It's a New Year, All Right

Well, months have come and gone, and 2021 is a memory - thank GOD!!!

I've hated to jinx it, but it APPEARS The Knee is going to finally BEHAVE.  Looks like the extreme antibiotic protocol and the last surgery have done the trick.  So on to other things.

Last year was absolutely depressing, but The Knee apparently had been resolved, we had the big family Thanksgiving dinner at our house again, my oldest sister and I took a spontaneous trip to Florida, and Christmas was on the way.  Things were starting to seem nearly normal again.

And THEN...

Our other sister died unexpectedly, two days before Christmas, as I was driving toward Maryland to spend
Christmas with That Girl and her family.  We couldn't disappoint The Grands, so Christmas went forward as planned, and it was good.  

Afterward, though...

There were decisions to be made, beginning with whether or not to go to California for the services.  Normally, that would have been a no-brainer - of course I'd go.  But how?  I'm not a big fan of flying in most circumstances when I can possibly drive.  Flying used to be fun, but the past several years, it's simply been an ordeal.  When you arrive, you have to get a car or some sort of transportation.  Plus, when you fly, your visit is limited by the airline's timetable - no flexibility.  And that is during NORMAL times.  

Today, if you fly out, there's no guarantee you'll be able to fly back - flights have been canceled left and right as the newest variant of COVID-19 surges.  And to travel to California, of all places, while all this is going on?  The state with the most restrictions on personal freedoms?  NO THANK YOU.

So my sister and I have talked, texted, and emailed about our conundrum.  We've gone around and around, looking at the arguments for and against the choices - do we go or do we stay?  We feel guilty about not going.  We WANT to go.  But we feel it would be crazy to go.  Too much uncertainty.  Too much risk if we fly.  Too much risk if we drive.  And we don't want to get stuck in California.

So we're not going.  And it hurts.

What a way to start a new year - full of grief, guilt, and fear.

Oh, GOODY.

My Favorite Christmas Present

After buying new living room furniture this fall, we sort of agreed to not buy each other Christmas presents, but I actually kind of got a late Christmas gift from That Man. 

I was getting dressed yesterday morning and making exasperated noises at the ceiling fan lights in the bedroom.  Now, please note that I have told him over and over that the sockets for the light bulbs in that fan are going bad (one doesn’t work at all, one makes the light flicker), plus one bulb just blew the night before.  So, out of 4 60-watt bulbs, one was working, and one was fitfully flickering on and off.  I was making the aforementioned noises, and That Man asked what was wrong.

I pointed at each dark bulb in turn and said, “That socket doesn’t work at all, that bulb is burned out, and that socket only works sometimes.”

“Would you like me to get some LED bulbs for it?”

“Well, that won’t do any good if the sockets are bad.”  (Snark.  Snark.)

When I got home last night and turned on the bedroom light, I was nearly BLINDED!  My word!  All four bulbs blazed forth in all their LED glory!  He had gone out and replaced all four bulb sockets, upgrading from Bakelite to porcelain, and replaced two of the bulbs with pricey LEDs.  WHOA.  The bedroom has stadium lights now.  I can SEE in there.  I hadn’t realized just how dark it was until it was fixed.

Now THAT’S my favorite Christmas present!!! 

The Emergency Tree

Our Christmas tree is up! Sort of.

We hauled the tree out of the attic and got ready to set it up, then discovered that about half of the pre-lit tree wasn't any more.

I REALLY like the tree, so I decided to remove all the lights and keep the tree - just use conventional strings of lights like we used to do in the dark ages of the 1990s.

So I sat down and began stripping the tree of its lights. I unwound and untangled the wires and the wire branches and fake needles made lots of little cuts all over my hands.  It looked like I'd been in a cat fight - with REAL cats - and I'd lost.

After two solid hours of this, I had removed all the lights from the bottom third of the tree. Hmmm... This is going to take longer than I had hoped.

I decided that was enough of that for one evening - I had to go to work in the morning! I took the whole tree (in pieces), put it in the laundry room, and shut the door to control the cats' curiosity. Steve came home and wondered whether the tree had met an untimely death.  I assured him that it was still viable, but undergoing renovations.

I was feeling the pressure of my self-imposed decorating deadline. I needed a tree and didn't know when I'd be able to have THAT tree ready.

I let it simmer in the back of my brain for a couple of days, and voilá! Inspiration! I had a four-foot pre-lit tree in the attic! If we put it on a small table in front of a window, it looks like a full-sized tree from the street.

So, I sent The Boy up to the attic to bring down The Emergency Tree. We set it up in about fifteen minutes and I immediately felt lighter - less stressed.

I can still mess with the other tree, but I don't have to get it done in any specific timeframe. The house looks fine, I can enjoy the holidays, and when it's time to pack everything up, it will be FAST.

Thank you, Emergency Tree!