, and people have parties on a Sunday night and eat massive amounts of munchies and drink massive amounts of beer. They said they were planning a big event and you could tell that buildings were being sandblasted clean and everything was shined up. I just wondered what would all the people from out of state do for entertainment.
My town. Indianapolis was a sleepy city where the sidewalks rolled up at 5:30pm every night in the 1950's and '60s. Everyone that worked there lived in the suburbs and never thought much about urban renewal. It was just a place to work and pretty blah. You came home from work and never thought about the city again until the next trip into the office. Christmas time you all gathered in the family car or took the bus and went to see the animated characters in the department store windows of the two major stores downtown. The month of May was the celebration of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing..the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. Those two times of year the city came alive..each for a month at a time. Then nap time again.
We had a mayor in the 1970's who had a vision to improve the city with investment but Indianapolis needed a 'draw'...something to lure venture capital in and make the sleepy people excited. He and his committee decided sports would be the ticket. A basketball team was born~we built an arena and our people were excited and rallied it on. Investors were interested and we cleaned up the city and united some of the suburbs. We have a huge global pharmaceutical company based here and they invested in a convention/exposition center. A sports dome was then attached and as they say, "if you build it, they will come". We didn't have anyone to play in it, but because we had a fabulous facility and patiently waited, we were recognized as a contender for a national football league. We were in competition with Phoenix, Arizona but our already built and waiting 'ballroom' won out over a "we can build it for you" competitor. The Baltimore Colts needed a new stable and ours just happened to have the colors of their team. A fortunate twist of color fate.
People here are no longer napping but are exhilarated and lively and it is like that every day of the year.
Lady Victory, our grande dame on the top of the War Memorial of Monument Circle in the center of our city, was beaming brightly over the crowds and she, I'm sure, shed a tear of pride as she looked down on all the citizens of her beloved city that she has reigned over for over 100 years. I could see the torch in her hand blazing like golden fire. We visit her often, especially on moon lit nights and I have never seen her more radiant.
I am so proud to have been able to partake in the biggest party Indianapolis has ever seen in it's existence. The end of January and first of February are notoriously icy cold days, but not this year. The weather was just slightly chilly...perfect football weather...which lasted for over a week. The amazing expert planning and commraderie that every one showed each other must have brought the warmth. It had to be. Team Spirit, I'd call it.

A January Friday Diary

This morning I worked at the dental office as I usually do on Friday mornings, for about 4 hours and it is usually very calm and quiet as I am there without patients. Thought about getting a lot done this morning..while listening to Mellow Jazz.com and being able to actually hear it with out the dental drill (even though after 25yrs+I don't really 'hear'it any more) but alas 2 people called in first thing with emergencies and I had to call the 'our beloved darling' dentist out of a conference meeting into the office on this cold morning. I also made a new patient appointment for a lovely sounding lady from China with a name that sounds like bells ringing when you pronounce it. I told her that and she said 'You are very musical'. Awww that made me feel happy.
I came home after being tailgated the entire way by a young girl who would not have been able to stop her car without running into me so I just went very slowly until about 6 miles she left my lane..I couldn't even see her in the side rear mirror she was that close..geez.
I went to the grocery for a few things and couldn't even get down the fresh produce aisle because 2 men were stocking items and had all their wares blocking me and this little old lady who had boxes on her cart...didn't ask her what those were for even though I had to keep picking them up for her as they fell off. Then another lady who had on a beautiful full length coat that looked like mink but was not, kept getting in my way whenever I wanted to look and choose ...she wanted to look and choose the same items...I liked her coat though so it didn't bother me much...we have a very small neighborhood grocery store.
I finally got to the parking lot to load my groceries and it had started sleeting so the passenger side car door was frozen shut...ok, so I used the driver's side even though it was gonna be harder to get the groceries out when I got home.
I arrived at home to see many lime green vested Hispanic men in every tree in my back yard and on my street..with tree trimmers and power saws. Aughhhh! I ran out and shouted to a man high in the top of my tree over the pond. He shook his head vigorously and called to someone named Rigo to (I am assuming) talk to the Senora. Around the corner and through the fence gate came Rigo who spoke English very well. I asked what are the men in the trees doing? They were just here 3 years ago and hacked a big chunk of my crabapple tree down. Are they taking my trees down? He assured me that they were only trimming small limbs away from the power lines and they are sent to do this every 2 years by the Power and Light Company. Oh, ok then, but I wished that KennyRogersLookAlikeBeforeThePlasticSurgeryWentWrong was home from his day off errands. Rigo noticed all my bird feeders and squirrel feeders and all the black oil seed shells that have formed a thick cushion of mulch under them. He said "Ah, the birds and squirrels must love you for feeding them" and as he said that they came in a flock and waited in the bushes for me to fill their feeders. He was in awe that I am like Snow White.
When they were finished trimming and walking away with their saws and clipped brush I had the thought that I needed a few branches clipped away in my pear trees that are now growing into the powerline that comes to the house. So I asked one of the men that I knew could not speak English if he would trim them for me. I pointed and then did a chop chop hand motion and he understood and did a really fast clean job. KennyRogersblahblahblah came home as I was out there sign languaging (he thought I was talking to squirrels until he saw all the lime green jackets in the neighors trees). He was very proud of me for breaking the language barrier and relieving him of the task that might have electrocuted him. That would definitely not be good.
We then went to the flea market as we still had our coats on and it just wasn't the same as it used to be when we were buyers and sellers in that realm. I didn't even find anthing that I don't already have. That was disappointing but a revelation of how much stuff we really have. Skeedaddled off to grab some dinner and I saw a man dining alone. I felt sorry for him..he seemed lonely with a cast on his leg...I always make up stories about people in my mind when I observe people at random. I heard a cell phone ring and he answered it and I then realized that he was no longer lonely..as long as people have cell phones that ring loneliness may not loom so big after all. So tonite as the sleet and snow and wind is falling and howling, I am thinking of the bell ringing name and the birds and squirrels that come when I call and the notsolonely man at the restaurant. Huh....a January Friday....