A new beginning

Happy New Year!


May the New Year bring our world peace and freedom.

May the New Year bring you health, happiness, and prosperity.

Blue Mood, Blue Moon

This is the last week of the first decade of the 21st Century. The end of the newest "turn of the century". The 2oth century is fading into our memories of distant ages. A part of history never to be seen again.

At the end of the week, we'll have the second full moon in December. That's a blue moon. "Once in a blue moon" kind of things are likely to happen.

Maybe that's why I feel an impending sense of doom hanging over my head. (Or maybe it's just the weird combinations of snacks I had yesterday.)

Even my horror-scope for this week says "You keep looking at some gloomy picture of how things could all go wrong, ... " But it ends "Regardless of what happens, you have nothing to fear - but the worst is not going to happen. In fact, this week is due to be pleasing and liberating."

Pleasing. Liberating. That sounds promising. It sounds like I'm either going to burn my bra or quit my job. The 20th century isn't that far away after all.

BLUE MOON
Once upon a time before I took up smiling
I hated the moonlight
Shadows of the night that poets find beguiling
Seemed flat as the noonlight
With no one to stay up for I went to sleep at ten
Life was a bitter cup for the saddest of all men

Blue moon
You saw me standing alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own

Blue moon
You know just what I was there for
You heard me saying a prayer for
Someone I really could care for

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, 1934

Merry Christmas

I woke up early this morning like a kid expecting to see presents under the tree. I don't know what the hurry was. I've already opened all my presents so there are none there for me today.

I'm wearing two of my presents this morning. Fire-engine red nightgown and slippers. I look very Christmassy except for the white legs between the gown and the slippers. I should have got some red or green tights to complete the ensemble.

And a red Santa hat would top it off nicely.

December 25, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS!

May God bless us with peace, happiness, and good health today and in the new year.

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve and I'm at work. Not actually working, but I'm sitting here typing so nobody can tell if it's work or not. The management team is all at home today (nice, huh?) so if I got up and wandered around the desks of the 3 other people that are here I'd probably find they're working as hard as me.

I'm sure that Santa's already checked his list twice and doesn't have time to change it now.

Merry Christmas to You and Yours.

It snowed today and it's cold and it's dreary. In case you didn't notice. I'm a little disappointed, but I'm not really complaining.

"Why?" you may ask if you know that I'm a grumpy old lady who lives to complain about anything and everything.

"Why? Well, I'm glad you asked" I reply happily. "Let me tell you why."

1. I just realized that it's only 2 more months until I can start saying "It's almost spring".
2. We didn't get a foot of snow like some regions of the country.
3. I didn't get stuck in the Channel tunnel between England and France like some people did today. For hours! HOURS Many without water, food, heat, or lights. I could almost scream thinking about it. I hope they managed to sleep through it.
4. I watched one of my Christmas presents after lunch - a DVD set with 150 old TV detective shows. So far I've only watched one disc so I have about 130 shows to go.
5. This evening I can watch another present - a DVD set with 150 old Westerns. Whooeee! I'll be in cowboy heaven. All I need now is a 10 gallon hat, a horse, and a saloon.

Happy Days

It's Friday. That means tomorrow is Saturday and the next day is Sunday and I don't have to go to work for 2 whole days! It's more than 2 whole days if you count this evening which I shall cause I ain't gonna do no work!

Come dance with me

I bought a Dancing With the Stars game for the Wii a couple of weeks ago. It's fun exercise and I've lost 4 pounds without even trying, but I'll never win a dance contest.

I'm not much of a dancer, but I wish I were. I'd love to be able to float through a waltz, or do "flick kicks" to a jive number, or samba while wearing those dancy pants with all the layers of fringe that shimmer and shake "like your sister Kate".

Actually, I'd settle for the pants.

For The Birds

Two of the most noteworthy things I learned last week was that blue herons live in blue heron rookeries and that there are blue heron rookeries in Indiana.

Since you rarely see more than one blue heron in the same location in a pond, I just figured they nested alone. Shows you what I know about birds.

My mother and sisters were all bird watchers. "Look, there's a bird!" someone would shout and the car would come to a screeching halt as binoculars were called into action on all sides. I liked going with them on their bird watching excursions, but that was just to get out of the house, not to watch birds. Still, I picked up some bird lore on these trips and I don't remember any one mentioning that blue herons lived in rookeries in Indiana. (So HA! I know something you don't know.)

I now know that blue herons do not spend their lives alone, there are about 145 blue heron rookeries in Indiana for about 7,000 birds, and Fort Harrison State Park near Indianapolis has one of the larger rookeries with 270 nests. (My source for this newsworthy information was reporter Chris Sikich (chris.sikich@indystar.com) and The Indianapolis Star. )

I don't know if there are herons there in the winter time. Not that I plan on visiting them before spring. I'm just wondering where they go when it's cold enough to freeze one's tail feathes off.

Where are you?

I'm beginning to get in the Christmas spirit. I said spirit, not spirits. Though one may follow the other in either order.

Earlier this week I found the box of Christmas cards I bought in November and I found my address book. I even found a pen without too much difficulty. I began to hum Christmas carols as I sipped at a cup of hot cocoa stirred with a candy cane.

I flipped open the book and turned to the A's, then the B's, then the C's. I need to ask Santa for a new book. At least 90% of the addresses in that book were no longer valid. Relatives have moved. Loved ones have passed away. Friends aren't were they're supposed to be.

I pulled out a stack of saved cards from Christmases and birthdays past. I hoped the return addresses would give me a clue, but that was a false hope. Too many envelopes had different addresses for the same family and I couldn't tell who was were when.

If I were paranoid, I'd think people were trying to hide from me.

Baby it's cold outside!

It's cold outside! I know it's December and winter is only a few weeks away, but it's COLD! Ten to fifteen degrees colder than normal and December in Indiana ain't that hot to start with.

It's making the arthritis in my wrist come alive. It has to be the cold. I don't do enough work to aggravate it.

At least we have sunshine. Indiana's November tend to be bleak and dreary - gray in color from the sky to the dead grass. December, on the other hand, has several days of sunshine in a row. It's cold, but the sun helps mitigate this a few degrees.

At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

This year December is also giving us a Blue Moon. I always thought a blue moon was when it had that blue aura around it, but actually a blue moon is the second full moon in the same month. Learn something everyday, don't you?

Even when you're as old as me.