Dark, Threatening Clouds Early, Sunshine Later

7:25

It's just after 7:00 and I have been up since 6:30, the outside at the moment dark and threatening with streaks of light.  Not much of a sunrise this morning, just a graying of the sky.  I look forward to some sun since we have not had any the last couple of days.  It will remain cool, with high around 32º, perhaps warm enough to kayak later if there is no wind.  It would be nice to get out on the lake.

Yesterday was another day of getting back into our routine.  I bagged yoga, deciding to take it easy for one more day, so my only activity of the morning was to do a few errands in Lakewood.  When I got home, Evie had the kitchen counters filled with butter, roll out cookies, all to be sent to KC for our granddaughter, Marlena, and her friends to decorate for Christmas.  They will have lots of fun.  It was chilly and damp outside, but our yard was strewn with twigs and branches, as usual, so I spent a good hour outside, raking and picking up a couple of barrels of dead fall.  Our yard looks a lot better as a result, both front and back, ready for another snow fall.

We had Evie's soup for lunch and a half of a sub sandwich we bought for lunch on Tuesday.  And we are back in routine, watching Stewart and Colbert as we eat our lunch.  Neither of us had much mojo the rest of the day.  I had a once a year call from our financial advisor. When you reach 70, you are required to start taking money out of your IRA which means, of course, paying more taxes.  There's always a catch.  It looks like things will be fine for another year, so don't worry kids.  We won't be moving in for awhile!  Her advice---go on trips now while we are still healthy.  Good advice I suppose.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading, making myself some Turkish tea, and munching on some of the Goya cookies I bought before our trip.  I am not crazy about this bunch but they do go well with tea.  I also got a few things done, little things, like making appointments, sending off a thank you note, things like that which nag until you get them done.

Beth's Painting Above Mc Clure's Fireplace

At 6:00, we drove over to the McClure's and Hepp's for a beer before going off to the VFW for wings.  We walked in, grabbed a beer, went into the living room and there, above their mantel, was our daughter Beth's painting, framed, in glass, with a light on it.  It was amazing to see it framed and in their home. They are thrilled with it as well.  Because it's above a working fireplace, they were told they would need glass over it to keep it from darkening and it's been framed so the glass does not touch the canvas.  We left for the VFW around 7:00, in a light rain/sleet.  The VFW was not very busy though a few people obviously had ordered wings to go.  Our waitress, Sarah, was particularly cute, talking about how much she loves Christmas, decorating her home, even the VFW.  She's been the waitress ever since we have been getting wings there.  We filled each other in on our Thanksgiving activities so there was lots to catch up on.

We were home around 9:15, to our warm house, to pajamas and some TV before going upstairs to read and sleep.  We will see the Linda and Ron again on Friday, as we will be going to downtown Jamestown for their Christmas Parade.  We went last year and loved it, lots of floats and marching bands and groups.  Let's just hope it doesn't rain.  Last year we had light snow which was perfect.