Happy New Year!

Home Front

I read Kristin Hannah's novel, Home Front and was kept entertained the whole time. Sometimes I thought Hannah went overboard in the emotional intensity of the characters of Jolene and Betsy. Jolene is a mother of two girls and a wife and a member of the National Guard.She is a helicopter pilot who gets deployed to Iraq.The story of how she and her family handles her deployment and subsequent return to home life near Seattle, Washington is an interesting one and one that is seldom told. Men going to war and returning home are often mentioned in stories but it's not so often we hear about the wife and mother who go to war and come back with nightmares and PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder).

Matching!

When I was a child my family had a turquoise house and a turquoise Ford sedan. I thought having a matching car and house was the bomb. So I took their example and had my house sided in yellow and bought a car to match. Tomorrow I sell the house to another family but today I have a matching house and car.

I moved all of my stuff out of the house today except for the cleaning supplies and a few odds and ends. I hired movers to do the work. Here they are moving the motorcycle onto the truck. The three men worked very hard and appeared to have a good time working together. They got the job done in about three hours. I was very pleased.

Pears, Bananas, Oranges, Apples

I am getting ready to leave this house. I am putting my stuff into boxes and making it ready for the next family. I hope the next family has children. I raised my kids here and we did pretty well. Under the kitchen cabinet to the left of the kitchen sink is where my kids put their fruit stickers. The grocery store employees put an oval sticker on all the fruit. When my offspring ate apples, bananas, pears and oranges they took the sticker off, rinsed the fruit at the sink, and stuck the sticker under the kitchen cupboard next to the sink. Being taller, I noticed this years later because I don't look under the kitchen cupboards. When I did notice it I pulled the stickers off and asked the kids to put their fruit stickers in the trash or on something that would eventually end up in the trash. By then the bad habit had been fully established. More fruit stickers ended up under the kitchen cupboard. This evening I cleaned the fruit stickers off again. I have yet to meet the new owners. I hope they have children. A part of me wishes those new kids put their fruit stickers in the same place.

Strange Christmas Card

This afternoon my father received a Christmas card from a child in his neighborhood. On the front of the car the child drew a tree.  Above the tree is a bat and a skull.

Inside the card are the words "Have a haunted Christmas. (I love Halloween). Giovanni I was struck by the strangeness of the sentiment - have a haunted Christmas? Good grief!

Always A Critic

Today at work a coworker came to my office to talk about  my picture. I don't have a lot of art but I like this portrait of a girl on a wooden stool. I like her shoes and her eyes and her posture and the pensive look on her little face. I tend to like pictures with faces in them. This coworker did not appreciate this picture at all. He thought he could not stand to have this picture around because it would (in his words) steal his soul. Offspring #2 never liked this picture either. She would ask me to turn it to the wall when she had sleep over parties. Decades ago the local libraries would rent out art. This was a piece of art sold by the library when they ended the art rental program. I bought it. The frame is scuffed and worn which only adds to the attraction in my eyes. So basically he came to my office to bash my choice in art. Knowing him the art he has on his walls probably features hockey players and baseball players. I am very fond of my girl in the picture. This is one piece of art I plan to keep.

Born A Crime

I had never heard of Trevor Noah before I read his book Born A Crime. Once I read his book I heard his name mentioned. I heard it the other day when Amy Kloubachar was talking about being on his show, the Daily Show. Born A Crime is written as a comedy but not all is funny in this autobiography. Trevor grew up in Soweto, South Africa at the time of apartheid.  At the time he was born it was against the law for a white man to mate with a black woman (or vice versa). Trevor grew apart from his German father. His mother took him to church many times a week. Later she married an auto mechanic.Trevor's mother was abused by her husband. The police refused to take her statement or look into the matter. Most of the book is directed at Trevor's strong mother. I enjoyed the book very much. I figured Trevor probably exaggerated some things for comedic effect but his description of his antics as a teenager in Soweto and Johannesburg are too outrageous to be completely fiction.

Happy Solstice

Today the sun is pointing down near the tropic of Capricorn as far south as the sun will go. Tomorrow the sun will travel back north and our days will grow a little longer. .

Iris and Ruby

While reading Rosie Thomas' book, Iris and Ruby, I was transported from a winter in Minnesota to Cairo, Egypt. That was a pleasant mental trip because the sun in hot and the desert is dry. Iris is the grandmother of Ruby. Iris is a retired physician living in Cairo. During world war two Iris went to Cairo to work as a secretary for the military. After the war she trained as a doctor. Now she is retired and starting to loose her memory. Without warning Ruby, her granddaughter, shows up at the door. Ruby escaped her life in England. As Ruby and Iris get to know each other, both women find the support and love they need to grow and make progress. I loved this novel as it traveled back and forth between the current times and the world war two times.

Evidence of Meetings

Because I am retiring in a couple weeks I am training my replacement. He asked me, "What's in that drawer there?" He pointed at a long lateral file. I opened it to see what was in there.

I  found yearly calendars from 2018 all the way back to 1984. 

Many of the pages in these calendars will have to be shredded because they contain the names of people whose privacy I want to respect. Wow, this is my evidence that I have gone to a lot of meetings in my career!

Busy Hands Are Happy Hands

Offspring #2 brought me two skeins of orange alpaca yarn from Peru when she went there a few years ago. The yarn was soft and beautiful and I never knew what to do with it. This fall I got the idea to make a needlepoint pillow out of it to send to my family in Japan. I needlepointed a long time on the orange side. I wanted to make a border of waves. My intention was that every wave be identical. Not every wave is identical because I made mistakes. I figure that is okay because not all waves in the sea are identical anyway. The back side went quicker because the stitches were bigger. I have been sewing on this project for a couple months. On Sunday morning both sides were done so I inserted a bed pillow and sewed the sides together. After a couple of hours of sewing the pillow was done. Now I need to find a new project to keep my hands busy. 

Five Deer Browsing

I was working around the house today when I got distracted by the five deer in the yard. One of them was chewing on my lilac bush. I knocked on the window so it would stop because I feared it would eat the flower buds clear off. But then I remembered that I sold my house. I won't be here to see the lilac blooms in this yard. The new owners will see the lilac blooms. Will the new owners enjoy the abundance of deer and birds and animals and insects as much as I have? I hope so.

Elf The Musical

Today we went to the matinee performance of Elf the Musical. The play was held at a church in Maplewood. The actors were students of a local charter school including, as a cop/security guard, my youngest nephew. I really enjoyed the performance. Why did I never do drama when I was in school? How brave these kids are to get up on stage and sing their hearts out. Acting ability varied with each performer but that is refreshing. Seeing all professionals perform is good but seeing amateurs is good too. Some day when I have more time (which is right around the corner) I might try out for a play and attempt to act on stage.

Lost Roses

Martha Hall Kelly wrote Lilac Girls which I read last year and enjoyed very much. Lilac Girls is about women during world war two including Caroline Ferriday. Lost Roses is about women during World war one including Caroline Ferriday's mother, Eliza Ferriday. Lost Roses is a prequel to Lilac Girls. Historical fiction has always been interesting to my. This story is set in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and Paris, France, and the Hamptons on Long Island in New York.  Eliza is friends with Sofya. Sofya meets Eliza's family in the Hamptons and Eliza meets Sofya's family in Saint Petersburg. Sofya is a cousin of the Russian royalty. Both women are born into privilege. The war impacts both families but the women remain strong. My only complaint about this book was that the ending was a little over the top obvious pulling at my heart strings. Other than that I thought it was an excellent read.

No More Chicken Coop

As a closing ceremony to the era of the chickens I decided to get rid of the coop last night. The wood on some parts of the coop was soft and rotten. The fox had chewed some of the wooden shingles off the egg door. I just so happened to have half a bag of charcoal, an old candle and a lighter at hand. I put the candle in the bag of charcoal, slid it under the coop, and waited for the magic to happen. Actually burning down the coop took a lot longer than I thought. Once the fire pierced a hole in the floor of the coop the flames slowly crept up the walls. Once the roof caught fire the process speeded up. The coop collapsed onto itself and the wood burned peacefully surrounded by trampled down snow. The whole process took a couple of hours out of my evening.

I had contemplated burning down this coop for years. I thought the smell would be terrible but it actually wasn't so bad. I need to go out there today and pick up the nails and screws. I am sure the inches of snow that fell completely extinguished the flames. Burning down the coop was actually a fun experience. I am lucky to have lived for so long in this neighborhood where I can get away with things like lighting chicken coops on fire.

End Of An Era

In 2009 I decided to get some chickens. Today the last chicken left the property. My plan was both of the final chickens would leave on Saturday but this cuckoo maran, pictured here, saw her sister get put in a cardboard box and decided to fly the coop. She spent Saturday wandering around the yard. At 4 in the afternoon she decided she would like to go back to the coop so I put her in. Today she was put in the same box and taken to live with her sister is Zimmerman. Over the years I have had many chickens and many chicken adventures. I have enjoyed raising chickens and collecting eggs but now I want to simplify my life. I want to be free to travel. Chickens don't take much work but they do need daily attention. I am glad I decided to get the chickens. The chickens have kept me busy and entertained. There is a certain status you have when you raise chickens. People think of you differently once they know you take care of chickens. All that is gone now. Today marks the end of a decade long, chicken raising, era.

Very Last Turn Of The Screw

I hired an electrician to install some ground fault detectors. Six ground fault detectors hit me hard in the wallet. I went to work while he was working. I came home to check the work. All six ground fault detectors were installed and operating. I noticed that the electrician turned all the screws to the exact same position. I have four screws on each ground fault detector. That makes 24 screws aligned vertically; exactly vertical. If I had installed the ground fault detectors the screws would not be so carefully aligned. I can only assume this electrician takes pride in his work down to the very last turn of the screw.

Steal The North

I read a hard cover copy of Heather Brittain Bergstrom's book Steal The North.  I like being read to but I also like holding a book in my hands as I relax before going to sleep at night. This story is set in Sacramento and north central Washington state. Each chapter has the voice of a different character including 17 year old Emmy, 17 year old Reuben, Emmy's mother, Emmy's step-father, Reuben's aunt, and Emmy's uncle. Out of all the characters I think Reuben has his head on the straightest. Given his circumstances he is resilient and strong and follows his moral compass. I enjoyed this book because of the heart felt emotions it invoked in me.

Say You're One of Them

I listened to Uwem Akpan's book, Say You're One of Them. I finished it this morning. This is a collection of short stories set in Africa and told by children. Each story gives witness to the horrors some children experience growing up in Africa. Because the stories are coming from the children, we really can't tell how horrible the story is going to be until we get far enough along. The first story was about Christmas in a slum in Nairobi. In the tin hut the mother of six children gives the young boy some glue to sniff to erase the hunger pains he is feeling. The family waits together in the shack until his older sister, aged 12, a prostitute, comes home with bags of groceries so they can eat. The perils of poverty and ethnic violence become so real. This was a difficult story to read but I'm glad I did.

Will Some Of The Flakes I Shovel Today Still Be Here In April or May?

I spent many hours shoveling snow this weekend. I think I shoveled five or six times. The heaviest shovel was the first one. That snow as so deep I could see the trail of my car's underbelly as I pulled into the garage. After that experience I decided to shovel after a couple inches instead of six. The snow at the road that the snow plow threw in was the heaviest. Some of those ice boulders were so heavy I had to pick them up by hand and toss them in the ditch. Mindlessly shoveling snow gave me a workout and time to think. How many pounds of snow have I shoveled in my lifetime? When I go a winter without shoveling snow, will I miss the experience? How was it when I was a kid and finished shoveling snow I had the energy to play in the snow when I was done? I know my childhood driveway was smaller than this one. I just don't feel like making snow angels anymore. When will be the last time I shovel snow? Will some of the flakes I shovel today still be here in April or May?