Oh man, ALL day on the radio seemingly like every 10 minutes. Winter storm warning! Winter storm warning! Winter storm warning! Lather rinse repeat.

I was well aware and in fact I had hustled out to my fave big-box grock store and the post office early in the morning when the roads (and everything else) were still dry as a bone and Mr. Golden Sun was still sleeping. Sometime in the late morning (everything was still dry), I went out to haul my empty garbage carts back up to the side of the house. It felt a weeeeee bit brighter than usual and I did a double-take when I saw Mr. Golden Sun TRYING to make an appearance. Five minutes later he was totally gone. A few hours later, the snow started coming down.

It looks like a lot of snow (and it’s probably still coming down) but I don’t think the depth is all that great. Alas, I *do* think it’s wet snow. I can get out with Cygnus but I think I will hunker down and read (Babel) and *try* to make myself sort out old crapola. I do have my work cut out for me (with the snow I mean but also with the crapola). I’ll have to be cagey about shoveling so the super-nice young husband next door doesn’t get to my snow before I do. If he does, I may just let him go for it and try to insist on giving him some cash even though I doubt he will want to accept it. If I knew the snow was gonna stop overnight, I’d just get out there at 0-skunk-30 but I don’t think that’s “god’s plan” for this storm.

I wonder when Mr. Golden Sun will make his next appearance?

P.S. My fingers are crossed that the power doesn’t go out! Whole house generator maybe? The “portable” one works fine but I can’t deal with it by myself.

Yes there is.

I think this pic was taken when UKW flew out from the PacNW to say goodbye to my mom. My mom was her aunt by marriage and one of her mother’s (Radical Betty) best friends. Mom and Betty met in college (Michigan State). Mom had a CAR and offered to take Betty (and Betty’s brother *Jack*) over to visit their first niece, who had just been born in Ann Arbor where my uncle was a medical resident.

*Jack* became my dad.

Fast forward over many years of cousins wandering around on the beach and stuff, my mom was dying and UKW flew out to say goodbye and support me. My only sibling was dead as was my dad. The GG (my husband) was EXTREMELY supportive with all of this but it was still great to have beloved cousins around too. Jane and Grinch helped immensely in person and I felt support from all of my other cousins.

On this morning, UKW asked if we needed to shovel. We couldda shoveled that snow but The Commander had a snow service and I was happy to respond that NO we did not need to shovel. This pic was taken before Mr. Golden Sun rose and we were heading down to the horsepittle to visit my mom. I walked down there most days when I was there alone but I was happy to say there was a plowing service that day.

Continuing through a birthday week, it is The Beautiful Gay’s birthday. She is the GG’s ID twin’s wife and we are pretty much kindred spirits. Love you Gay.

It has been an interesting evening. We watched a bunch of OLD amateur video footage of cFam parties (waaaay pre-iPhones). We made brief appearances in some of these but were not in attendance at all of them. The beach urchins were somewhat shy about these parties. There were a LOT of people and I can’t explain it all that well. The cFam is wonderful but it is HUGE and I think my kids and I had to sort of steel ourselves for parties although after about 10 years of marriage, I had pretty much settled in. Years later when one of our LOVELY adult nieces intimated that she was emulating my style (long skirts) a bit, I knew I had made it. Totally flattered.

In one scene at my mother-in-law Sally’s wake, I could see my mouse (then seven) try to approach a couple of much older cousins by holding *her* mouse up to them. I couldn’t figure out what was going on nor could I hear the conversation. Maybe they were asking her about her mouse? I dunno. And then the video flaked over to some other part of the party so I have no clue.

My mother-in-law’s wake was a big fun party in her eldest daughter’s big back yard and one of my main memories of it was people playing guitar and singing “Why don’t we get drunk and screw”. It seemed okay with Grandpa Garth and all of his kids so I guess it was probably okay with Sally too. At that party all 10 of the cFam siblings were alive and kicking and having a good time. Seven remain.

To commemorate The Comm’s birthday a day late, today’s pic is of her wearing her gold sequined baseball cap. She was NOT crazy about glitz and much preferred simple elegance. But one day we were walking into the post office in Sault Ste. Siberia and there was a woman with a gold-sequined baseball cap coming out. Both of us kinda went “Whoa!” Like, you need one of those, Mom! On my trip back down to The Planet Ann Arbor, I stopped at Freeway Fritz to get gas and peeeee and they had a whole rack of those things. I bought one and she wore it with pride, as you can see.

But I didn’t watch it from Cascarelli’s, which is in the pic, taken last week by the GG.

Anybody who has football even remotely on their radar screen (and I am one of those remote people), knows that our “home team” (Umich) beat Washington last night. I watched most of it. I sorta know what a “down” is. I don’t really get what an “interception” is (don’t bother trying to ‘splain). But I get the overall “arc” of the game and I could follow pretty well.

I am happy the home team won but I am NOT CROWING ABOUT THIS. When I was a kid, it seemed like Umich won often and went to the Rose Bowl quite frequently. My beloved (late) uncle was watching the Rose Bowl at my parents’ house once and Umich did something REALLY STUPID (I know not what) and he kind of exploded (he graduated from Umich med school and was a huge football fan). Forever after that his sister, my aunt Radical Betty, referred (gnoffing) to that little performance as “the time Don had that hissy.” Miss those folks…

In my adult life on the Planet Ann Arbor, there have been many years that Umich didn’t do all that well. For a few of those years, they had a coach I COULDN’T STAND. Not that I have any reason to care but something about him raised my hackles big time. He felt like a con man or whatever and I was glad to see the door hit his butt, even though I am not a big football fan.

So Umich and its fans are having a little day in the sun. Couches were burned and the police didn’t seem to be inclined to arrest anyone. Well, day in the SUN is a bit of a misnomer since it has been raining torrentially all day (started out with snow). It’s been a good year for Umich (and the Li-ons) but life is like a river and not every year will be this good.

P.S. It is The Commander’s birthday (103, if she were alive), also our friend Diane and, uh, Richard Nixon.

I have an upcoming bday. Not one I am excited about at all but time goes on… The problem is not that it’s a significant bday (it is) but that (sigh) I have to keep coming up with bday gift ideas… Again… I do not need anything…

So, I fished around a bit and came up with a few ideas. Some Smartwool slippers that have soles so I can slip them on to make quick trips outside to dump recycle or garbage or whatever. I used to have to go outside to start up the Ninja on cold/snowy days but I don’t own her any more (sigh) and I can start Cygnus with an app.

And… “Inspirational” books about slow stitching. I googled around and found a few possibilities and emailed them to the fam.

The GG had a couple questions. 1) What is slow stitching? 2) We just got rid of a bunch of stitching books and you want more?

1) I cannot really describe slow stitching. Is it embroidery? Yes sort of. But not the traditional embroidery you might be thinking of like making samplers and things. Slow stitching uses embroidery stitches when they are appropriate. What I think I want to do with slow stitching is small hand-stitched prodjects where I collage various pieces of fabric and stitch them down in various ways.

2) Yes we did get rid of a bunch of “stitching” books. But not all of them. I have done this before. I collected a lot of fancy quilting books back when the beach urchins were young. I actually made some stuff although full-size quilts seem to be beyond me. A lot of my quilt books were not giving me “love” any more. I took those books and some others over to the AAUW sale in Maple Village and the women were astounded. “These are GOOD books!” Yes they are but I am kind of done with them. They graciously accepted them.

I am not an active fiber artist these days. I spent all day doing an archaeological dig into my online banking product’s sometimes sordid history. I mean sordid just in terms of technology our team designed eons ago and now needs to enhance and specification is anything but clear. I am not finished with that archaeological dig. But I am an artist. Music, fiber arts, user experience design, whatever. We are ALL artists. Yes, really. Engineers can be really annoying (ask me) but they are also artists. Being an artist, I am forever changing the media I work with. That’s what being an artist aka a human being is all about.

The books I have asked for may or may not be inspirational or even useful for me. I don’t care if I get them or not or ANYTHING for my blasted bday. But here’s the thing. Some of these books are available as USED books at reduced prices. I am TOTALLY okay with receiving used books. And I can donate anything I decide isn’t working for me.

Photo credit: Lemon pigs on New Year’s Eve by mouse.

Last night I made lamb stew. It’s a recipe in one of my old Sunset cookbooks – Cooking for Two or Just for You. I sorta know it by heart but I usually have to look it up to make sure I do the “secret sauce” correctly. It’s ketchup, red whine vinegar, brown sugar, and Worcestershire. I am somewhat approximate with the proportions.

Recently I randomly googled the recipe and to my great surprise, someone actually made a post about the EXACT recipe. I can’t find it now but the poster said they had for many years given the recipe (and maybe the cookbook and a utensil or two) to newlyweds. I was astounded. I did not own this cookbook or recipe when I was a newlywed but it has been one of my go-to recipes for many years.

I made that lamb stew last night (it works well with beef too). Tonight I cooked sea scallops with greens. Kale and spinach as you might be able to see from the pic. This is a more recent go-to recipe. Soy/tamari, garlic, and sesame oil. Yes.

Of all things, I am actually ahead on my 2024 goodreads challenge. I finished “Wish You Were Here” today. It’s a Jodi Picoult and I am up and down about her books. Some of them annoy me but they are ALWAYS page turners. This one is about our own loverly pandemic, covid 19. It covers multiple points of view. Overwhelmed medical professionals and the patients they were treating on vents. And some other kinds of weird stuff I won’t try to describe. I dunno what the main character actually experienced but in my life I’ve learned that there are things that cannot always be explained by science even though I am a believer in science. Anyway, I loved the book.

You can hear that whistle blowing… Oh never mind.

It is January 6th, a date of some notoriety in recent history but *this* January 6th is the date the GG finished his first 100 miles of hiking the North Country Trail for 2024. He has already submitted his claim or whatever it is to receive his award. Is he the first person to hike 100 miles on the NCT this new year? I do not know. There are trail warriors out there who RUN the trail, not the easiest thing to do at least not on some parts of it. So maybe he’s not the first but he’s up there. Being a pensioner, he has the time, and the weather cooperated. Anyway, I think he mainly competes against himself and his ID twin brother.

Three years ago, he was all set to claim his award but there was a glitch submitting it and the UU (ID twin) managed to submit his miles ahead of the GG. I dunno if he was first of *everyone* that year but he beat out the GG. Was it really *three* years ago that happened? I remember we were traveling to O-haaaa-o and I was working on the infamous FRB prodject at work and I attended a *crazy* meeting from the car. Like this is just a file format prodject, what’s the big bloody hairy deal?

He had a “girlfriend” with him again today, which was our daughter, not the same daughter he hiked with the other day. They hiked in Ohio and she took him out for lunch before they headed back north. I won’t say this junket was without any pain and suffering. Blisters, for one thing.

Lamb stew is in the hopper. Hi ho!

P.S. That orange shirt better be in the laundry!!!

No we are not in the midst of a polar vortex right now. I don’t even think we’ve seen temperatures in the teens yet. But memories served up photos from the winter of 2014, the Polar Vortex winter. That winter the snow started on New Year’s Day and I still had a glacier in my back yard in April. And it was frickin’ cold like a lot of days were below zero. I’m talking Farenheit here. I telecommuted a lot that winter because the meagre city snow plowing equipment wasn’t able to get ahead of the initial couple feet of snow and a layer of ice formed on most of the roads, on top of which more snow fell. My little Ninja with its performance taaars was not equal to it and the Frog Hopper even struggled.

A few days into that winter, my mouse and I suited up and schlepped over to the Plum Market. I am on the right in a big balaclava I bought at a kiosk in Briarwood Mall years ago. Nowadays I use Smartwool balaclavas, which are just as warm but a lot less bulky and easier to wear. I long ago donated this big one.

I think this was the evening of New Year’s Day. The snow was still coming down and it was something like 13 below zero but here is the GG cooking chicken thighs or whatever on the grill.

The next day there was so much snow the GG’s work (EPA) closed for the day and I worked from home. It turned out that people who trundled in to my work were faced with an unplowed parking lot and ended up having to push each other’s cars around when the plowing service finally arrived. The LSCHP apparently boomed out, “If people are just coming over here to push cars around, they might as well have stayed home.” I can’t remember if he was actually at home or not.

Here is my walking path outta the Plum Market parking lot sometime that week.

G’night, KW.

I had to return to my loverly little job this week but at least it was a CALM work week. I mean both at work and at the Landfill. Nobody was rummaging around through all kinds of crapola or engaging in other frenetic activities. (Note *again* that I am *happy* about the de-acquisitioning prodject but it is sometimes a little hard to live with.)

But it has been a calm week. Why? Because my own personal mule (aka the GG) has been hiking the North Country Trail all week. He isn’t off with any of his “girlfriends” this time. Hey, the women he hikes with are MY “girlfriends” too! He is doing day hikes from the Landfill and returning at night. Although the trail goes through the entire state of Michigan, it does not come all that close to the Planet Ann Arbor so it can be a challenge to get to it to hike.

Monday through Wednesday, he hiked in Michigan in the Albion / Homer area. He managed to snag lunch at Cascarelli’s in Albion yesterday. I think I have only eaten at Cascarelli’s once, on a little Jeep Junket we took long ago on a federal holiday back when the beach urchins were in public school and I wasn’t gainfully employed. But it was GOOOOOD!

Today he did hike with a “girlfriend”. One who is also our daughter. They drove down to the Maumee River in Ohio for today’s trip. Ohio has an interesting stretch of the North Country Trail. I am not an expert on this section but it is largely set on old tow paths along the canals and rivers, hence the sign about mules (embiggen it). I don’t think they tow boats with mules any more but there are many historical sites along the trail. Not the heavily wooded trail sections we have in much of Michigan.

So… The North Country Trail Association gives folks a little yearly award for hiking 100 miles of trail. The GG, being a little obsessive, is hot to get those 100 miles done ASAP. I mean he wants to be the FIRST to get 100 miles in a year! He began on New Year’s Day and has 75 miles now (after four days).

P.S. Photo by Mouse.

That was what I answered when my MMCBs and I started our FaceTime call this morning and they asked the usual cheerful, “How are you?”

Yes. Dark. Dark dark dark. There is always a day (or more) in January when it feels like Mr. Golden Sun is NEVER gonna rise. Today was that day. I schlepped over to @Plummarket in time to get there at exactly 8AM when it opens. It was dark when I got there. It was dark when I left at 8:10. Even though sunrise was at 8:04. Our latest sunrise is 8:05 and I think we stay there for a few days until Mr. G gets far enough north again to give us a little earlier morning light. Sunset time reached its nadir a while *before* the solstice. I don’t really understand how this stuff works but the days *are* getting longer if imperceptibly so. The North Shall Rise Again.

At least it was not SLIPPERY! Something was coming outta the sky but it was light and didn’t look very white and Cygnus reported 35 degrees. Roads, etc. can be slippery at that temp but only if significant snow has fallen. It hadn’t.

The “ICE” sign is not a warning that the driveway, etc., is icy. It is a New Year’s Eve post-it note reminder to meeeee to remember the ziplock bag of ice cubes I carefully packed to take to the city mouse’s house for that evening’s dinner. She can certainly make ice but for whatever reason didn’t have a lot already made. I was happy to oblige. Baggy old mooms LOVE to be useful to their uber-competent adult children! And I did not forget the ice. What I did forget is the shrimp ring I had grabbed at the Plum that morning. I remembered it halfway there and what the heck, since the entire drive is a mere two miles, we turned around and snagged it.

P.S. It’s odd that fairly recently I had to actually go out and buy a SMALL amount of post-it notes. I used to have TONS of them. I was an office store queen. I am almost totally paper free these days. But occasionally I need a post-it note, like the ICE note or “Don’t move my mask”, because until I got on their case, certain people had been known to move my current face-mask out of Cygnus’s “console” or whatever you call it. Nope. I need that. It doesn’t work to keep one in my jacket pocket but that’d be a (boring) story for another day.

The new year is when the small university in the town I grew up in publishes its annual list of banished words.

Most of this year’s, although I agree with their choices, are kind of old news. “Rizz” I did NOT know until it showed up in an xword a while back. Rizz? Say what? Okay, yeah, I get it (“chaRISma”, get it?).

“Hack” is on the list because people have been using it (for years) for any old cool thing they’ve figured out. I can still hear a librarian friend say (a few years ago), “It’s a TIP, not a HACK!” I use “hack” but I use it when I have limited (or no) instructions for how to accomplish something technical on my phone/laptop(s) and manage to figure it out. But usually I feel more like I have “bumbled” my way through the issue than “hacked”.

“At the end of the day?” I agree that this is overused but sometimes it’s what works and I’ll probably continue to use it. “It is what it is”, right? A similar phrase that is NOT on the banished word list.

My favorite is “Wait for it”. I am not a connoisseur of social media videos but I occasionally succumb and click on something. Nothing is worse than a video that goes on and on and on with nothing happening. Especially when it displays a “wait for it” label. Either don’t click the “record” button until something is REALLY about to happen or EDIT out the dead stuff before posting.

30 seconds is long enough for even an interesting, action-packed video. My limit for nothing happening is about five seconds. And then there are those TikTok type videos. They are short (by definition, I think?) but often I can’t for the life of me figure out what the hell the video was about.

I have similar rants perculating percolating about written social media posts and comments but I had to drag myself back to work today and this post is long enough.

Xwitter play:

New Years Day, Landfill, KW and GG

GG [jumping up and down]: blah-blah-blah interception blah-blah-blah
KW: Whut?

Again (and the GG knows this). 1) I am not a sports fan, especially not team sports. 2) I do enjoy football as background noise. 3) UMich has been the home team for me since I was a kid (and I have lived here most of my adult life). 4) May the home team win.

Anyway the GG hiked 22 miles today. He is hot to get his 100 mile North Country Trail badge in record time. His (frenetic) activities this evening involve 1) watching the Rose Bowl, 2) putting away xmas decorations, and 3) jumping around while talking to various siblings. He has a lot more siblings than I do and more are living. Out of ten, he is one of seven survivors. Out of two I am the sole survivor. Miss you bro. You’d be so proud of your uber-smart, accomplished daughters.

To catch up, last I LOOKED AS OF THIS MORNING, the house explosion we heard on Saturday killed four people, two parents and two out of three of their children. A pic I saw showed teen / adult children. Third child (son) and an uncle (I think he was the owner) were still alive but not sure how they’re doing. Lots of speculation about what caused the explosion. I am tentatively on the side of propane gas accident but that is still speculation. Awful awful awful whatever happened. How does a survivor go on from something like this? I do not know.

To end on an up-note, I finished my 2023 goodreads challenge at 101 yesterday and began my 2024 challenge today. 100 books again. I have decided to not give my books a star rating this year. My feelings toward books and their authors are more nuanced than 1-5 star ratings. If I read something really really really bad, I might rate it. I am not inclined to give *reviews* on goodreads. Complicated reasons. So if my VERY FEW goodreads friends want to know what I think about a book, they will have to ask. Maybe that will start an interesting conversation…

I had actually forgotten about the fireworks until just now (11:10) when I first heard them somewhere out in the street.

We spent our second NYE at our older beach urchin’s house a couple miles NE of us here on the Planet Ann Arbor. For a long time we did not celebrate NYE with anyone except ourselves in our own house. We welcome others but the stars often don’t line up for others to be in town at the right time.

The fireworks have already petered out. I don’t actually mind them and hope for more. In fact back in the day, the GG used to compete a bit with Mr. Natural aka our late neighbor Burke to the north of us. Little did we know in those days that he had dynamite in his basement.

One fateful NYE the GG was setting off fireworks in the back yard and one tipped over and came in the (open) back doorwall as it exploded. What a wonderful ending to the year. Or was it the beginning… 1997 was the next year and that’s the year we were hit with a massive ice storm that took out our refrigerator (it was high time) and a computer and I fergit what else. Later that year we were on our way to the yooperland when we were hit by a tornado. Somehow I always remember NYE 1996 when I think of 1997.

Heading off to bed for the year. G’night.

So, hanging around reading this afternoon, w-a-i-t-i-n-g for Mr. Golden Sun to make an appearance. Just about the time he FINALLY did, BIG THUD!!! I yelled, “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT???”

My first thought was a tree had fallen. It wasn’t windy but trees are “always” falling around here. But no trees seemed to be down. After a few minutes I jumped on to Next Door Neighbor. Yes, other people had heard it (and felt it) too. People in my neighborhood. People in the city mouse’s neighborhood. No doubt the country mouse’s neighborhood too but I think she was still at work. People on the northeast side of town. Even people on the south side. And especially in Whitmore Lake, a small town to our north. This was not a random neighborhood tree fall.

We didn’t hear any emergency sirens but then if a tree falls in our woods, no one calls emergency unless the tree falls ON SOMEONE. People in Whitmore Lake were definitely hearing sirens.

My city mouse found a Whitmore Lake “What was that noise?” thread and boy oh boy oh boy. A HOUSE BLEW UP! A 10 minute drive from the Landfill, eight miles as the crow flies.

I will leave my snarkiness about NDN commenters aside for the moment (“What did you put in that bonfire?” etc.). This was a tragedy! I’m not sure the casualty count is final yet but last I knew there were three dead (or dying) and at least two with critical injuries. And maybe one missing person?

One NDN commenter reported what they had heard on a police scanner: “1 black patient, 2 red patients, 1 missing”. That was earlier before more casualties were reported. I looked askance at the “black patient” at first. Can they really report someone’s skin color? Then I put two and two together and realized this was probably some sort of triage code used by first responders and had nothing to do with skin color.

So I did the google and found that a “black patient” is one who is already deceased or has suffered injuries most likely not compatible with life. Palliative care is appropriate if they are still alive but taking them to the hospital is not a priority if there are others with less severe injuries. Red patient means treat them and get them to the hospital ASAP and they may survive. Yellow is a person who can wait at least a bit. Green is minor/superficial injuries. I am not an expert on any of this stuff by any means.

Time will tell what actually happened this afternoon. Getting news, etc. from Facebook and NDN has its problems (I’ll rant about that some other day) and I haven’t looked lately to see if the local on-line newspaper has reported.

Did I dream this big thud last night? I dunno but I might have. I woke up to a big thud in the middle of the night. More like a hardbound book falling off the bed than a house exploding eight miles away. I said, “What the HELL was THAT?” The GG more or less told me to shut up. Nothing seemed to have fallen in the bedroom and there was no further noise so I settled down and went back to sleep. Or whatever. It was one of *those* nights but I long ago learned to deal with those.

Some things in life cannot be explained. I also dreamed September 11 and a few other more personal events no one else would know or care about. I haven’t had a “prescient” dream in a looooong time but this thud gave me pause. I know… Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. If you know me in person, you are like huh? I’m sure the GG is rolling his eyes if he’s reading this at all🤣

Praying in my own godless way for the folks in that house today. May the “black patients” have a safe passage if that’s where they are destined to go. May the “red patients” recover. May the missing be found.

Love y’all, KW

Two of them. Mr. Golden Sun and some heaps of snow. I didn’t notice what year this was taken. I took it (I think) somewhere on the Sault Ste. Siberia LSSU campus.

This year? I think the last time we saw Mr. Golden Sun was xmas day and that was only for a bitsy little few minutes. We totally missed the full moon. And we have had VERY little snow. Today I don’t think it was raining when I was out early this morning but it has been raining (and 40 degrees) almost all day. When I went to take the garbage carts out just before “sunset” this afternoon, it was absolutely fugly out. Cold and wet. Even the GG didn’t go anywhere today. Not even any trips to the hardware store.

It was okay. I finished my 99th book and started in on Severance (fictional pandemic, not anything to do with the TV series). It is GOOOOOOD. Can’t put it down good.

And I am done done done for tonight. G’night!

So the main thing that happened here at the Landfill today was the GG made a legendary trip to the Scrap Box. The Scrap Box is an organization that “recycles” ALL KINDS of crafty type materials. When the beach urchins were young, I often attended Scrap Box workshops with their classes or girl scout troops or the youth theatre guild.

I was tentative about sending a shoebox of origami cranes over there. Who would want those? Then I remembered that most of them were probably made by actors guild folks to use in the set design for one of our plays. I thought something like, “If I needed a bunch of origami cranes for something and had limited time (or skills) to make them, I might be happy to find them at the Scrap Box”. I probably made some of those cranes. I did origami ALL THE TIME as a kid, thanks to the paper and books my eccentric aunt Roberta sent me. She spent a couple years post WWII teaching in Japan (well before I was born).

And guess what? He took the cranes and they WANTED THEM! In fact they took everything. Aaaannnd… The woman on duty RECOGNIZED the GG from an earlier trip when he dumped off a bunch of leather scraps from my dad’s old tannery job in Sault Ste. Siberia before I was born. By the time I was born, he was working at the bank albeit not at a highly paid job, assistant teller maybe? My granddaddy was the bank prez but he made his kiddo rise through the ranks so not really a nepo baby. We were certainly not rich when I was a child although there was never a wolf at the door and my dad was never in danger of losing his job (that I know of). And he became a good and well respected local banker and businessman. Although in recent years I have come to hate the term “businessman”. Good businessmen are HONEST. Like my dad.

We still have plenty of stuff to get rid of but I love that there are so many donation centers in our area. There really are people who want other people’s old crapola and it feels so good to get it out of our house although we have a long way to go…

Finally, I am thankful that the GG has taken on this prodject. Even though I KNOW what our donation centers accept, being a shy person, I am always worried that I’ll turn up with stuff and they’ll say “we don’t want that old crapola”.

The pic is from 1998, which means I probably took it with our first digital cam, the Sony Mavica. I posted it because THIS xmas, the GG was worried that he would not be able to fit TWO ducks on our gas grill to cook them for dinner. I told him he had done it MANY times before and here is proof. I don’t THINK this is the year they caught fire.

This was a fun and unexpected xmas gift. It is a refrigimatator magnet set and I need to de-clutter the refrigimatator doors before I can really set it up. There is stuff on those doors from forever ago. A yellowed comic strip of Calvin throwing a temper tantrum because his mom doesn’t have any papier mache so he can make a ROAD RUNNER for a school prodject due the NEXT MORNING. Bring back any memories, parents of adult children? (or any children)

Note that this set is “from the ‘minds’ behind the Secret Jewish Space Laser Corps”. I was facetiming with MMCB this morning. They are both Jewish women that I have been meeting for coffee FOREVER. This little coffee klatch began in a different place with a larger and quite diverse group of middle school moms. As life went on and a lot of those moms became gainfully employed, it has dwindled to the three of us. And yeah, I AM gainfully employed but my job has always been flexible enough to allow me to meet with people for coffee.

Anyway, I told MMCB about this cute little set and they laughed and at some point said, yeah they were working hard on making space lasers. I do not know where nutcases like @mtegreenee come up with this kind of crapola but Ima gonna have fun with this. There’s also a tin foil hat “kit”. Now I can match The Pensioner, who already has one.

I am now on track to finish my 2023 goodreads challenge. I am in my 98th of 100 books. I think I can do this. When I have finished it I’m going to read another xmas gift, “Severance”. This is not the TV series. It is a book about a pandemic and it was written in 2018 so pre-covid. I was avoiding pandemic books for a while there.

I also think I am ready for books about pandemics now. Actually I have watched the “Station Eleven” series (there’s only one season). That (fictional) pandemic was so scary that back in 2020, the AUTHOR cautioned people it might not be a good book to read at that time. The series diverges quite a bit from the book but the general story arc is largely intact and they (thankfully!) kept the Michigan parts IN Michigan. And it is GOOD!

BTW: one of my coffee friends has covid FOR THE SECOND TIME. She is okay but… Still… She is not sure where she got it but there are a couple of possibilities. Ugh ugh ugh. Mask up…

After much dithering and dathering and procrastinating and overthinking and whatever, we packed up some stuff, picked up one of our beach urchins, and trundled over to the other side of town to the air b&b where my cousin and various family members have been staying so they could spend xmas with their father, My Dear Uncle Harry (MDUH), who lives nearby.

Why was I so reluctant? I do not know. I began having a great time as soon as I walked in the door. Well, after I cleaned up an angostura bitters spill from the counter in the RENTAL house. OMG. I have quartz counters in the Landfill Chitchen and they are indestructible. Except that bitters stains them. If I do not clean up a bitters spill IMMEDIATELY, I have to use a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to get the stain out. I did NOT want to be responsible for a bitters stain on my cousin’s rental house counter.

We were planning a happy hour event but as these things go, we were having such a good time it went on and on and we ended up helping them eat the leftovers from their xmas dinner. This was no doubt a good thing for them because otherwise they would have to schlep all of the leftovers back to St. Louie.

Bonus stuff: 1) We got to meet my cousin’s first grandchild, 2) I taught my cousin’s son how to make a Franhattan (and all its possible variations) and 3) MDUH heard me talking (he was napping a bit) and reached his hand out and said, “I heard you!” I grabbed his hand. Later when he was leaving, I gave him a big hug and said, “I LOVE YOU!” and he responded in kind. When I was a kid we didn’t always get along all that well. That was because I was just about the biggest BRAT on earth or at least on the moominbeach!!! How I wish I could rewind time sometimes but I did grow up and I’d like to think I am not so much a brat any more.

We didn’t actually get around to opening gifts until after dinner tonight. That was just how it worked out this year and that is okay. I am “go with the flow” these days. And it was fun!

The GG spent xmas morning romping around the Landfill Dungeon and other areas rummaging through various collections of old crapola. This kind of activity drives me a little nutso because it is often frenetic. But it was okay because I am glad he is working on it. Also we celebrate xmas in a secular kind of way. I’m kind of a pagan maybe? I love xmas trees and lights and faaaar (except it was too hot here for a faaaar today) but I am iffy about “god” and Jesus. I respect those entities but don’t personally believe in them. It’s all too long a story for tonight but I can’t help thinking our xmas trees and lights, etc. come from way before the Christian religions so many of us were brought up in.

I can’t believe how many packages graced our tree today. It seemed a bit much to me at least. Of all things, I asked for a new mailbox and porch lamp. Santa obliged. I’m not sure exactly how those things came into my head but I think I figured that if I was requested to ask for xmas gifts, I may as well ask for things that might improve our house a bit. I think the existing mailbox and lamp are as old as the house. I bet the new mailbox will surprise the postal delivery folks.

I don’t have much else today. Another Landfill xmas in the books. I’ll clean up the rest of the dishioshios in the morning and go onward from there. Hope y’all made merry whether or not you celebrate xmas.

I mean that it has been foggy as all getout ALL DAY. It was also very warm. That happens sometimes. I have actually opened a couple of strategic windows. Kitchen and bathroom, although I would bet dollars the GG has already closed the bathroom window. Yep. And the kitchen. I just looked.

My parents did not travel to spend xmas with us but for long complicated reasons, in 2010 we arranged to transport The Commander down here for xmas. Our Northern Correspondent drove her down (on her way to family in Ohio). We all had a WONDERFUL time. The Comm got to experience the Plum Market (and terrify people by pointing her cudgel at things on upper shelves).

Parties? There were parties. “Every night”, as she told someone in the yooperland. Not quite but close. Her remaining brother and sister. My dad’s remaining sister and brother-in-law. All kinds of cFam folk. The Comm was loved by many.

At one daytime party at the Landfill, my former sister-in-law’s mother approached me in the Landfill Chitchen to report that my eccentric aunt Roberta was filling containers she had brought along to the party with various hors d’oeuvres and other food and stuffing them into her “bag” or whatever. A lovely, gracious woman but maybe just a bit more “proper” than me (or most FinFam/MacMu folks) because I could hardly keep myself from rolling on the floor laughing. I didn’t care one iota if Roberta was “stealing” food, which she could easily afford to buy on her own anyway. And she lived a block behind a Trader Joe’s at that time.

We drove The Comm back to her home in the yooperland on New Year’s Eve. Before we angled north, we dropped Lizard Breath at Metro for a flight to her then home in SanFran. I remember the GG being kinda nerve-racked about flights because of rain and fog but our super calm daughter said something like, “If this was California, it would be a MESS but it’s not here in Detroit and it’s better for me to be AT the airport if there’s a problem.”

She had a smooth trip if I’m remembering accurately. Our trip was smooth too but it was FOGGY as all getout. By the time we got to the tollbooths at the north end of the Big Mac, it was also dark.