Look Who’s Home!

Look who got to come home this afternoon!  

She was not happy about being back in that carrier, and yowled pitifully all the way home, but once I got her into the house and out of the carrier, she settled down after a few moments, and soon was napping in my lap.  

Now she is napping on the bed.  She's still limping a bit, but is doing much better than before.  I saw the one wound the vet was so concerned about, and now I can see why.  It's large, and very deep even after two weeks.  I can only imagine what it looked like when it was fresh.  

The first thing she did when she got home was to go to the French doors and ask to go out, and the first thing I did was to say, "No, ma'am!"  I'm still supposed to keep her movement restricted for another 7-10 days, so she's an indoor cat for as long as I can get away with it. 

The good news is, it didn't cost nearly as much as I had feared it would.  Oh, it was still expensive, but about half of what I was thinking it would be. 

On a similar note, the last Christmas gift I ordered for Cody arrived today, so I'm completely done with shopping, except for maybe some more stocking stuffer type things.  Now all I need to do is the food and such.  

Speaking of Christmas, I got a better photo of the tree showing the dim spot in the middle. 

It's not as obvious when the lights are blinking, but still, they're bad enough I'm going to replace the whole string.  Between the good strings that are left and the two new ones I bought, I ought to have plenty.  

In other news, this was definitely one of those mornings I didn't want to get out of bed.  

My own outside thermometer confirms it was downright cold.  

I don't usually have problems with my pipes or outside faucets unless it gets really cold -- I mean, colder than this -- but I took the precaution of wrapping the faucet in an old t-shirt and covering it with a bucket. 

It's supposed to start warming up today, and by Christmas, it'll be back in the 70s.  

Well, I need to get off of here and watch my next lesson on Colonial America from Hillsdale College, so I'll just leave you with the meme of the day:  

 I have to agree.  As the kids would say these days, Navy's helmets were 🔥.

He Came Back

I saw him today...that gray tabby tom cat that put the Incarnation of Evil into the hospital.  He came up into the yard, bold as you please, and started drinking from the deer trough.  I stepped out the back door and told him to get out of my yard.  He ran a few steps, then turned around and looked at me.  

"All the way out!"  I said, advancing menacingly, and he disappeared into the woods behind the house.  

"And don't come back!" I shouted after him, but I know he will.  

That was my excitement for the morning, unless you count my fire choosing today to be stubborn.  I don't know what its problem was, but it just did not want to light.  I finally got it to burning well, but by that time, it had warmed up enough that I didn't even need it.  

Even so, I refilled my wood box in anticipation of tomorrow's cold, which it's not even supposed to get out of the 30s, and possibly down into the teens by Monday morning.  

In other news, the last of Brennan's gifts arrived today, and they are now safely wrapped and tucked under the tree.  She's been wanting to get into crochet, so I bought her a set of hooks and some yarn from Knit Picks, and a ball winder and yarn spool from Amazon.  My sister said she's going to look for some books to send her, so she ought to be set.  Her gifts are all done, but I'm still waiting on the last thing I ordered for Cody to arrive, and that will be it for Christmas shopping.  

Anyway, after that I sat down in front of the TV and barely moved for the rest of the day.  Well, first I sat down in front of the computer, because I signed up for my Colonial America course on Hillsdale College.  I watched the first lecture --which is really more like a documentary than a lecture -- then aced the quiz.  By the time I finished that, it was almost time for the march on, so I decided to wait until tomorrow to start the next episode. 

For some reason, Hulu wasn't able to get CBS, but I don't know why.  It kept showing that message that says we're having trouble playing this channel, and I thought for a moment I was going to have to re-up my Paramount + just to see the game.  I didn't, though.  I was able to sign in to the CBS Sports app with my Hulu account, so I watched the march on, the pregame show, then watched the Army-Navy game and thought for a moment Blake Horvath had completely forgotten how to play football, but they pulled it out in the end and Navy sang second.  

I will have to say, Navy also won the uniform battle this year.  Those helmets they were wearing were absolutely awesome.  Army looked like they would disappear in a snowstorm -- which actually happened back in 2017.  It snowed, they wore solid white, and at times you couldn't even see them.  It was hilarious. 

As soon as the ball game was over, I went to Apple TV and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas, which is free this weekend.  

And I finished my day by watching A Muppet Christmas Carol,

which we'd watched on Thanksgiving, but it's too good to only watch once.   

Just FYI, if you have Disney + and want to watch the version with that song in it -- you know the one they cut out because they thought it'd be too heavy for little kids -- you can go to the Extras tab and select Full Length Version.  It has the When Love Is Gone song in it. 

OK, that's about it for what I watched on TV -- and I do more than just watch TV.  Really, I do.  But once the kids are grown and gone, and I'm not at work, there really isn't much to talk about, unless you want to hear about me changing the sheets on the bed and doing laundry.  

Oh, I can show you this.  I bought myself a new wax melter last time I went to the store, because my old one had broken.  It was pretty old, after all.  Somewhere online, I don't remember where, I saw that to get the old wax out, you can put cotton balls in it while it's still melted.  Then once the wax hardens, it'll pop right out.  

Sometimes, these life hacks are just dumb, but this one sounded good, so I gave it a try. 

After a few moments, I pulled the cotton balls out and the wax came out with them, slick as a whistle. 

And it left me a nice, clean bowl for the next time.  

That's definitely a trick I'll be using again. 

And finally, more playing around with AI -- this time with Chat GPT.  

 This one looks more like a painting than the others, and I think I like that better. 

Lost His Mind

Yesterday was one of those days at work.  I mean, our work is largely seasonal and it's always slow this time of year anyway.  Anyone who has worked there more than a year knows that already, except apparently Inspector Gadget.  

All day, he was running around hooting and hollering that we weren't getting our numbers, but how can we if there is no work to do?  Seriously, from lunch break until the end of shift, I brazed exactly 18 headers.  No, that's not a typo.  

I had a three piece order, then about 45 minutes before the end of shift, I got 72 piece order.  After setting up and all, I had time to braze 15 of those.  That makes 18.  That was it.  I spent most of the afternoon cleaning, sweeping, dusting off the shelves, and hiding in the bathroom.  

I hate days like that, because the lack of work makes the time go by so slowly.  But finally, the day was over, and I was headed to my locker to put my tools away when Inspector Gadget ran up and asked me if I wanted to stay over an hour.  

"No", I replied without hesitation and continued to my locker and then out the door when the end of shift buzzer went off. But before that, I told one of the other brazers, "Inspector Gadget done lost his ever loving mind!"  

She gave me that look that is impossible to describe, but when you see it, you know exactly what it means, and said, "It would have been different if he hadn't waited until 5 minutes till to ask!"

"It would have been different if I hadn't been standing around all afternoon with nothing to do!" I replied.  I mean, seriously...why is he going to wait until it's time to walk out the door to suddenly get concerned about us having work to do?  

Y'all, I don't wish ill on anybody, but they really need to do something with him.  He doesn't have the people skills, management skills, or leadership skills to be a supervisor.  

But you know what they say about time  -- it waits for no man, and eventually the long, long day ended, and I decided to do my shopping yesterday instead of waiting until Saturday.  I don't want to risk getting stuck in the store during the most important football game of the year. 

Of course, I'm speaking of Army-Navy.  I like to watch the pregame and march on, too, so that would really put me crunched for time if I went Saturday morning.   All that to say, I think I got everything I need for my Christmas Eve snacks, and for the first time in a long, long time I was able to say, "Well, that didn't cost as much as I expected it to!"  

Except that I forgot to get tortilla chips for the Ro-Tel.  I'll get them next time I go, or I'll just run to the Dollar General up on the corner.  Other than that, I'm about all done.  I'm not even going to worry about a Christmas dinner, because I have no idea what Cody and Brennan will do.  Knowing them, they'll go to Brennan's parent's house, only stopping here long enough to pick up their presents. 

I guess I can't complain.  At least I get to see them that much.  

OK, moving right along...

I hadn't really planned on doing anything this weekend except watching some Christmas shows, and I started last night with Rudolph.  

I have it on DVD, but there's just something about watching it on TV knowing everyone else is watching it at the same time.  Even if you have to put up with nearly as many commercials as the show is long.  

This morning, I turned to the DVD player and watched Frosty's Winter Wonderland, T'was The Night Before Christmas, and the Grinch while finishing the hat I had OTN.  

Yarn:  Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn

Colorway:  Green/Turquoise/Red

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8  5mm

That's the last of my Hobby Lobby yarn, until I can get up to Batesville again, so I cast on the next one with some Red Heart. 

Yarn:  Red Heart Supersaver

Colorway:  Icelandic

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8  5mm

Oh, and I watched The Shepherd, too.  It's only available on the FREE Chosen app, but if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend that you do so.  It's worth the trouble of downloading the free app and creating a free account.  Then you can watch The Chosen without ads, while you're there.  Or you can watch on Prime, but you have to put up with ads.  

In spite of all that TV watching, it was too beautiful a day to spend indoors all day, and I wanted to take advantage of that before the next cold snap comes in tomorrow night.  I got out and piddled in the garden spot a bit, scraping down some high spots and raking the dirt into the low spots. 

I only did a little bit, because I didn't want to over do it.  I had to remind myself that I'm not 20 years old any more.  I know you're thinking I should hire someone to do that hard work for me, but I like doing it myself.  There is something very cathartic about working in dirt.  

I also spent some time filling the wood box and kindling box in anticipation of the impending cold, then moved some more firewood into my rack.  Again, I had to remind myself that I'm not 20, and to not push myself so hard.  

Once I was done with that for the day, I sat outside in my chair for a while, and contemplated putting a fire into the fire pit and maybe roasting some hot dogs and even a marshmallow or two.  I didn't, though.  I decided I didn't want to fool with it, so I came back inside and started watching the 1935 version of A Christmas Carol with Seymore Hicks.  If you do decide to watch that one, the version of Prime has some major scenes cut out, so I watched on YouTube.  

The annoying thing about that was every time they showed an ad, it turned the closed captions back on.  I finally gave up turning them off and just left them on.  It's also not restored, so the outdoor scenes were pretty murky, but that just adds to the charm of watching an old film. 

Before I came in, I took a quick photo of one patch of bluebonnets.  

They are doing so well this year.  I'm totally stoked about it. 

Then I played around with AI and made a few more Christmas scenes.  

Speaking of A Christmas Carol, I signed up to do a Hillsdale College course on the book last weekend.  It has six lessons and I'd planned on doing one per day, but the lessons were so fascinating to me, I did the entire course in one day.  

They have another new course on Colonial America that I want to do, also.  Maybe I'll go ahead and enroll and do a lesson or two before the ball game tomorrow.  

And finally, I'd said I wasn't going to keep pestering the vet, but I got antsy and called them today anyway.  They said the cat is doing well, and they're thinking she can come home Monday.  So, yay for that.  

I kind of miss the little demon spawn running around the place. 

That was how I spent my Friday.  Now I think I'll go take a shower, then maybe watch the musical version of Scrooge with Albert Finney.  

I might even make myself some hot chocolate to go with it.  

Every Day

Every day while I'm at work, all day long I tell myself I'm going to do so many things when I get home.  And every day when I get home, I do exactly none of those things.   Today was no different.  

I had so many plans, and in the end, all I got done was...well, I finished my Christmas shopping, and that was about it.  I just hope the gifts arrive.  Amazon's new delivery service leaves a lot to be desired.  I haven't had any problems myself, but deliveries here in town have gotten so bad, some of the locals have even started a group on the book of faces to help packages to get to the right addresses.  Heck, one man posted that he'd found four packages tossed into the bushes.  Amazon needs to get this sorted, or it might just bring them down. 

Oh, and I spent a couple of minutes trying to weed my bluebonnet bed.  I really need to stay on top of that, because the weeds are taking over.   I also need to take a picture so you can see how big and beautiful they are looking. 

That'll have to wait, though, because it's already dark outside today.  Maybe tomorrow or Friday I'll remember to do that.  

Speaking of Friday, the plant has had us on four day work weeks since October, and today at the morning meeting, Inspector Gadget said they needed volunteers to come in next Friday...the last Friday before Christmas break.  Go figure...I've already got vacation scheduled, so it's not even an option for me, but several people did raise their hands. 

We also had our annual OSHA mandated safety training this morning.  Group Leader Shark is off for the rest of the year, so Inspector Gadget is doing the morning meetings.  He said our department has its training at 9:20, "so at 9:15, stop what you're doing, shut everything down and go to the training room,"  like he thinks we can't even go to a meeting without him talking to us like we're kindergarteners.  

He really is...

Well, I'm going to stop there before I end up on Santa's naughty list.  

That's about all I did, except I played around with a bit of AI and had Gemini create this lovely Christmas image for you. 

I'll catch you on the flip side.   Right now, I think I'll go make some more AI images.  

Laters...

The Saga Continues

But first, a bit of good news.  I called the vet to check on the cat, and she said they managed to get her sedated again and the injury the vet was concerned about looked much better than they expected.  She's not ready to come home yet, but she is improving.  And apparently, she's fighting them every step of the way.  

OK, moving right along...

Five years ago, I bought a new pre-lit LED Christmas tree from Lowe's.  Oh, it was a lovely tree, with lights that could change from white to multicolored, and flash in all sorts of patterns.  I was very happy with my tree -- until two years ago.  

That was the year I got the tree out to put it up and discovered that something had gotten into the box and completely chewed through two strands of lights.  I was heartbroken, but undaunted.  I cut off the damaged lights and put some regular lights in their place.   

That worked for a while, until this year.  When I put up my tree, I noticed an entire section of lights was very dim.  I don't know how well you can see it in the photo, but it's right there in the middle, where the red stocking ornament is hanging. 

Thinking the connection may have come loose, I reached into tighten it up, and as I did so, I found a damaged section of wire.  Bummer.  There's nothing I can do about it now that the tree is fully decorated, but when I take it down after Christmas, I'll cut them off and discard them. 

I'd thought to just replace them with regular lights when a couple of days ago, I was poking around on the Lowe's website, because before the cat had to go into the hospital, I was in the market to finally replace my dishwasher, when I found some color changing LED lights on sale for a really good price.  

On a whim, I ordered two sets, thinking that even if I had to plug them in separately, at least they'd match the other lights I had on the tree.  However, upon closer inspection of the label, it looks like I might be able to plug them into the same connections as the old strings.  

Again, it'll have to wait until I take all of the ornaments off, and I can really get in there and see what's what.  I mean, it's the same type of connector.  I'll just have to see if it's the same size.  

In other news, I got off work this afternoon and walked out of the plant...and the sky hurt my eyes.  Why was the sky hurting my eyes?  What was going on here?  I couldn't figure it out...About half way across the parking lot, it hit me.  

The sun...

The sun was out. 

I hadn't seen the sun in so long, I'd forgotten what it even looked like.   It was such a nice day, I spent a few moments moving some of my firewood into my new rack. 

It still doesn't look like I've made much of a dent in my main stack, though.  

It's not all going to fit into that one rack anyway, but if I can get at least some of it moved so it doesn't get rained on, ..eh, I don't even know what I'm saying right now, so I'll just show you this.  My garlic is growing!

 By next summer, I ought to have a good garlic harvest.  And maybe some celery, too.  

And finally, my brother messaged me this morning and said he and his wife had been talking about some old country songs -- Coward Of The County, All The Gold In Californa, The Gambler, Ghose Riders In The Sky.  My brother has never really been a big fan of country music, but he knew those old songs from hearing me play them on my old 45s.  

I hadn't thought about those old records in ages, and I'd assumed they'd gotten ruined in one of the hurricanes, but my brother told me he'd sent them to me years ago.  I don't even remember getting them, much less what I did with them.  Maybe they'll turn up in one of these old storage boxes I've been going through.  

Or they may have disappeared into the same black hole as my wedding dress and the ceramic cookie jar I'd made my Mammaw when I was in high school. 

Who knows?  

Not So Good News

Let's get the not so good news out of the way first.  I called the vet this afternoon to check on The Incarnation of Evil, and she said she's concerned about one of the cat's injuries -- the one that was so infected.  They're going to go in tomorrow and do another procedure to clean it out better and pack it with something so it'll stop draining.  They said I could call again tomorrow evening and check on her then, but from what it sounds like, it's still going to be a minute before she can come home.    

In the meantime, that other cat is still hanging out on my back porch.  I don't know where she came from or who she belongs to, but she thinks she belongs to me.  I've got some not so good news for her!

In other slightly better news, the first batch of Christmas cards went out in the mail today.  The not so good news is that none of you got wax seals on yours.  You either got a pre-decorated envelope, or a sticker.  

I've been in what I'd thought was a bit of a funk, then today I realized it was more than that.  I woke up this morning and my back was so sore.  I couldn't figure out what I'd done to hurt myself...then I went into a fit of coughing.

"Oh," I said.  "That's where it came from."  I'd been coughing so much over the last few days I'd made myself sore.  Not that it's anything to be concerned about.  It's pretty normal for me this time of year. 

All that to say, I wasn't up to doing sealing wax, but at least I got the cards done.  And look what I found in my mailbox this evening:

Yep!  I got a card!  This one is from my younger brother, and is now taking its place in my card display, right next to the one from my Australian pen pal. 

I haven't really felt like doing much this afternoon;  I didn't even light a fire in my wood stove, even though it's been gray and drizzly all day long.  I just didn't feel like fooling with it.  All I did was sit in front of the TV and watch baking shows while knitting on the next sailor hat. 

And finally, a bit of housekeeping -- as of January 1, 2026, I will no longer be posting links to either MeWe or Pinterest.  If you should happen to come here from one of those sites, you'll need to find an alternate route.  Not that any of you do, which is why I'm stopping the links.  I'll probably stop posting to Substack, too, unless someone speaks up and says not to.  

A Date That Will Live In Infamy

December 7, 1941

Tell it to your children, 

and let your children tell it to their children, 

and their children to the next generation.  --Joel 1:3

So that we may never forget.  

Look Who's Back

Look who is back.  

She's been sitting outside my door all day long, just looking in the window.  Except for the time I had to go out and break up a cat fight on my back porch, between this one and another cat.  Neither of them is mine.  Mine is still at the vet.  

I called this morning to check on her, and the vet assistant told me she's doing well.  They'd sedated her and checked her over really well and found some bite marks on her that had gotten infected.  That's why she's been drooping these last few days.  They have her on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and pain killers.  The assistant said, "She's mad at us!"  I laughed and said, "That sounds like her!"  

Anyway, the vet will be coming in over the weekend a couple of times to check on the cat, and they'll let me know if something untoward happens, but said if I don't hear from them, assume that everything is going fine with her. 

In other news, I said I was going to cut back on sending Christmas cards.  I was wrong.

Well, not completely wrong.  I did cut a few out, but when all was said and done, I'm still sending out 37 cards.  I got them all signed and addressed today.  Now, I just have to decorate the envelopes before sending them.  Some of them will get wax seals, but I suspect most will just get stickers and washi tape.  And some came with pre-decorated envelopes, so those will be sent as they are...

In the midst of all of that cat wrangling, phone calling, and card addressing, I managed to finish another sailor hat.  

 Yarn:  Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn

Colorway:  Green/Turquoise/Red

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles: US 8/5mm

I've cast on the next one, too.  Same yarn and everything, I just didn't take a picture.  

Not much else went on today, other than watching football.  Ohio State vs Indiana is on right now, so I think I'll go watch it and knit some.  And maybe decorate some envelopes.  

Hasty banana.  

I Gave In

I gave in this morning and took the cat to the vet.  

She'd seemed to get a little better, but then she just stopped improving.  So, I called them and they said to bring her on in.  I crammed the cat into her carrier, and hopped into the car so quickly I didn't even shut the back door.  

I mean, I'd pulled it to, but it wasn't closed completely and it sure wasn't locked.  Thank goodness for honest neighbors -- not that anyone would know unless they were in my back yard, but still...

I get to the vet, get checked in and I'm waiting my turn in their freezing cold waiting room, when a woman rushed in with her dog and she was scared to death, because the dog was holding his head at a very odd angle.  They kept asking her if he'd fallen, but she didn't know.  They took the dog right back because of the fear that he might have a head injury or something even worse, and they hadn't come out when I got called back.  I hope the little dog is OK. 

Anyway, they finally called us back, and the vet checked the cat over and asked if there were any other cats around she could have gotten into a fight with, and I said yes.  There is that gray tom cat that's always coming up into the yard and picking fights with her.  Sure enough, the vet found bite marks right there on that joint she's been favoring.  

The vet said she wanted to start the cat on antibiotics and asked me if I could give her a pill.  I said maybe with a bit of trepidation, and told her the cat could be a bit spicy.  I explained that I'd taken her in after her first owner had to be put in long term care. She was the only family he had left, and I said, "In fact, it was his wife that was killed over there at that intersection"  pointing to the corner beside the vet's office.  

She -- the vet -- knew exactly who I was talking about, and I pointed to the Incarnation of Evil and said, "This was her husband's cat."  Long story slightly less long, we agreed that the cat should stay with them, so I'll know she'll be taken care of.  And by that, I mean, they can shove the pills down her throat.

The plan is to start her on antibiotics, then sedate her so they can check her over really well and go from there.   Then it took all three of us -- me, the vet, and the vet's assistant-- to cram the cat back into her carrier and the vet said, "I can see why you want her to stay!"  

I left the cat at the vet, and said to myself, "Self, since you're already in town, might as well get your shopping done."  And that's exactly what I did, even though I didn't really need that much.  I did splurge a bit and bought some lobster bisque from the deli section, and got a couple of things to give to Cody for Christmas, then came on home and... didn't do my Christmas cards.  

But at least I got my card table out and set up, and the boxes of cards set up on it.  So that's something.  

By the way, this is not my cat.  

She's been outside my door since I got home, and accompanied me while I was moving some wood to my new rack -- which I did by hand because my wheelbarrow is still full of dirt...and I thought it would be a good way to work off some of the sugar I've been eating lately.  

Kindly ignore how dirty my windows are.  It's all the rain we've been having lately.  At least, that's my excuse...

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go now.  I've got a couple of Flossmas videos to catch up before I watch the local Christmas parade.  Hopefully, they'll stream it again, because I'm already in my jim jams and I'm not leaving the house again. 

Laters. 

Sometimes You Get Lucky

My new little Christmas candles crapped out on me pretty quickly, but it's my own fault.  The instructions said to change the demo batteries out as soon as you get home, but I didn't do that.  I said to myself that I was going to use them as long as they would still work.  Sometimes you get lucky and the demo batteries last quite a long time.  I've had some things that the demo batteries actually lasted a couple of years  

I didn't get lucky this time. 

Oh, well.  It wasn't that big of a deal.  I changed the batteries as soon as I got home this afternoon, and hopefully that fixed the problem. 

I fully intended to blog yesterday, but I was so exhausted when I got home, I just didn't have it in me.  It's not so much physical exhaustion as it is mental.  It's the stress of having someone standing over you all day hollering that you aren't doing enough, but that same person refuses to solve the problems that slow you down so much.  

I was thinking about it just today.  I spend at least 25-30% of my day doing things other than brazing -- from filling out redundant and un necessary paperwork, to doing tubing's scrap, to reordering bad parts...that's the most frustrating part.  Having to walk back and forth to tubing all day reordering parts because they won't make them do them right the first time. 

I'm tired of getting a shrug and a nonchalant, "Just re-order it..."  NO!  I don't want to just re-order it!  I want them to do it right the first time!  That shouldn't be too much to ask, but apparently it is. 

Oh, and I got up with the head of the safety department about when I fell during the fire drill back in October, and he said I absolutely should have written an incident report about that.  If I had been going home, then no, but since it was something the plant made us do, then yes.  I told him I went up to first aid and tried to do just that, she told me I didn't have to.  He said he'd go up there and educate her about it.  

In other news, I debated about whether to do Blogmas again this year, but decided not to.  I didn't want to do my Advent poster again, because I've done it twice before and I'm sure you're bored with it, but I couldn't come up with any other ideas.  

My friend Marcy is doing Flossmas over on her YouTube channel, and in her first episode, she asked what our favorite Christmas movie is.  My answer would be that there are too many good ones out there to choose just one, but if I had to it would be It's A Wonderful Life.   

The ironic thing about that is that the first time I watched it, I absolutely hated it.  However, I don't think that was because of the movie as much as me.  See, we were having a college and career fellowship after church one Sunday night, and they showed that movie.  I already wasn't feeling well, and had a raging headache, which was exacerbated by the fact that they had it sooo very hot in the fellowship hall.  All I could do was lay in the floor with my eyes closed until my friend Jennifer took pity on me and drove me back to the dorm. 

It was years before I even tried to watch it again, and I was like, "This is a lot better than I remembered!"  But then, all I remembered about the first time was how hot it was and how much my head hurt.  

Now it's one I never miss.  I also love the all of the old favorites like Charlie Brown, Santa Clause Is Coming to Town, and all of the versions of A Christmas Carol.  However, a lesser known movie I really, really love is The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey.  It's available on Tubi, Plex, and Pluto TV, and if you've never seen it, I highly recommend it. 

In yesterday's video she asked what our favorite Christmas ornament is.  I'd have to say it's this Victorian lady, which I bought from Avon years and years ago. 

It doesn't have any sort of sentimental value or anything.  I just like it. 

And finally, the cat seems to be doing a bit better today.  She's trying to put a bit more weight on her injured leg, and seems more perked up, so to speak.  She even tried to go outside with me when I went to get some firewood, but I wouldn't let her.  "You're still too gimpy!"  I admonished. So she went into the bedroom and pouted.  

At this point, I don't really think a trip to the vet is necessary, but I will keep an eye on things just in case. 

Hi Ho

It's back to work I go.  I sure didn't want to, but hey, somebody's got to pay the bills around here and I don't exactly see that cat rushing out to get a job.  

Speaking of, guess who came in gimpy last night.  That's right, the cat.  I can't see anything amiss, so I'm hoping she just tweaked her shoulder or something.  If she's not better in a day or two, I'll take her to the vet.  

But as I was saying, it was back to work, and it had been so long, I almost forgot how to get ready.  Fortunately, I remembered to turn on the coffee pot just in time. I really wish they'd let us have our insulated mugs back, because those stupid clear plastic things they make us carry don't keep our coffee hot or our water cold. 

Nevertheless, I made it through the day and found a nice surprise in my mailbox when I got home. 

Funny, it was raining so hard I almost didn't check the mail, but now I'm glad I did.  

I got my cards and stuff out, but so far, the only one I've gotten ready to mail is the one to my Australian pen pal.  

 As I mentioned earlier, I'm just not feeling it this year. 

And right now, I'm not feeling there's much else for me to talk about, so I'm going to end this here and just watch some TV until time for bed. 

Laters. 

Monkey Off My Back

Finally!  I am so happy I got this monkey off my back.  I'm speaking, of course, of the Demeter Fade hat I've been working on for the last few weeks. 

I finished the thing...well, except for weaving all of those ends in, I mean.  I still have to do that.  Overall, I'm ok with how it turned out, but if I had it to do all over again, I don't think I'd do it the same way.  I didn't like knitting it with two strands, even though it made the color changes less obvious.  It still looks a little stripey to me, but I guess that can't really be avoided unless the yarn is specifically dyed to fade seamlessly.  

I bought the set to make a hat for my sister in law, but now I'm not even sure I want to send it to her.  I'm sure she'll like it, but I've sent her so many hats over the years that she may have hat overload by now.

The next monkey on my back will be to get my Christmas cards ready and mailed.  I want to send them, but I'm just not feeling it this year.  I'm going to greatly reduce the number of cards I send out for one thing.  Now, I don't expect to get a card back from every single person I send one to, but last year, I sent 40 cards and received three.  That was it.  It's discouraging.  

I know part of the problem is that stamps have gotten so high these days, which is why some of you will get American Flag stamps on your Christmas cards.  I bought two rolls back when they were still .55.  They're up to .78 now, and I can understand why people don't want to pay that much.  Unfortunately, USPS is a monopoly, and they can charge whatever they want because there is no competition and no other option.  

In other news, I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know my little candles turned on just when they were supposed to.  I'd gone outside yesterday evening and turned them on right around 5:00, then I walked out and took a picture of the outside lights. 

I was going to go take another photo once it got a bit darker, but it started raining and didn't stop until sometime after I'd gone to bed.   According to Raindrop, we got .6 of an inch.  Still doesn't completely relieve the drought conditions, but at this point, every little bit helps. 

Part of the reason is that we haven't had any hurricanes or tropical storms in the Gulf this year.  Not a single hurricane made landfall in the U.S, which is highly unusual.  A lot of the storm chasers say that this is the reason why our Fall tornado season is expected to be especially sporty, because we haven't had any tropical systems to churn the heat out of the water.  So yay...Today is the last official day of hurricane season, by the way.  

Back to what I was saying...it was raining last night after it got dark, so I went out and took a photo tonight. 

My new neighbors and my been here longer than me neighbors both have their houses all decorated, too.  Even my across the street neighbors who don't usually decorate have bows up on their porch posts.  The neighborhood is looking really pretty. 

You know what else is looking pretty?  My biggest Christmas cactus.  

I don't know exactly what I'm doing with this one that is so right, but I'm not going to mess with success.   I need to prune some of the longer branches, but that's all I'm going to do to it. 

Well, Thanksgiving week is over, and I have to go back to work tomorrow.  I'm plumb sick about it.  Ole Miss fans are plumb sick because Lane Kiffin is now the new head coach at LSU.  I need to go to X and see what the former players are saying about that.  They had some pretty harsh words about the culture Brian Kelly had developed -- saying it's a culture of softness instead of competitiveness.  We'll have to see if Kiffin can re-build both the culture and the team. 

And finally, your meme of the day:

 Yeah, go ahead and judge.  Most of you are going to do it anyway. 

And I'm OK with that, because if it weren't for people judging me, I'd have never realized how obnoxious and unlikeable I used to be.  Hopefully, I'm a much better person now.  

But I still don't like the new kick off rules in the NFL.  

All Done

Just like that, I am all done with my Christmas decorations for the year.  

I got up this morning and drove into town to do my weekly shopping, stopping by the town square on the way to see the big Christmas tree they put up a few days ago.  They didn't put it up last year, but I don't know why.  I think the city council had something to do with it.

You know, we were in the running to get an Academy Sporting Goods store here, but half of the council members didn't even show up to the meeting to discuss the matter.   Batesville has one.  Batesville is growing and thriving and their city council has forward vision, unlike ours.  For the entire 30 odd years I've lived here, I thought Batesville was bigger than Grenada, but it's not.  They're about half the size of our town, but you wouldn't know it to look at their downtown and business districts.  

Oh well, it is what it is, and Grenada will never grow and prosper until we get it through people's heads that they can't keep voting for the same old same old and expect things to change. 

Wow, that was quite the tangent I got off onto, so let's get back on track.  I went into the store and sure enough, they had two more boxes of the large lights I needed to finish my house.  

I bristled a bit at the thought of paying full price, because I normally buy this kind of stuff on clearance after Christmas.  But I wanted to finish my house more than I wanted to keep that $3.00 and change, so I bought them, and it didn't take but a minute to string them along the rest of my house. 

I'm telling ya, having a taller ladder made it so much easier to do.  With my old ladder, I had to stretch to reach the hooks, but this was a breeze.  

Then I got the three strings of smaller lights and looped them along my fence.  

I'm thinking next year, I might try looping a little outdoor safe garland along that fence as well.  That ought to give it a nice festive look.  The last piece of the puzzle was these little light up candles. 

I'd been looking at them in the store for a few weeks, debating whether to get them or not, and I finally gave in.  I was bummed when I opened them to discover that they are strung together with wires that lead to an external battery pack.  The photo on the box doesn't show any wires, so I thought each one had it's own internal battery compartment.  That was a bit of a disappointment, but not enough to take them back....So, what are you supposed to do with that battery pack?  I've got mine just sitting on the porch for now.  

It's supposed to be waterproof, so I may just tuck it into the grass beside the first candle.  Now, as of this writing, I'm just waiting for it to get dark so I can turn them on.  They're supposed to be on a timer -- six hours on and 18 hours off.  

In other news, I slept pretty good last night.  In fact, I fell asleep at half time in the Texas vs Texas A&M game.  I woke up just in time to see the last five minutes of the game, so I knew who won.  Even so, I watched the second half this morning before I went into town, and now, the debate is raging over whether Texas should have a spot in the playoff picture.  

Some are saying they should, other are saying a three loss team shouldn't be in the playoffs.  If won/loss record is the criterion, then Navy is sitting there at 9-2, and they aren't even ranked.  Others are saying you have to look at strength of schedule, and if Texas had scheduled a cupcake for their first game like most teams do instead of playing the defending national champion, they'd already be in, and Arch would be a Heisman contender.  His stats are almost identical to Julian Sayin, yet Sayin is the favorite, and Arch is considered a flop.  

Meanwhile, we're still waiting to see what Lane Kiffin is going to do...

But I digress....again...

I did not sleep well at Cody and Brennan's house, and not just because it's a strange bed.  They live right down the street from a fire station, so there were sirens going off all night long.  Not to mention that they keep later hours than I do.  They started -- STARTED -- a movie at 9:45.  I guess they aren't used to having guests in the house, because they didn't even try to be quiet.  

All that to say, I was plumb tuckered when I got home yesterday.  I guess it's a good thing my new case of coffee pods arrived.  

You know what?  I really wish they'd sell that hot chocolate separately, because that chocolate cherry is good.  Really good.  I'd buy a case just of that.  If they sold it that way.  But they don't.  Pity.  Oh, and my new advent calendar arrived, too.   

Just a plain chocolate one.  I'd bought Cody and Brennan an escape room advent game on clearance last year.  I thought it would be a fun thing for them to do together, instead of just getting a piece of candy.  Brennan seemed pretty excited about it when I showed her, so I hope they enjoy it.  

And finally, I said I was going to slow down my spending, but I keep finding things I need.  For years, I'd had a blanket hung between my kitchen and laundry room, because the previous owners had taken the door down.  

They had a thing about doors.  I'd wanted to put one back up, but my washing machine made that very difficult, especially after I got the new one a few years back.  It's too big to allow a door to close.  The only realistic option would be to block this door off, then use the one in the car port to enter and exit the laundry room, but I like not having to go outside, especially since I'm also using it as a pantry.  Thus, the blanket. 

So, I was on Amazon and saw one of those suggested for you things showing privacy curtain used for a door.  

Hmmm, that's a good idea, I thought right before adding to my cart.  Now I have a curtain for a laundry room door.  It's a lot better than that blanket, because I can push it open instead of having to fight my way through a blanket. 

And when I'm done, I pull it across the door, and it blocks the sunlight and keeps the heat from the dryer out of the main part of the house. 

It's the little things...