Packed Away Till Christmas '11

It took 4 bins--2 flat under-the-bed jobs and 2 of the big blue ones--one of which was full of old books that I had read and handled all to pieces, including my first copy of  Gone With the Wind. It's doubtful anyone would ever want them, so I trashed 'em.

If the Lord lets me see another Christmas, I plan to have about a 12-foot tree with every garland, light and ornament I own, some of which are, I'm sure, hiding in nooks and corners of the house and basement.
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7:55 p.m.: A while ago, I watched Hal Lindsay's program for a few minutes. I get too emotional about Israel and Palestine, so I don't watch such shows very often. But I'm going to say this once: Think what you will about him, Lindsay knows and tells the history and situations in the Middle East the way they really are and have been. I read Chaim Potok's history many years ago, besides a lot of other stuff, and I know about the history. I've read what the Bible says about it, and what the Arabs say about it. And pretty soon, Jesus is going to come and straighten the whole thing out, probably to the surprise of a lot of Jew-haters.

It's Only Pain

My sinuses are making themselves felt today, with pain in the upper right quadrant of my nose, my right eye and across my forehead. I may take an Advil and go back to bed. Had it made up to go to Bham today, but I'll probably put it off until tomorrow or Monday. I want to finish reading Colonel Roosevelt, but that too can wait.

Otherwise I feel OK, so maybe I'll undecorate the house this afternoon. I think it'll take about 3 bins to hold all this stuff.

Technology and Other Blessings

One day maybe we'll be able to project our mental images onto a wall or a screen, and record them photographically. This morning, one of the times I woke up, I was mentally walking the road from the top of the Mountain down to the Old Farm, seeing every detail on an early fall day. The iron-red sand-and-clay stretch from the Top to the rocks below the quarry, and the gently sloping rocky place with the huge slanting flat rock in the middle, and the rubble of rocks below. Then you came to a level light brown sandy part, the sand scattered with hickory nut shells, that ran to the top of the first big curve. The road and bank at the top of the curve was studded with gravel, and below it the sand was lighter beige and likely to be muddy, because a run-off stream ran down from the hill below the quarry and across the road, and down the steep banks on the left-hand side. There was a persimmon tree in this curve, and on the lower bank I remember picking a paw-paw and tasting it.

Up from the muddy place and at the top of the next curve, there was a huge hickory tree on the left-hand side, growing almost in the road. Below the tree, the road overlooked a field and then the plum orchard and the log barn. To the right, up the mountain, was Mr. Lowery's log cabin and a trail leading up to it. From here to Maw Maw's house, the sand in the road was powdery and almost white. At the end of Maw Maw's place, the road dropped down to red clay all the way across in front of the storm pit, the road to the spring, and our house.

What will Heaven be like? I'm almost sure that part of it, for me, will be a walk down from the top of the Mountain.
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Christmas and Birthday (or the Feast of Stephen) and my actual birthday Monday were so full of gatherings, feasting and adventure, that I can't even remember all of it. I gained two pounds and lots of lovely presents from my folks. I drove the Tracker to Trussville and back, shaking in my boots (literally) because I hadn't driven on the interstates for nearly a year. If I hadn't had Jed co-piloting and then leading the way back in his silver rental Ford, I might not be here today. He left the Tracker here for me, and we're going to donate the Lincoln or pay somebody to take it away. It's only 18 years old and has only been driven 48,000 miles. I may decide to buy a new set of tires and a major "tune-up," and keep it myself. Funny I didn't think of that during our discussions.

I've got to go this week and renew my driver's license, register the Tracker, and see if Birmingham is still there.

Christmas Eve and All's Well

Yesterday Jed came over, we went "out"--ate too much for lunch, then went to see "True Grit," which was a true riot. Old Jeff Bridges outdid himself as a super-drunk Rooster Cogburn, and the other actors also accentuated the comical. "Mr. LaBeef" looked reverently westward when announcing that he was a Texas Ranger. The movie was accented throughout by someone behind us who had a markedly melodious laugh.

For a long time, the original "True Grit" was one of my favorite movies. The thing is, I don't remember its being something to laugh at. There were moments poignantly gratifying in a humorous way, but you didn't necessarily laugh out loud: As when Tom Cheney said, "Now I've been shot by a child." And when Rooster said, "By God, she reminds me of me." And when he took the reins in his teeth and a gun in each hand, and rode towards the 4 gunmen, muttering, "Fill your hands, you--" John Wayne's Rooster was someone a girl could trust, with a lot fewer drunken antics. Anyway, TGII was a very good movie in its way.

Yesterday evening, Jed took my list of last-minute items and went to the store, and brought back Chic-Fil-A sandwiches and stuff.

I'm going to start cooking at noon and probably won't stop until sometime tomorrow afternoon. I'm looking for everyone to start arriving about one o'clock, and we'll probably devour the turkey, thawed or not, around two.

Fate? Or Karma?

Some too-perspicacious poet said, "We cannot choose what we are free to love." I can put my foot down and make an immovable resolution never to have another pet after Mo, but it looks like there'll always be creatures waiting (or clawing) for food, warmth and love. Gretchen Dog purely begs to stay, every time someone from Hawk Hill comes to get her. And usually, when it's raining, sleeting or snowing, I can look out and see that tuxedo cat shivering and mewing on the back porch. He looks like Lamont Cranston walking into a night club, in the best "Shadow" movie ever made.

(I'll bet A.B.'s ugly brothers hated him when he was young and gorgeous. Wonder if they ever thought about "a pit in Dothan.")

Yesterday when I was out gathering greenery at the back of the lot, the enormous black Rottweiler or pit bull or whatever he is inside my back neighbor's fence barked at me fiercely. In my sweetest voice I said, "Yes, you're a beautiful big black monster, aren't you, you sorry SOB?" and kept up such endearments until he was beside himself with fury.

Almost Prepared

The old turk is in the refrigerator, thawing, I hope, and the CB sauce is cooling. I only have to go shopping once more and then cook all this stuff. Actually, a lot of it is in cans so won't require much oven time. I believe in time-savers.

Deck the Halls, etc.

I put some vintage cards in the old window.

This is my ancient Father Christmas. He's rickety, but he'll still stand up.

And the little tree with a star on top.

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Today I'm working on the dining room, and of course the living room and kitchen are so full of stuff that you can't walk through them without a map. Next I've got to wash the windows. I don't do windows, but I gotta.

This is such a beautiful day. I go outside on every excuse. Don't even mind taking out the trash. The voluminous trash. Lots of stuff I didn't think was trash, but am trashing it anyway. I need to rent one of Veolia's dumpsters.

The Ice Man Cameth

Freezing rain and ice all over the place. I dasn't go out the back door. All my trips outside are made through the basement/garage.

I haven't yet made a lot of progress in getting the house spiffed up for Christmas, but I've got it all planned, including dinner. I'm good at planning, and that's the main part, isn't it?

The Sunday Flurries

"It's snowing! It's snowing! The old man is--"

I can only think of one rhyme, and it's inappropriate.

In a little while, I have to go out in it to get cat food and stuff. Something told me to go yesterday, but I said, "Something, don't bother me, I'm busy."

The black cat is on the deck, his fur all bushed out, looking like a black and white teddy bear with little specks of snow on him. When I gave him some Meow Mix, I told him he could go into the basement if he had sense enough to find the little door, but I expect he'll just go back to where he hangs out most of the time. I think he must have found a home, because he looks all healthy, clean and fat, and he doesn't get enough here to effect such a change. I just see him 2-3 times a week. Yesterday his visit coincided with Gretchen's, and he ran away. Gretchen would have run away, but the cat left first.
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At Friday's book club meeting, Ramey read aloud to us, the "Cajun Night Before Christmas." I passed around a grab-bag full of the angel ornaments and only had one left over, besides the one on top of my little tree.

Just so I'll remember:
Blue at top left: Leftover
I gave the Yellow one to Betty Jo.
The Ivory one is on top of my tree.
Hope C. drew the auburn-haired Green one.
Susan drew the Pink one.
Betty W. drew the Red one.
Ramey drew the Rose one.
Nell drew the little Pink one.
I gave Ramey the blonde-haired Green one.
Mary U. drew the Bisque one.
I gave Susan the Lavender one.
Mable drew the Blue one.

I guess Mary and Mable got the ones I thought were prettiest. Susan, appropriately, got the pink one, she's so fond of pink. Several days ago, I had let Ramey pick out the one she wanted, the green one with the fancy hairdo.

Crouches on Couches

In that photo (below) of Jed's quilt, you can see the front of his new leather couch.

Pretty soon, I'm going to be able to replace the one above which that scoundrel Mo has clawed all to pieces.

Right now I've got to get ready to go to book club meeting.

Rainbows on the Floor

The front door has lots of prisms. Because of the direction it faces, the streaks of rainbow colors only hit the floor and lower walls.

When Jed and Jack were boys, their great-aunt Carrie Blevins (Grandmother Cage's sister) made each of them a quilt. The one shown below is Jed's; he sent me the photo a day or so ago. I had forgot how pretty it is.

It took Jonathan two and a half days of hard work--not to mention his dad's mower--to get the leaves off this huge lot. So I paid him double what I usually paid Joe for a day's work, and still felt like it wasn't enough. But he was quite pleased. He and his fiancee have both joined the Air Force and are being sent to the same training camp in February.

I've put my tiny Christmas tree on the hearth in front of a mirror screen, to make it seem bigger, and a wreath in the hall. I've invited all my family members for Christmas dinner, and I'm thinking about cleaning and decorating, so I may change things around before the big day.

Niecy's Creed

"The hand that's open to give, is also open to receive."

A great big TV set has been sitting on a night stand in my guest room closet for I-don't-know-how-many years. This morning when the E.C. truck came by, I got the guys to come in there and tote both items out to the truck. And guess what--not only do I have an extra closet now, I found two more Mary Ramey quilts that had fallen down behind the TV.

I'm sorry about the quality of the pictures. My Adobe (if it's still Adobe) system has changed, and at present I can't do all the stuff I could do with pictures before. Maybe I'll get better at it.

I haven't forgot about the quilt picking that I promised to the family some time ago. But it'll take me a long time to wash and do up all these quilts, and decide which ones I can't part with. So y'all keep reminding me.

Maybe I Amount To Something At Last!

At least I got my picture on the front page of the Leeds News, with a slightly garbled account of my prizes in the ASPS fall poetry awards. For example, I didn't claim to be a graduate of the University of Alabama, but I guess it's OK if people think so.

I've worked on the book today until I'm blue-eyed. And red-eyed. And now I've got to get my donation bag ready for the Exchange Club home's truck that will come by tomorrow. Maybe I can clear out some of stuff piled in the corners of my bedroom so I can get that room straightened up. Dave has been calling me wanting to clean the carpets, which hasn't been done since early last spring.

I think my files and research for the book may turn out to be more interesting than the story itself. I've found a lot of information online about the history of Oak Ridge, Tennessee from 1939 to after the war. And of course the book will only have scant mentions of the place because Betty Lou worked there. One story I found online said that, when it was announced nationally that the A-bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, one employee at Oak Ridge Laboratory ran up and down the halls yelling, "Uranium! Uranium!" because now they were allowed to say the word.

Excuses

No, I didn't finish the book in November. But I enjoyed or coped with a class reunion, a missed book club meeting, a smashed garage door, another holiday, a new computer and scanner, and a fire in my yard. Thank you, Lord. And thank you, J.D. Cage.