As much as I was hoping the wind would go down today, it didn’t happen, so another day of biting wind came and went, but at least it wasn’t as strong as it was. That blowing and drifting snow we had yesterday and into the night, was something worth writing home about. While in conversation with a colleague today, I mentioned that by my recollection, we didn’t have such a long bitter period as this, for well over 20 years. It did bring some not so pleasant memories rushing back to mind during the time we had livestock to feed and water, but again, we didn’t have three wickedly cold back-to-back nights of it. By my recollection those winds didn’t last any longer that two days at the max. As I’ve mentioned before, this global warming is creating more pronounced and longer-lasting episodes.
For the strangest of reasons, I didn’t have a very good night last night, and only because I awakened around one in the morning, and didn’t get back to sleep until past four, which created an agonizing three hours of listening to that blizzard-force wind blowing non-stop. Of course when fully awake, the newsreels of memory kicked into motion, and in spite of not really wanting to see them, they kept on a’rollin from one short episode to the next. I tried to keep my mind from thinking about various people and places, but it was to no avail. Oh well, nights like that don’t happen often, and tonight I’ll likely sleep like a log because of my loss of sleep.
After arrival at office, I prepared several more gift packages which I later hand-delivered to two more on my list. I didn’t stay but a few moments at each one, and only because they had guests soon arriving from out of town.
Having not been to the store since Wednesday, I stopped over to Fareway to pick up a few more things I would be needing for what little cooking I’d be doing tonight and tomorrow. I’ve got everything I need for tonight’s shepherd’s pie, so if it turns out as well as I’m expecting, I’ll have to let you know tomorrow. Even though the Irish butter is more expensive, one can taste a noticeable difference when it’s being used in cooking and baking.
Before heading back to office, I stopped over to St. Paul Lutheran to go looking for a piece of music in another book, and fortunately I found what I needed, and prior to taking it back to office so to make a copy, I decided to play a number of Christmas hymns on their organ, so I ended up being the only human in that church listening to them. Yes, I’ve finally grown accustomed to the old girl to the point where I experience little or no stress while playing.
Upon return to office, I headed to my computer to get a letter emailed out to an old friend whom I’ve known for at least 25 years. Since I’d not written since early November, I had a great deal of recent happenings to share. Having both traveled parallel paths in life, along with the both of us coming from big farm families, we often freely say, “Been there. Done that.” whenever talking about inter-family relations. We’d agreed a very many years ago, that the larger the families, the more toxic they become, and it’s usually started by one or two ringleaders from the dark side who feed on controversy while spreading dis-chord, and believe me, they’ll sometimes continue on well into their retirement years. Well, what does one expect after kids are grown and gone and there’s all that free time on their hands which they put to bad use. I personally believe it’s all about wanting attention, and if they don’t get enough in a good way, they’ll turn to the bad.
Once I hit the ‘send’ button on my computer, I headed back to my little black walnut-cracking corner, and worked there for several hours until it was time to close up shop. Yes, I think the free time slots I have for cracking them, will possibly span the month of January, and only because I was being a bit hoggish with my gathering and cleaning them. At least those nut meats have been put to good use with my Christmas baking and gifting packages of them, to those who enjoy using them in candies and cookies. I absolutely love them in Spanish Wedding cookies.
I received a call from a friend who lives out of State this afternoon, who just wanted to call and wish me a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We didn’t have much to talk about other than how pronounced our weather patterns are changing. I was also told that there was something on the national news where the mayor of Des Moines personally stated that within five years, the Des Moines metro area will be experiencing summer highs of 125 degrees. Now that was a frightful statement, but after hanging up, I wondered why I’d not seen anything about it on our State and local news feeds. But, I did read some months ago where the climatologists mentioned something about the rising temps in the Plains States, so perhaps what he said was just the passing along of what he’d read. Even though Des Moines isn’t that far away from us, they’ve always had more mild winters and hotter summers. Many years ago, I do remember one day during the summertime when the temps were hovering around 120 degrees.
With it being Christmas Eve 2022, I thought it appropriate to take a photo of my smiling ceramic Santa. When I first saw him, I thought he was just enough different to be a keeper. Now where have you ever seen a Santa wearing purple instead of red? Whomever painted him, must’ve been color blind or just wanted to be different, or possibly the artist wanted him draped in royal purple, so I’ll have to now refer to him has my ‘Royal Purple Santa’. Too funny. As much as I was working towards having my own Christmas wish fulfilled, it didn’t happen, and only because of the actions of a severely demented individual. Oh well, life goes on.
Tonight’s One-liner is: The sun as well shines into cesspools, and is not polluted.
