12/31/11:
Ahh, the holidays are finishing up tonight. I have been busy with my eBay selling and other things so entries here have been slim...
Kira and her boyfriend Jason have come up to visit several times, including Christmas Eve. We had a nice dinner and visit— as you can see, momma looks kind of happy! You can click on my happy picture here for a few more if you wish.
Jason and Kira have been caught up in the bad economy and have been struggling. Jason has a new job and Kira has been able to get some unemployment compensation coming in— it is always great to be have some financial stability. We are hoping for a better economic year in store here before the world ends in 2012.
I am writing this on New Year's Eve and will be working on my new 2012 home page. Life is a series of changes, some more welcome than others. Here's wishing everyone a good new year, full of everything... ciao.
So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
John Lennon lyrics to Merry Christmas (War Is Over)
12/24/11:
Hear ye, hear ye! Once again Cindy has won the office Christmas costume contest! Yippee!
I won the Christmas costume prize last year as well. At that time a 93 year old friend insisted on having his picture taken with me in my prize winning costume and has had it framed on top of his TV all year. He enquired about my costume for this year way back in November— I have been under pressure to perform ever since!
Here is the front view of my newest prize-winning costume. If you click on this picture you can see the back view, which includes the vintage touch of a bustle.
What fun... my friend was unable to come to our party this year, so Jay did up the pictures and I have them framed for him.
Today is the Eve of Christmas, time for baking, cooking, feasting, etc. Ciao.
I cannot say I suffered anything; having let my brain grow dull . . . My senses are charred. — Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, 1893 - 1918 (considered the greatest of English language war poets)
12/17/11:
Jay made our Christmas cards again this year, using a picture of the first mass-produced Christmas card from 1843. Today we signed and addressed them to mail. It wore me out, what a wuss.
Christmas is around the bend, coming on fast. Our neighbors brought over a wreath the other evening, which is now hanging near our front door. Another neighbor usually comes around caroling with the kids, but that hasn't happened yet. Yes, we live in a Christmas card...
I should feel better soon and get to baking so I can take some goodies to the neighbors too. Our little lane is pretty friendly, reaching out to each other over the years.
I have run into an old neighbor a couple of times recently. She lost her home when she became without work, like so many people have. She is working again but struggling to even make ends meet. Damn. I should have gotten her address so I could take her some baked goods too. Maybe I will run into her again soon.
Here's to one of the reasons for life itself, connection. Get yours. Ciao.
Threshold
Ah, what balance is needed at
the edges of such an abyss.
I am left alone on the surface
of a turning planet. What
to do but, like Michelangelo's
Adam, put my hand
out into unknown space,
hoping for the reciprocating touch?
— R. S. Thomas 1981
12/15/11:
I am exhausted, been feeling a bit under all week. These squirrels have the right idea...
I had a sleep study two weeks ago to see if my CPAP should be adjusted up since I am tired when I wake up. Today I got my results and found out my machine should be adjusted only slightly and that they measured something like 136 micro movements of my legs per hour. Yikes! I have been getting much, much less REM time than normal. Another med has been added to my repertoire...
I have already told work I am staying home tomorrow, need to get rid of this crud.
Ah, time for bed. Oh to sleep, oh sleep... Ciao.
Our beds are empty two-thirds of the time.
Our living rooms are empty seven-eighths of the time.
Our office buildings are empty one-half of the time.
It's time we gave this some thought.
— R. Buckminster Fuller
12/10/11:
This is a picture of me Jay took when I was outside this summer pruning our white lilac bush— not quite done up for a photo shoot, but hey, this is life!
I have not been posting much, partially because I started working 9 hour days this week so I can have every other Monday off. It is not a big shift, but it is a change these creaky old bones notice. With all the Monday holidays coming up I am making out like a bandit the next two months— maybe will get recovered from working by myself this fall!
I have been an eBay and other vintage jewelry collector for a number of years now. Sometimes things that strike the fancy do not work out to tickle one indefinitely, other times you simply pick up something later that you like better. Nonetheless I have ventured into selling "extra" items on eBay, which I have not done before. (No, Linda, I am not selling family things!) It is interesting in that selling on eBay is about as addictive as buying there— and makes me money instead of costing me.
This week has found me with shorter evenings due to working a little later, and these have been filled with taking pictures of items to list for sale and then packaging them up to mail. I have things to last for posting another week or so— the fun continues!
A wonderful co-worker of mine lost her mother Thursday. The sadness at work was palpable yesterday as this loss is something everyone can identify with. Such losses leave one with a sense of disbelief— how can this world continue without them in it?
For us time moves forward, whether or not it truly flows, giving us more of life's lessons in loss. Such as it is, now. Bless you Alicia, my friend. Ciao.
THE GILDED SHADOW
The impact is simmering down, as into
a solvent liquid. That I'll never hear your voice
again, but through a medium like
rain. Or will see you but in a lightning flash.
You are nature's speech, the young girth
and deadly imprint.
I eagerly wait the date of your rebirth, in
the endless window-sky. Hovering cloud, really a
gilded shadow that lights your face outline. Waters
and land permit no elegy translated.
But a stark villanelle, facts rendered.
An indefinite, glorious seeding,
the element that draws us closest. Nucleus of
a meadow, the grass-tips' ghost your
being. Bend me to earth, the only hereafter after death.
O shades beneath the sun. Or I don't understand it –
like embracing a mystery hole in our minds,
this complex, heartbreak survival.
— Jane Mayhall
12/3/11:
Do I smell something? It wasn't me, honest (this time)!
That smell in the air, it is the smell of time speeding up, heading into the curve that sends us spinning into 2012. Yeah, I think that is what is happening. That must be the reason I can't keep up, yup. I think even the guys in the picture can smell it. Oh, wait, no they are just the front of the birthday card Jay got from his half-sister Laurie. You can click on it to see the inside...
November passed quickly, with a trip to Michigan, my Uncle Paul's passing, both Jay's and my birthdays, Turkey-day with Kira and Jason then the following day with Carrie, and all the other stuff of life that goes on between the important things.
Daylight savings time ended as well, so that darkness can envelope us at both ends of our days for winter— it no longer matters if time is adjusted for more daylight because there is none to be had.
So welcome to December and it' not-so-calm descent into the insanity of Christmas preparations— yikes! Ciao.
Shadows [Excerpt]
Darkness. A lamp in it. The pillars start
to fade and shadow edges almost glisten.
Mortal eyes can hardly tell apart
what is the earth and what already isn't.
— Bohuslav Reynek (Translated from the Czech by Justin Quinn)
Jardot's World: December Edition, 2011
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