Not a Prediction

Every now and then, I am reminded of my mortality. 

In the summer when I turned 40, I remember walking by a graveyard, and it hit me that I was, quite possibly, halfway to being there.  It was different than just knowing that I will die in the bye and bye because we know that all of the time, but there was a new realization of reality on that day.

It is not something that I dwell on, but on Christmas Day this year, I wondered if this one could possibly be my last one.

We were at the kids house, and for some reason, I felt unsteady every time that I got up. I would get up and take a beat to steady my unsteady self before proceeding on in my petty pace. That is when I thought the thought, not in a morbid way, but simply with a realization that it was within the realm of possibility that this could be my last Christmas. 

I don’t know why I was feeling unsteady on the morning. I do get up and down all of the time without experiencing that feeling, save every now and then at night, as I have posted here twice this year. 

Please don’t get me wrong. I am far from predicting my departure. I do think the chances of my being here are very good. In point of fact, I expect to see next Christmas, but there was just a dawning on that day that went beyond the usual background knowledge that we all have of our mortality. It was a momentary realization and not a doomsday prediction.

Happy New Year

One Measly Hour

What a humdinger of a cold! My sleep totalled 1 hour, which was 15 % of my 6.5 hours goal, which I think is a pretty modest goal. However, I did get 2.5 hours on the previous night. What more could a sick, old man ask for?

Sha had a day off on Monday, so she brought me lozenges and mints. Our neighbour across the street scraped the ice off our drive. We will have to thank him . . .  when we can talk. My diminished voice has Sue feeling like she is the one going deaf. 

Sue is not exactly full of vim, vigour and vitality, but she’s two days farther along in this adventure, so we are making do with food and tea. She fed me an echinacea tea yesterday. I managed to get it down — most of it anyway. My main food is toast because the scratchiness feels pretty good on the throat. 

Meanwhile, waste paper baskets are filling to the brim with discarded tissues, and I am dabbing my sore nose with bag balm. 

That’s enough screen time for my leaky eyes. I’ll see you around. 

Susie MacGyver

My Sue is an impressive problem solver: a Susie MacGyver as it were. She can look around and pull together the necessary items to find a workaround to a problem. While I should have countless examples of this talent, the latest and current example is on my mind.

Thankfully, we got through the Christmas season in good health, but Sue awoke on the 26th with a persistent couch. By the next day, it had developed into a humdinger of a cold. I started to forget about that when I found myself uncomfortable in my chair, where I do most of my sleeping. So, I thought I would go to the bed for awhile. I realized before I got there that Sue's germs made that a bad idea, but since I was up, I peered in regardless to see how the lady was faring.

This ↓↓ is what I saw — in the darkness, of course, because it was nighttime.

A makeshift shelf to hold the supplies for her infirmity.
Note a lack of room for AC in the king-size bed.

I escaped back to my chair in the den, but, unfortunately for me, I did not escape the virus because two days later, I awoke with a sore throat, and it kept getting worse and worse. What a night and morning it has been! Sue's affliction began with a cough and settled into a cold. Her illnesses always seem to begin with a cough. Sickness always seems to hit me in the throat first, but like Sue, my symptoms have also settled into a major cold while my throat continues to Hirt me greatly. 

It was the MacGyver thing more than the health report that roused me from my sick bed to share this with you, but I can’t describe one without the other. 

Meanwhile, I don’t quite know what the weather is doing out there at the moment, for my window has been iced over since 10 o’clock or earlier last night, and I can’t see out. I do know that it is supposed to transition to regular rain about now, which is 7am. Then, the precipitation will turn into snow this afternoon and evening. What a winter we’re having! On days like this, I worry about Shauna’s rural drive to work. However, I am able to not worry about Danica’s transportation for another week.

Christmas Day

As determined by our boss, Danica, we were over to theirs by 8am, and soon were all seated to begin to work through the haul. We began with the overstuffed and overflowing stockings, working through them methodically by going around the circle again and again until the bottoms were reached. Of course, I snapped some pictures throughout the procedure through both the stockings and subsequent parcels.

We hadn’t got too far with the stockings when I noticed that overcast and blustery day had lit up. I thought it quite appropriate that the sun came out to shine a little Christmas slight.

I sat more or less opposite JJ, so I managed to get a few photos of the boy. You saw him exuberant yesterday, I think over his Skittle dispenser (another of those below). He was also very pleased with his Swiss Army knife. I think it is nice for a man to have one of those, so that was from Sue and me.

Sue sat beside Jonathan and quite enjoyed his happiness.

Danica was beside me and somewhat behind. I managed to capture her with the rear-facing, selfie camera. I think Sue snapped the one of her hugging her gifts, but it could have been mine. 

Shauna sat to my right and somewhat behind my main line of sight.

Sabine just about stole the show, but for now I will content myself by posting just one cat photo. Once there was space at the bottom of the tree, she found a spot to chill. I crouched my old body down and snapped a nice candid cat portrait. That seemed like a fitting end to the unwrapping, and it I think it ends this post well too.

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Uh oh. Unfortunately, we're within the yellow circle (my addition). Ice Storms are to be feared. Fingers crossed.

Christmas Eve

Today, we are off to visit extended family in a cottage they are renting for a week, just an hour south of us. Cancelled due to weather and health on both sides. This is the AI summary of the morning conflab* on FB  

For the sake of the blog, however, it is time to catch up with Christmas doings. We all prepare for so long, but then it is over in a flash. Today, I take you back to Christmas Eve, which we hosted for, I think, the first time since we moved here.

We only graze on Christmas morning before we all disperse by noon, but we have a meal on the Eve. This year it was Mexican Lasagna. In this first photo, Sha and Dani were at the stove about to serve themselves before heading to the table.

It was apple pie for dessert, served from my mother's ancient silver, pie plate holder.

There were post-dinner games at the table: Tiddly Winks in the first picture, Wizard in the second. I think JJ won at Tiddly, and I know that Dani won at Wizard because she noted such very clearly on the scoresheet which we will keep. 

The kids enjoyed hot chocolate.

Sue revived the Christmas Journal in which everyone leaves a note. The practice stopped with COVID, but it was time to revive it, especially since we were here for Christmas Eve and Sue recently came across the book again.

It was a very nice Christmas Eve. On this occasion we didn’t need to bundle up and drive home in a cold car that would barely have a chance to heat before we arrived. 

* Spellcheck doesn’t like conflab, but it is in the Dictionary: “noun INFORMAL an informal private conversation or discussion.”

Boxes that Delight

Boxing Day for humans must be Merry Catmas Day for the kitties.

Speaking of boxes, Jonathan couldn’t have been more pleased after opening one yesterday. It contained a Skittles dispenser, and JJ does love his Skittles. He just has to hold his and under the device, and a Skittle will drop out. What more could a boy want?

Christmas Cards

I know you are all busy with family festivities today, but through the miracle of setting a time to publish, I can still get my cards and wishes out there even as I am presently visiting the kid and opening gifts with them. The timing feels right to me, even though this post may not be seen by many.

We have two cards for you today, but you have already seen both base photos without the added text.

Why two cards, you may ask. Well because after I prepared the first, I had the urge not the waste the second image that came my way. I've told the story of the second image previously, so I shan't repeat myself. What I will say, is that I have embraced the Happy Christmas variation more and more because that is what I hear on all of the British telly that I watch. After Happy sounding odd at first, it now seems very right.

However, I would hate to eschew the good ole North American, Merry, so here we are.

If you actually get here on Christmas Day, I hope you are having a good one. If you happen to drop by later, I hope you had a good Christmas.