Monday, December 26, 2005, 07:08
"White" Christmas
We almost did not have a white Christmas. A week ago we had a foot of fluffy white snow on the ground -- and 10 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Then warmer weather replaced the bitter cold, and after a few days of 40-degree temperatures, we only have 3 or 4 inches of slushy snow left.
It was enough snow to say we had "white" Christmas, although to tell you the truth, it's looks more like March outside than Christmas.
Christmas Day, Randy and I attended church services in the morning at our little country church. The church was lovely with arrangements of 15 poinsettias -- white and red and variegated red-and-white and light pink and dark pink. Every year people in the congregation give poinsettias in memory of, or in honor of, loved ones. A church member goes to a greenhouse and selects the best poinsettias she can find and then arranges them at the front of the church.
Randy and I gave a poinsettia in memory of my mom and dad and in memory of his Grandma Merle and Uncle Bill. I always leave my poinsettia at the church so it can be used for several more church services. I don't really have a place to put a poinsettia at home where the kitties will leave it alone. I can just see it now. I'd bring the plant home and set it on the end table in the living room. It would be there for all of 5 minutes before Sophie would see it, knock it over, and break all the stems and flowers off.
After church, it was back to the "salt mine." We have finished painting the living room. The carpeting has been shampooed.The furniture is back where it belongs. And the windows are washed.
Now it's onto the dining room and kitchen. The windows, door and kitchen counters and kitchen cupboards take up a certain amount of space, so there will be less square footage to clean and paint. With any luck at all, I will get it done in the next few days. Then I can do some more cleaning in the rest of the house and start getting the food ready for Christmas here next Saturday.
I am looking forward to New Year's Day. I am planning to take a nice, long winter's nap! I can quite honestly say I have never been this exhausted in my life. I think it's a hold-over of the flu, not to mention the dust that's getting kicked up around the house.
Merry Christmas!
LeAnn R. Ralph
Friday, December 23, 2005, 17:25
Fifty Degrees
Monday morning it was 10 degrees BELOW zero with a 16 below zero Fahrenheit windchill. Thursday afternoon it was 40 degrees ABOVE zero.
That's a 56-degree temperature change in only a few days. That's like the difference between 20 degrees and 76 degrees.
I would really notice the difference between 20 degrees and 76 degrees.
And I have really noticed the difference between 16 below zero and 40 degrees.
It's like I always say -- life is so much easier when the temperature is above zero. The horses' water buckets are not frozen solid. I don't have to wear as many layers of clothes so moving around is much easier. I don't freeze my hands when I have to do something outside that requires fine motor skills and necessitates taking off my gloves or mittens.
As far as I'm concerned, it wouldn't have to go so far as to be 40 degrees above zero. Thirty degrees would be all right.
The only problem is -- with the weather being so warm, our snow is melting. It looks more like spring outside rather than Christmas. We worked very hard to get a nice layer of a foot of fluffy snow. And now it's all mushy.
We will probably get more snow again after Christmas, so then it will look more like Christmas again, even though it's not Christmas anymore.
That's okay, though. It doesn't look like Christmas inside the house, either. It looks more like a bomb went off.
Good. That's means I'm making progress. You have to have chaos first before you can have peace and harmony and order. I don't know why. But that's what happens.
I think by the time I get done painting and cleaning, I am going to need a nice, loooooooooooong vacation.
Jeepers. And tomorrow is Christmas Eve. . .
LeAnn R. Ralph