Tonight was the annual dads shopping night .. Its a tradition I've been part of for more than 20 years. Once a year all of us meet at a bar, eat, drink then pretend to go out shopping for our families. Every year we end up looking at our watches and realizing its either too late, too cold, too rainy, too something to actually go out and shop.. So we stay in the bar.l this time, we actually dropped the pretense of shopping and just stayed and talked. . We met at the Public House in Hinesburg, the site of the old cheese factory,. I remember how that place used to smell when i lived in Hinesburg more than 30 years ago
Tomight there were 12 of us.. 10 from the core group that have been meeting together at least once a year since the early 90's. we caught up on our lives and our family lives.. We cracked old jokes and drank wierd beer. Soem of these guys i see all the time..some i see about once a year. It felt very good to reconnect with all of them
It was nice waking to the snow.. Got lots done today.. but not all I was supposed to. The most fun thing I did was to finish fixing this weird old Christmas scene projector for our friends Tammy and Gary. Every family has their share of crazy Christmas traditions.. and this is one of theirs. It’s a device that projects a Christmas scene on the side of a house.. There’s a stationary part of the scene , then a part that moves. Unfortunately the low voltage transformer that ran the lamp had burned out. Yesterday i found just the thing to replace it at Home depot.. it was a transformer for low voltage garden lighting.. complete with photocell magic turn on and timer. I wired the new transformer in and took it back over to give it a try. Tammy’s kids helped me install it outside in a bale of hay
While I was there Gary’s sisters came over. One of them brought a beautiful sketch that one of her friends had made of Tammy and Gary”s son Elijah who died this past Summer… It was a great likeness… They brought down a picture of Elijah’s grandfather to show t the resemblance..
It was good being over there.. There was a steady stream of folks coming and going while I was there… There’s a lot of love around that family… I know that everyone is keeping them in their hearts for the holidays..
Sitting Trying to stay warm as I listen to the wind blow outside. They say expect gusts of up to 20 miles an hour but I know this old house and that sounds more like 30. Now it's above zero but it supposed to go to -3 tonight with win chill going who knows how low. We're expecting up to 14 inches of snow. And I love it
I love this part of the world for its weather. You know you're just on the other side of survival Inside the walls of your house. Tomorrow we will wake up and everything will be quiet and slow moving. And then we will dig out. But not too soon. I like it this way
Was just looking at Christmas cards this we been getting and Diane pointed out this beautiful one.
At first glance it looks like any other pretty Christmas card. Then Diane pointed out a couple of things in it. The particular tree, the angel, the background. This is our dear friend Janet's Christmas tree in her backyard. I can see it from my window now.
Janet died this past summer and we miss her very much. Her daughter Barbara is an artist and drew this tree in memory of her mom.
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