Ethel’s package was wrapped with green string and I cut this off to tie on packages, being foolish about green string for my tree packages. -- Ina Dobson, 1935
1930 MEETS 2020
Yesterday
(Wednesday, Day 16), Mike and I traveled to the farmhouse – 55 miles and 90
years away. In my imagination, Ina and Shirley were at work in the dining room,
wrapping gifts and placing them in the appropriate boxes for shipping. The
table was covered with wrapping paper, tags, and green string, most of it saved
for re-use from the packages of previous years. They didn’t notice me, and I saw
them only in my mind’s eye.
We
made the trip to the farm because the snow plow that attaches to the 4-wheeler was
here in town. And I was glad for the opportunity to take gifts
and provisions in the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
We
had just one mouse in trap but saw evidence that they had been playing around. In fact, the lid
on the plastic container where I keep our winter accessories had been left ajar,
and the mice had gotten into it, so I brought all that home to examine and launder.
Before we left, I set up half a dozen traps. On Christmas Eve, I don’t want any
creature to stir, not even a mouse!
It seems like nothing is easy these days, and it wasn’t easy to attach that blade to the 4-wheeler. Mike spent hours working on it in the cold (about 40 degrees), lying on the snowy ground. It took longer than anticipated (doesn’t it always?) and it was 4:30 and dark when we arrived back in town.
IT WAS TUESDAY!
Well, that was Wednesday. Let me go back a day and tell you about Tuesday. One of our sons is superstitious about Tuesday. He maintains that though good things do happen on Tuesday, if anything bad is going to happen, it will be on Tuesday.
So, on Tuesday, we lost connection to the internet. The discussion of whether it was the router or the modem became moot when the tech at Staples said we could buy an all-in-one unit. Oh yes, he said, those were in stock, so we drove there only to find – after waiting 15 minutes – that they weren’t in stock. When your internet is down, you want it back IMMEDIATELY. After all, my whole imaginary world is online – isn’t everyone’s? Places to purchase things are few in our community these days. They were also out of stock at Costco. Walmart to the rescue!
Back home, it took several hours and two phone calls in order to connect the new modem/router, and all devices except the weather station are connected but not without frustration.
 |
| Mid-section burned out |
 |
| Same tree -- new lights |
Then,
still on Tuesday, just before bedtime, I noticed that the mid-section of clear lights
on our pre-lit pencil tree were glowing too brightly. Sure enough, they burned
out. (What can I say? It was Tuesday.) Even though my celebration is simple, I won’t
tolerate this wrongness, so today I removed the ornaments from the tree and painstakingly
unwound the clear lights, replacing with strings of colored lights. It was
work, but we like the colored lights much better.
4 comments:
Those pesky lights! Your tree is happy now and feeling quite cheerful, I can tell. Ours is yet to go up. Dan has spent the day helping a friend with a wood trim project in his living room. And as we have remarked in the past, it seems every project, no matter how trivial (and a new router/modem isn't trivial), takes way longer than it used to. Computer issues are fraught with peril.
Yes, the tree is happy. WE are happier.
So true! Hardly anything is easy these days. We just have to count our blessings.
I haven’t noticed this thing about Tuesday. Maybe it doesn’t apply to me.
It probably doesn't apply to you, Hallie, but I could relate. When I was support staff for state consultants, I noticed it somewhat. Nothing happens on Monday. They all stayed in the office to wrap up last week's work and plan for the present week. On Tuesday, we initiated the week's work with appointments and such. Of course, they also had appointments on Wednesday, but it was the middle of the week and the end was in sight. We had to be a little careful about Thursday because the end of the week is now close. And we certainly didn't want to undertake anything major on Friday because the week was over.
I still notice that it's difficult to find services on Monday or Friday. So many offices, like the dentist, work a 4-day week. Since they aren't open on Friday, it makes Monday a busy day. Etcetera.
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