DECEMBER 2021

IndyApp, that is pretty grim, to have Christmas always clouded with that memory. What stories we carry about with us, often unspoken. I am thinking of Graymare now.

ARK- I'm disappointed to find only modernized versions of Midsomer Murders now, with a new actor. What happened? I want to escape back into that old-fashioned world! Once in a while, anyway.

ELLEN - We did have a white Christmas! And the white's remaining, with a little more being added, it seems, every day.

Working to cheer myself up next year (the new one coming right up) with plans, just downloaded, to make a wooden crossbow that will shoot MARSHMALLOWS. I wanted to make it this year as a Christmas gift for a friend entertaining grandchildren , but have been stopped dead in my tracks by wicked carpal tunnel pain in both hands. I'm hoping that an operation for that can be scheduled for me sooner than soon. Can you tell I'm kicking myself for not having acted on that sooner?? Ouch! It HURTS! NOW!

But today: A wonderful post-Christmas brunch with four friends, at an owner-built (our hosts) post-and-beam house on a rough wooded road overlooking the marshy end of a now-frozen and snow-covered local pond. Ice fishermen way out on the pond, coffee and quiche and blueberry muffins on the table. Warm hearth, warm food, warm friends.

GM We posted at the same time. I really was thinking of you --and will continue, hoping that friends and family are rallying around.

BEECH:
Apparently the fellow who played Tom Barnaby felt he was getting too old for his role and retired....sadly. I really like him. His cousin, John Barnaby, got his job after doing the same work in Brighton. He isn't Tom, but John is growing on us. We watch the series on Amazon Prime, it is on that IMDB channel. We are into season 14 and I think it has 22 seasons of about 8 episodes each. Unfortunately, Tom Barnaby's wife and daughter also left the show. John is kind of funny in a dry sort of way. He talks to his dog and has a workaholic wife who feeds him tv dinners. Not like Joyce!!


The inflatable Santa is back in the box. Lights come down this coming weekend.


ELLEN:
Snow? It was 71 degrees here today! What a weird winter we are having. I should have ridden Ivan. I didn't, I am into a good book and that is all I wanted to do all afternoon.

INDYAPP: You have confused me with GRAYMARE, TL was her hubby. My hubby George is alive and well.

Our Christmas was a great one. Grandson Chad, his wife and our great grandson baby Bo (4 months old) drove up from Pittsburgh. It was the very first Christmas that Chad has ever spent with his dad and us. His crazy mother refused to allow him to ever come up here. What a Christmas miracle. So sad he missed a lifetime of growing up and hanging out on the farm.

We had snow on Christmas Eve morning. Beautiful. I thought the barn cats had set off the security lights when I looked out the window. Had to put on my glasses and it was SNOW. Everything was covered. It was gone by noon and the temperature went up to 50.

We went to Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at church at 3 PM. Our church has 3 services 3,5 & 7. We always go early so we don't have to drive in the dark. It was a beautiful service with everyone holding up candles as we sang Christmas Hymns.

This week is a quiet hanging out on the farm relaxing and enjoying the Christmas lights until Jan 2.

I guess I owe both GrayMare and ManyGates an apology for mixing up names. I'm not sure why I did that, I really do know the difference. GRAYMARE I am truly sorry for the passing of TL.

It snowed here yesterday. Wet, sloppy, slushy snow so I can't even say it's pretty like the picture at the top is. It's suppose to warm up today so it will all melt away. The ground isn't frozen all that much so we'll end up with mud.

My daily calendar had a thoughtful quote yesterday.
If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.

I need to adjust my perspective. I'm living in the past.
Happy New Year Everyone!

Indy, that's a really good quote. I will remember that one.

Trudy, I'm so glad that you had "long lost" family for Christmas. I'll bet he'll be back next time.

I had another cardioversion this morning. Didn't work. Don't know yet what's next. Probably a lifetime of meds. I'll manage. I'm too stubborn to give up my jet ski.

ARK Thanks for the Midsomer Murders info! I watch them as they're served up to me on a free British-shows channel, and, while I did see an episode in which Tom and John both appeared and were identified as cousins, both in the same line of work but apart from each other, on that occasion it was only the location of that episode's crime that had brought them together -- just temporarily, I thought. So it was a big shock in the next episode to suddenly have Tom morphed into John, with his own wife -- and a pregnant one at that -- and the locales all changed. I'm dragging my heels in warming to John. I suppose the show needed to tart itself up to attract viewers younger than this old bag... Sigh...

INDY- That "present" isn't all it's cracked up to be!! Or so it seems to me, for whom it always seems to be just...just... slipping away ... and...OUT of reach! I like better Annie Liebowitz's "There is no such thing as inner peace. Only nervousness and death." A friend calligraphed that for me (at my request), then included it among other calligraphed sayings she sold. That one didn't sell. Lately, though, I confess I've been trying to apply some advice from the now-92-year-old Norman Lear. He attributed his long living to having learned to say (and mean) "Over," followed by "Next."

Right now I'm waiting for a charger to bring my car battery back to life. I sprang out of the house at about 1:30, told the dogs I was shooting to be back by 3, and then came smack dab up against that pffffzzztsst sound a key makes in an ignition when, well.... you know. I'd noticed, when I was squeezing into the car (it barely fits into the barn) that I'd left the door ever so slightly ajar. Surely, I thought, anxiously dreaming my way out of that ugly present and into the very imminent future, surely, surely, that wasn't enough to drain the battery??? HA! But I was only going to the supermarket, concerned to beat bad weather and holiday closings tomorrow. Will I have enough t.p. to tide me over???? Stay tuned...

ELLEN I had to look up "cardioversion" to appreciate the seriousness. What happened? That is very worrisome.

Beech, it isn't such a big deal.  The main concern is that when the heart at the incorrect rate, or a-fib, it can allow clots to form and then those can move to the brain causing a stroke.  I am now on a blood thinner that helps to minimize that risk.  My heart works just fine, but it is confused on the rhythm and seems determined to stay that way.  I don't have any other heart problems, no high cholesterol, or blockages, etc.  
The cardioversion is an attempt to "reset" the rhythm.  It's done with a split second shock that momentarily interrupts and gives the heart a chance to restart with the correct rhythm.  In my case, it didn't work.  Yesterday, they tried three times but my heart seems to really like the current rhythm and won't give it up.  
I know there are a couple of other things to try.  I'll have to see what the next step will be.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! 2022 is bound to get better.................

Love you guys..............

It's 14 minutes until the ball drops in New York and I'm still up - just barely.
I do wish all of my foopy friends the best possible new year. May it be a lot better than the old one.

I went to bed at 11 pm and read my book. I know when the clock struck midnight, not because of Donnie's snoring, but someone shot off fireworks and the dog appeared next to me.

Sooooo:

Happy New Year!!

Time to change our calendar. Go to: https://horsefriends.forumotion.com/t126-january-2022#13996
or click on Basket and then on January 2022.

May this year be kinder to us all....