This is the lake we visited yesterday.
The picture is taken with my iPhone. I am amazed at the quality
Gratitude #83 - Sweet Biddies!
11 years ago
Friday, January 21, 2011
bless 'em
“How thoughtful,” she said.
Last summer while on a camping trip, I heated up some water, filled an old fashioned rubber “hot water bottle” and put it in Miriam’s bed a while before we went to bed. This part of the country gets cool to cold at night, even after a very hot day, and Miriam has perennially cold feet.
“How thoughtful of you,” she purred.
Actually, I thought (and said out loud): “No this is an act of pure selfishness!”
I went on to explain that the hot water bottle would keep her cold feet off my legs when we went to bed! That is the story I told her, but of course I was looking after her.
So I tease my wonderful daughters who say they are going to help me through the winter by coming to visit periodically. It is wonderful for them to be so considerate of dear old dad (and mom), but I can tease them too.
I could say they want to keep me going and keep me healthy because that is easier than taking care of their mother without me, and while there might be a point there, in truth they are good kids looking after their parents.
Bless ‘em.
Last summer while on a camping trip, I heated up some water, filled an old fashioned rubber “hot water bottle” and put it in Miriam’s bed a while before we went to bed. This part of the country gets cool to cold at night, even after a very hot day, and Miriam has perennially cold feet.
“How thoughtful of you,” she purred.
Actually, I thought (and said out loud): “No this is an act of pure selfishness!”
I went on to explain that the hot water bottle would keep her cold feet off my legs when we went to bed! That is the story I told her, but of course I was looking after her.
So I tease my wonderful daughters who say they are going to help me through the winter by coming to visit periodically. It is wonderful for them to be so considerate of dear old dad (and mom), but I can tease them too.
I could say they want to keep me going and keep me healthy because that is easier than taking care of their mother without me, and while there might be a point there, in truth they are good kids looking after their parents.
Bless ‘em.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
take care day
I am spending the day with an old friend.
Lloyd and I have been friends for a long time. Were I lucky enough to enjoy fishing, we would be fishing buddies.
So what do fishing buddies do when one of them is not a fisherman? They go for a drive.
We will go to a lake an hour away. it is a low elevation site that is good for spring camping. The lake is behind a dam, a big hunk of concrete.
I will leave Miriam here, but friends will stop in to check on her a time or two. She will be alright.
This day is one of those "take care of yourself" days.
It will be good.
Lloyd and I have been friends for a long time. Were I lucky enough to enjoy fishing, we would be fishing buddies.
So what do fishing buddies do when one of them is not a fisherman? They go for a drive.
We will go to a lake an hour away. it is a low elevation site that is good for spring camping. The lake is behind a dam, a big hunk of concrete.
I will leave Miriam here, but friends will stop in to check on her a time or two. She will be alright.
This day is one of those "take care of yourself" days.
It will be good.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Happy Birthday
January 18. A high day in our family!
Today is the birthday of our oldest grandson: David.
Today is the birthday of his grandmother, who is also my wife Miriam!
Said wife had a brother, who is gone now, whose birthday is today too.
And then there is Andy, Miriam's oldest brother's grandson, who was born the very same day as our grandson David.
Miriam will tell you without very much encouraging, that grandson David was the best birthday present she ever received. Then, I chime in (with a bit of good natured teasing): "How about the new car I bought you one year?"
"That was the 2nd best," she will say.
So, happy birthday to all of you. Our lives have been so blessed by each of you.
Today is the birthday of our oldest grandson: David.
Today is the birthday of his grandmother, who is also my wife Miriam!
Said wife had a brother, who is gone now, whose birthday is today too.
And then there is Andy, Miriam's oldest brother's grandson, who was born the very same day as our grandson David.
Miriam will tell you without very much encouraging, that grandson David was the best birthday present she ever received. Then, I chime in (with a bit of good natured teasing): "How about the new car I bought you one year?"
"That was the 2nd best," she will say.
So, happy birthday to all of you. Our lives have been so blessed by each of you.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
mud season
An author I admire said that Vermont had three seasons: summer, winter and mud.
Here in the land of the Ides we are warming up a bit, which means that the frozen ground becomes mud. Good slimy mud.
Tomorrow we were going to bring the trailer around from the back of our property. We own two triangles with a stream down the middle. In order to walk to the back of our property I use a foot bridge I built decades ago. To take a vehicle to that side requires driving 5 or 6 blocks.
But tomorrow we will have mud on the back road.
In our valley, we irrigate with water from the high mountains that goes into man made reservoirs before being sent by miles and miles of canals and ditches. The road on the back of my place is along one of those canals. I own the property, the county says, but the ditch company maintains it or not.
One year I got my pickup stuck in the mud and I just left it there for a week or two. No one could get by or steal it.
So tomorrow I will do something else.
The mud wins. Again.
Here in the land of the Ides we are warming up a bit, which means that the frozen ground becomes mud. Good slimy mud.
Tomorrow we were going to bring the trailer around from the back of our property. We own two triangles with a stream down the middle. In order to walk to the back of our property I use a foot bridge I built decades ago. To take a vehicle to that side requires driving 5 or 6 blocks.
But tomorrow we will have mud on the back road.
In our valley, we irrigate with water from the high mountains that goes into man made reservoirs before being sent by miles and miles of canals and ditches. The road on the back of my place is along one of those canals. I own the property, the county says, but the ditch company maintains it or not.
One year I got my pickup stuck in the mud and I just left it there for a week or two. No one could get by or steal it.
So tomorrow I will do something else.
The mud wins. Again.
hoodies
Miriam has 4 bothers and two sisters.
They are an interesting bunch. Productive good people. But individuals at the same time.
Her younger brother (her three older brothers had a different mother) comes over for a visit each month.
He, like his father, like to emphasize how dumb he is. Well, he is not. He had some learning issues in school, but that does not make him dumb.
Ask him about a baseball player and his memory is incredible. Miriam remembers the old days quite well, but she is coming up with details I have not heard before, and I have known her about 58 years!
She is sure that she and her paternal grandmother share a birthdate. I don’t remember that being part of the family myth. She is sure that her mother “was five feet tall and weighed a hundred pounds.”
Well, her mom was not tall, but 5 2 or 3 is closer to what the rest of us remember and probably 120 anyway.
But her younger brother came to visit today. He brought two pair of men’s denim pants that were faded enough that he won’t wear them. While it is possible for her to wear them, I really don’t like her to.
He brought a “hoodie” that he was tied of. I REALLY don’t like them very much (if one is working or playing outside then it is different).
So I put the bag where daughter one can find it and “make it go away.”
She will take a car load of that kind of thing when she leaves here.
They are an interesting bunch. Productive good people. But individuals at the same time.
Her younger brother (her three older brothers had a different mother) comes over for a visit each month.
He, like his father, like to emphasize how dumb he is. Well, he is not. He had some learning issues in school, but that does not make him dumb.
Ask him about a baseball player and his memory is incredible. Miriam remembers the old days quite well, but she is coming up with details I have not heard before, and I have known her about 58 years!
She is sure that she and her paternal grandmother share a birthdate. I don’t remember that being part of the family myth. She is sure that her mother “was five feet tall and weighed a hundred pounds.”
Well, her mom was not tall, but 5 2 or 3 is closer to what the rest of us remember and probably 120 anyway.
But her younger brother came to visit today. He brought two pair of men’s denim pants that were faded enough that he won’t wear them. While it is possible for her to wear them, I really don’t like her to.
He brought a “hoodie” that he was tied of. I REALLY don’t like them very much (if one is working or playing outside then it is different).
So I put the bag where daughter one can find it and “make it go away.”
She will take a car load of that kind of thing when she leaves here.
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