SOME BIRTHDAYS NEVER ADD UP

aspirin       My sister would have been 78 today. Instead she has remained 11 years old. Birthdays come and go but she stopped at 11. 

       In Feb of 1953 our family met a tragedy. My sister died of illness which was not diagnosed and not treatable at the time.

      Our family was saddened and the loss was felt by each one of us to this day.

      My Mom came to terms with the loss but my Dad never came to terms with the loss.

     All of us were influenced one way or another. Mom and Dad found it difficult to be parents. So teenage boys were on their own and some of the behavior was unacceptable.

     So instead  of being 78 on Jan.1,  my sister is still eleven years old. At the time my sister was diagnosed with rheumatic fever. Today I think it's called Kawasaki's disease and is treatable with aspirin.aspirin

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS

    The years seem to go faster and faster. If I look back things have been great. I look forward to the future and 2020.

    I have one special story for New Year's Eve and I've written about it before. So look for it 1964: A New Year's Eve to Remember:

    Happy New Year. All the best in 2020.

IF I HAD TO ORDER ALL MY FOOD ON LINE , I'D BE VERY HUNGRY.

      Now I'd be the first to admit that my computer skills are some what limited. But every once in a while the Micro Manager fancies a pizza. She's a little discriminating about pizza so it has to come from one place...Papa John's!

      Now for Papa John's pizza you have to order on line. We haven't tried to order on line for about three years. We looked at the menu and chose a pizza. I was crying that I couldn't figure out how to order on Papa John's system. 

    So the micro Manager got on the phone and phoned Papa John's. She got a very nice lady who walked us through the complete ordering of our pizza . No problem.

     Now if I had to do it all over again I couldn't. The first problem I get into is that Papa John's is an American company and they ask for zip code and not postal code. Right there I'm finished. This lady had me click on a couple of things and my postal code was accepted. Simple if you know how but there is nothing to point the customer in the direction of postal codes.The on line order is long and convoluted . You have to bounce all over the page. She would say ,"Do you see----? "   It would take me a while to find what she was asking for.  All the things she asked me to find were spread all over the page...sometimes bottom, sometimes left, sometimes top!

     You have to anticipate what you are going to be asked. I couldn't anticipate what they wanted on their order form. There has to be a logical sequence in what you do. There's no logical sequence.

    What I learned that it's pretty slick to order pizza on line if you know how, but I still don't know how.

    Now am I the only one who would go hungry because I can't order on line? 

A CHRISTMAS GREETING THAT TOUCHED ME.

      During the time of Christmas and New Years we give and receive many greetings. Sometimes I think that our greetings are very shallow social things. What do we mean by Merry Christmas? Everybody's Christmas is different. We have different families and our backgrounds indicate what Christmas celebrations we may have. So I'm starting to wonder if my greetings have any meaning at all? 

     Well, maybe I'm taking this to an extreme. Maybe I shouldn't be taking some of the pleasantness of the season away.

     What got me thinking about this?

     Well, I went for my regular walk Christmas Eve. As usually no one is out except this time somebody went by.  A mule buck had crossed the street in front of me and entered the woods. A minute later someone had ridden their bike out of the dark unlit woods trail. I was startled when someone behind me said Merry Christmas! It was a homeless man going by on his bike with his cart. I knew this man. He is  Basil and sometimes stays at a house 5 doors away from me. Basil is an aboriginal and most of his life has been a downer. 

    So a cheerful Christmas greeting from a man who has had nothing but trouble in his life really made me stop and think about the world. I was touched more than any other greeting by the wish I received from Basil. I'll remember it.

WINTER SOLSTICE

    I like winter solstice as I watch the days get shorter and shorter. I eagerly wait until the days start to get longer and we move toward spring. I also like the folklore connected to winter solstice. Ancient peoples had a variety of celebrations for the day. They also were fairly exact in pinpointing the time of the solstice.

    So with all this in mind, I decided to follow the solstice a little closer at my place. I decided to go out and photograph the afternoon every hour to show how the day takes it's course.

      The first two photos were taken at 2:00 PM. The first one looking south and the second looking north.

The next tow photos were taken at 3:00 PM. The cloud thickened slightly.

   The next two photos were taken at 4:00 PM. The sun sets at 4:26 PM.

This photo shows the west were the sun set at 5;00 PM

     The last three photos were taken at 5:00 Pm. It's hard to show darkness with all the street lights.

     So today the sun rose at 8:42 AM and set at 4:24 PM.  It gave us 7 hours, 41 minutes and 47 seconds of the sun being up.

CRECHES

      There are certain Christmas events that I like to attend. One of those is a very large display of creches. 

       One of the LDS (Latter Day Saints) churches here puts on a very large display of creches. We visited it last night. They had over three hundred examples of creches on display.

       You remember that I did a post on this last year. This year the had a different lighting system and it was difficult to take photos.

      I may end up using some of last year's photos.

      There are creches made from many , many materials...wood, plastic, china, paper, fabric, metal. Creches come from all over the world. Quality goes from trash to great handicraft and artistic talent.

      My favorite is the second photo which is an Inuit print. I think I singled that one out from last year too. 

CLASHING DUDS

      Sometimes we wear funny clothes here. Yes, we wear winter clothing which is much different than what some of you wear. We do have some very stylish winter clothing. I don't wear the stylish stuff.

      This post is on something else about our clothing.

     I was at my favorite place for lunch (Wendys) the other day and there were quite a few kids  of the 7 -8  year variety. These kids were soccer players. 90% of our soccer is played on outdoors fields. We have some indoor soccer fields suitable for winter play but only the top leagues have enough money to use indoor facilities.

    So most of the little kids wait for  spring to begin their soccer league.

    Now the other day in Wendys  I saw one kid with terrible pink and yellow plastic soccer shoes. Then I noticed something else. He was wearing shorts! It's winter! Then I noticed that other kids were wearing shorts. The shorts just showed below their winter coat. What's more the winter boots came close the the bottom of the shorts. 

     I wish I had a picture of these little guys with their mixture of winter and summer clothing, but I don't have a phone so no photos.

  Now I thought that was a funny mixture of winter and summer clothing!