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Sophia contemplates the passing years (17th birthday)
December 14 Christmas approacheth. Hobby Lobby was busy when I visited it last Monday morning. I found what I was looking for, generally, without much time spent browsing the shelves. Since I wasn’t looking for a specific item, I was open to anything that might make a nice Christmas gift for someone on my list. Once I had found one item that would answer, I had to stand in checkout line for 20 minutes, but I was grateful for having at least one gift.
Not spending much time shopping as a rule, I appreciate the opportunity Christmas affords for scanning the retail scene and observing other shoppers in their natural habitat. One place I stopped by, a humble but tidy establishment not far from home, was staffed by a single person, that is , by his lonesome. I don’t know what his marital status was. I judge he was (and probably still is) of middle eastern origin. He had a good command of the king’s English, which was handy because he was a good conversationalist. He complimented my pickup, saying he liked old things. I normally drive my car around town but needed to gas up the pickup while I was as out. We talked about cars. He favors CNG Hondas. The store was redolent of coffee and when the conversation drifted in that direction he offered me a cup. He adds, well, I don’t remember what he called, some seed he grinds up, to his coffee and recommends it for drinking water and chewed as a breath freshener.
Gift wrapping is a new science to me. It’s right up there with Chinese algebra in difficulty for me. I would like to present nicely wrapped presents and not rely solely on gift sacks. They are okay for birthday presents, but I’d like to do better for Christmas. I frequently tear the gift wrapping and probably should use duct tape for the ends. Maybe I’ll practice using newspaper.
December 21 Little work was done around SA this week. Abigail was snowboarding in Colorado so the work crew was shorthanded. I did manage a little trimming in the northeast lane, though. That was Tuesday. Monday I spent chasing around for Christmas presents. Wednesday I loaded the trimmings from the day before plus some Abigail and I didn’t have room for in the load we hauled off the week before and drove out to the brush site. When I weighed in, I was told I would be charged a fee since I had exceeded my 1000-pound annual free limit. I wasn’t surprised. We have hauled quite a few loads out there the last few months. When I went back through after dumping my load a different person told me I wouldn’t be charged this trip, but I would be on the next load. I was told there was a1000 pound limit and was getting close to 2000 pounds. That was fine with me. Since most people pile their trimmings on the curb and call the city to come get it, I figure the city should pay me for taking my trimmings out there myself.
December 28 Jill and Dave are knee deep in a million-piece jigsaw puzzle. It’s been a quiet day. Jill and I did get for a walk around the golf course. Yesterday we were more ambitious. I had brought a few tools for tree trimming and got after shaping up some bushes in her backyard. Before that we cut down a couple of undesirable trees that had grown up among the bushes. Jill got all the trimmings piled up on the curb and the city conveniently came along and hauled the pile off.
We celebrated Sophia’s birthday Friday with dinner and bowling followed by birthday cake and presents.
December 31 Managed to get all Christmas decorations stowed away for next year. It was helpful that the weather was very pleasant. I restarted watering the perimeter. Our New Year’s celebration was subdued. It was Kari, Rebecca and me and we were all tired, so we all got to bed early.