We typically spends New Year’s Eve staying home, drinking in moderation, and going to bed before 9:00. Tonight will be no different. The New Year has never meant much of a change for us, but this January forward will be much different than in the past.
I retire from full-time work January 31. I will be out of the office for the month of February, and then start part time in March. I hope to put in no more than 20 hours a week, doing two evaluations a week and writing the reports. I am a little concerned my agency wants me to do more than I have imagined, as I have been asked to supervise two counseling interns and to continue behavioral consulting at Head Start. They also want me to continue as a consultant to the Youth and Family team and to train staff in diagnosis and treatment planning.
All the while this will be going on, Husband and I will be downsizing and preparing ourselves to move to Minnesota. I think the move will be no later than the spring of 2026. It is very strange to have so much uncertainty in our future after 36 years of much the same activity, people, and tasks.
What does the New Year hold for you? What have been your most uncertain times? How do you celebrate New Year’s Eve?
The chickens might be coming around, slowly, to laying eggs again. Friday we got five eggs. Three on Saturday, and that’s normal to have more every other day.
Still have three guineas. They sure seem like bullies; they’ll chase roosters away from food. And they don’t even necessarily eat it, just stopping someone else from eating.
No sign of ducks lately. I’m really bummed about that. I’ve been wondering if next year I got mallards, would that help? Would being able to fly help them escape whatever it is that’s been taking ours? Don’t know. But I sure miss having ducks around. I noticed today my pond has sprung another leak and there’s not much water in it. No need to fix it at the moment.
We had a nice quiet Christmas Day. I made cinnamon rolls from scratch the night before. Never made anything with yeast that had to rise before, so that was fun. I’d like to try biscuits, too. Then Kelly made lasagna for supper and it was really good. When we were first dating, lasagna was the first meal she made for me, showing me that she knew how to cook. Well, readily admitting lasagna was the only fancy meal she knew how to cook. What did we eat when younger? A lot of potato chips and dip, I remember that. I don’t remember what else. Maybe we ate out a lot.
I was working on the shop the other day and pounding in some trim nails and caught myself with my tongue out.
I must have been concentrating, but I hate the tongue thing.
The shop is really coming along.
This past week I installed a trim piece along the top to protect the insulation and keep the birds out of it. And with all the rain and warm temps the last few days, I cleaned up some stuff, got the trailer for the scissor lift in the shed, and the four wheeler inside so I can try and get that running again. (I think it needs new fuel. Take off the carburetor, again, and dump out the old fuel, and clean the tank, and try this for a 3rd time).
My friend Doug sent me a photo had had found. He titled it ‘mentors’. The two guys left and middle were his mentors and all three were/are mentors to me.
That’s Donald on the left. He was such a cool guy with a great laugh. And such a craftsman. Besides theater he would fix furniture and make vases out of old fence posts. And he was an actor. One of his roles, he played the butler, ‘Firs’, in Chekov’s play, ‘The Cherry Orchard’ and he had a great death scene. He also told me, “If you think about it long enough, you’ll find an easier way to do something.”
In the middle is Gary. He was at the Civic Theater when I first started to volunteer there in 1983, but then he became the technical director and speech instructor at the Community College. We discovered we were distantly related: his Grandfather and my Grandfather were brothers. He retired from the theater technical director position, but continued to teach speech, and that’s when I got hired as the college TD. We shared an office for a couple years. He was a fantastic designer. And did his best to impress that upon me. Some of it stuck. He passed away the same day as Prince, which is why you didn’t hear about his passing.
On the right is Doug, the man who sent the photo. He is also so creative and such a great designer! I talk with Gary or Doug sometimes when I need inspiration. In the way back days, Doug and his wife Joan created trophies to give out at a theater award banquet. I received ‘Best Director’ for sitting in the booth trying to get actors to stay in their light. (Talking to myself: “Don’t go there! Come over this way! No, not up there! C’mon, one more step!”) I was young. I didn’t know that wasn’t a thing.
WHAT ARE YOU GONNA WRAP UP IN THE LAST TWO DAYS OF 2024?
We went to a very early Christmas Eve Service at 1:30 PM on Tuesday. It was nice to be in the congregation instead of being a church musician. Nice, that is, aside from the three very naughty children in the pew in front of us.
The children in question were apparently cousins sitting between their mothers. One was an 8 year old girl in a green, spangly dress. The other two were brothers, ages about 8 and 4. The girl’s mother was somewhat attentive. The boys’ mother was somewhat inert. Their father was seated on the other side of her from the boys, and he didn’t seem to notice what they were doing.
No one sat still. There was constant movement and activity. The four year old was the major instigator of trouble. The adults had wisely provided crayons and papers to color on, but the four year old decided crayons were weapons to draw on his brother and stick in his brother’s ears. He blew raspberries at his brother and cousin and they pushed and shoved him. Sometimes they tried to ignore him. There were snacks and crackers all over the pew. The boys’ mom sometimes whispered to them to settle down, but did nothing to stop any of the activity. This went on the entire service.
It wasn’t until the four year old decided to start smashing Goldfish Crackers in his brother’s hair that I intervened. I tapped him lightly on the shoulder with my bulletin. He spun around, saw my glare, sat down, and didn’t move for the rest of the service. I am happy to say that our grandson colored quietly for the majority of the service.
What were the most difficult venues for you to behave in? How would your parents have handled the naughty ones I encountered?
I am amazed by the wonderful art kits and projects that are availble these days for children. We got our grandson something called Paint By Stickers. You can see one of his creations in the header photo. We also got him this amazing art kit:
It has water color pencils, pastels, charcoal pecils for sketching, and things I can’t even identify. He loves doing art projects. He set straight to work with it after opening it on Wednesday morning.
I sure can’t say the same for me either now or when I was a child. I despised art class and art projects in school. Sewing and embroidery made sense and I enjoyed them. I still do, but drawing? Forget it. My fingers don’t do what my brain tells it to do when I have an art implement in my hand. My hand writing is and always has been awful. I think it has something to do with a lack of patience.
One of my favorite college classes was Art History. I love other people’s art and learning about artists and their lives. .Just don’t make me create anything. I will leave that to the proficient.
What art projects did you like or not like as a child? How about now? Who are your favorite artists?
My parents and I always opened our presents on Christmas Eve after church. That was a German tradition from my mother, and also cleared the way for Christmas with family on Christmas Day.
We usually headed for Magnolia, MN late morning on Christmas Day to either my paternal grandparent’s farm or the farm of my dad’s younger brother a couple of miles east. My dad’s sister and family would come from Sioux Falls, and we would have a huge meal (usually turkey and all the fixings), and then we children would have to wait until after the dishes were done to open presents. That was a long wait! Late in the afternoon we would head to Pipestone, 25 miles north, to whichever of my mother’s family would host Christmas. There usually were no presents, just a big meal and lots of desserts.
Yesterday we spent time in Brookings opening presents, taking turns cooking, napping, reading, doing art projects with our grandson, and listening to grandson read aloud the various books he received (Cat Kid, Wild Robots, or Dog Man). He also received some pretty wonderful art kits which he started to use right away. It was very foggy outside, and we didn’t go anywhere. We watched The Muppets Christmas Carol after eating the French Canadian tortiere that grandson and I assembled and baked. He was a good dough pincher. It was a restful day. The Westie and cat napped on various soft blankets. No one had to wait for the dishes to get done before opening presents. We cleaned as we cooked. We listened to Christmas music on MPR all day. It was a great time.
What were your family gatherings like when you were a child? What were some of your favorite presents?Who did the dishes?
I am feeling incredibly grateful today. I am comfortably ensconced on my son’s sofa. I am listening to my 6 year old grandson read aloud. It is amazing how his reading has taken off since September. Our 8 hour trip yesterday had some of the worst driving conditions I have dealt with for a very long time. I am so grateful we didn’t crash, we didn’t end up in the ditch, and we don’t have to go anywhere until we choose to. We made it here about 6:00 pm last evening.
Son bought a standing rib roast that we will cook and eat today. We will go to church tonight for the late service, and we will open presents after church. Life is good.
How are you spending Christmas Eve? What are you grateful for?
I hope that as this post is read, I am on the road to Brookings, SD. We have had days of “halfway weather” lately, a phrase I coined to mean weather that is nasty, but not nasty enough to make you stay home.
Last week there was an ice storm that closed the interstate 20 miles west of here after 27 semis couldn’t make it up the hills. There was freezing drizzle predicted northwest and north central here yesterday, and by Sunday afternoon there was no travel advised on the the roads to the north of us. The two counties just east of us that we need to drive through today were also expecting a “wintery mix” last night. We may slip and slide to Bismarck, but after that we should be ok all the way to Brookings. Driving on icy roads are my worst nightmare. Being the anxious person that I am, I also have been obsessively looking at the long range forecasts for next Sunday, when we are slated to drive home. Like my mother, I worry about the weather and many other things that are totally out of my control. I don’t imagine I am going to stop any time soon, though. Old habits die hard.
What bad habits would you like to stop? What bad habit did you stop, and how did you do it ? Ever slid into the ditch?
Well, we finally got measurable snow. Maybe 5” for us on Thursday. One benefit to it being so cold before it snowed is that the ground is frozen hard and I’m not ripping up quite as much sod as I generally do. Oh, I can still rip some up if I do it right, but certainly not as much as I would if it the ground wasn’t frozen before it snowed.
Bailey, my tractor buddy and I, spent an hour re-learning how to blade snow off the road and clear the yard.
I realized I forgot to put markers at the corners of the shop concrete, and I haven’t gotten the snowblower in the shed yet, but really, I don’t know where I’d put it anyway. I still gotta get the four wheeler in the shed, and the trailer for the lift I’m borrowing (and that I also don’t know quite where to put). Once the shop project is fully finished, I’ll have a bit more room; right now I’ve still got 14’ sheets of pole barn steel laying in the way. And once I get the tools and extra crap sorted out, then I can rearrange better for next winter. Heck, maybe by next winter I’ll have the lean too done on the back side and some of this stuff can go in there.
As I write this on Friday, my car is getting an oil change and tire rotation and I’m watching the snow melt and drip off. What a yucky job for the techs. Everybody has to start somewhere and presumably that’s doing the sloppy messy jobs.
We’ll be having the longest night, and shortest day this weekend. The days get longer from here on out and there’s light at the end of the tunnel!
The other morning as daughter and I were headed into town during the snow, we saw a box truck struggling and I commented that those kinda vehicles have terrible traction and don’t do well in this kind of weather. I was about to launch into a chronicle of rear wheel drive vs front wheel drive, and wheel base length, and how those things impact winter driving, but I stopped myself, and I asked, “Do you want me to keep talking about this or should I stop?” She gave it some serious thought and finally said “Naw”.
I’ve always appreciated her brutal honesty.
Do you all have that magic ten minutes in the morning? As we’re trying to get going in the mornings, I think we’re just about to leave and suddenly it’s ten minutes later and she doesn’t have her shoes on yet. I don’t get it. Where does that ten minutes go? This has been a thing since the kids were small. We’re almost ready to go and then it’s ten minutes later and now we’re late. It’s a magic ‘time hole’.
I hope you all have magical Christmas’ or Solstice events. Remember to spend a little time being grateful for what you have one way or another. Take some time to ponder.
Our scale is broken. It doesn’t show the weight we want it to show. Especially after a day of wandering around the shop trying to find my tools. And swearing. Evidently swearing isn’t an aerobic activity no matter how loud or flowery I get with it. Humph. Who knew?
How many rings have you got? They weren’t always a big deal. 1886 is when Tiffany and Co introduced the popular diamond setting, then after WWII, De Beers created the ‘Diamonds are Forever’ slogan and now I have 4 silicone rings. My everyday ring, two middle ground rings, and the dress ring that Kelly gave me which says “Adventure is Out There”. Sometimes I wear it so you can read it, sometimes so I can read it. Depends how I’m feeling. When we got married in 1990, we had the real gold bands with diamonds. Kelly had the engagement ring plus wedding band. I have a silver band with tiny diamonds in it, but I wouldn’t wear it farming. So, then I got a plain silver band. And I wore it for a lot of years, and I put it in my pocket one day while working on some machinery and trying to fit my hand up in a tight spot and I didn’t want to get my hand stuck up in there by my ring. And then I forgot about it for a few days and then it wasn’t in my pocket anymore.
I’m still hoping to find it someday.
My brother-in -law wore his ring on his pinky, snagged it on a railing when jumping off something, ‘degloved’ his pinky (peeled the skin off, right down to the bone) and then had to get his pinky amputated. And that’s why we wear silicon rings now. Plus, they’re cheap and come in fun designs. Kelly has several as well.
HOW MANY TIMES DOES / DID YOUR PHONE RING BEFORE THE MACHINE ANSWERED? DID YOU DO FUNNY MESSAGES?
My mother told me more than once when I was young that I shouldn’t get married until after I was 19. She was likely to say that after my father did something exasperating. It was no secret that she was 19 when she married my father. They were married for more than 70 years and were very happy together, but I took her words to heart and waited until I was 25.
Husband stands by his assertion that if we are going to do much traveling in the fall, we better have it done by Veterans Day, because you can’t depend on the weather after that. He is usually correct.
I stand by the assertions that lefse needs to finished and in the freezer by Christ the King Sunday, that pepper seeds should be started by March 15th, don’t plant your garden here until after Memorial Day , and Montana is not a sane or reasonable place to live, so don’t even think about moving there.
What are your words to live by? Any words of wisdom that you remember from your parents? What words of wisdom would you like to impart on young persons?
Trail Baboon 