HAPPY NEW YEAR!

To all of you from both of us, have a safe holiday! And PLEASE drive carefully, or don't drive at all if you don't have to.

We are staying home, having a little drop-in party here tonight... it's been snowing so we might have some folks staying over. Never tried to sleep more than 3 people here at once so somebody's going to end up on the floor. Times like this I wish I had a Murphy bed, or at least a pull-out couch, but an air mattress will have to suffice. At least we have no shortage of blankets or sheets.

Should be fun... see y'all next year!

Bummed

We always park the good truck all the way in the back of our lot, next to a fence, where nobody can park on at least one side of us. We don't park up front on the pavement due to the constant traffic in and out for the local grocery next door (the truck was bumped once in a minor hit-and-run). When we got home from making the family rounds yesterday, we recalled that the store would be closed today... didn't want to walk across the ice unloading the truck, so we left it up front along the side of our building.

Nobody hit it this time, but when we came downstairs the first thing we saw was our bug shield smashed to pieces and a huge chunk of ice on the hood. The snow on the roof had melted and refrozen, then today when it warmed up, sheets of it were sliding off from two stories up and one of them landed right on the nose of our Bronco. I wasn't concerned about the bug shield (didn't like it anyway) but there are now two dents in the hood and one in the top of the fender. Not majorly noticeable but there nonetheless. As soon as we can afford it I'm going to call the pop-a-dent guy to see if he can fix them. Why bother, you ask? Because the Bronco is (or was) immaculately straight and beautiful and now he isn't and it bothers me. That's my baby we're talking about.

Ironically enough, my old Buick was parked right next to the Bronco, and even though ice was falling on it too, nary a scratch could be found. Thing's a tank. Funny, the big bad "Ford Tough" 4x4 can't take a beating, but the junky former granny car doesn't even flinch. *Sigh*

Lesson learned... don't park so close to the house! The reason the Buick was up front stemmed from another lesson learned the hard way. My spot is next to an old barn out back. I came out one morning last winter to find my car buried in snow that had slid off the barn roof. This was the day after I'd spent half an hour digging it out so I could get to work... and I had to do it all over again. And I never even thought about the snow becoming ice on the house roof. Guess I will from now on. Going on seven years here and I'm still learning the nuances of living in a snow zone. Ice sucks...

Week In Review

Just got home from a night out. My longest-running friend here has a new boyfriend after being terminally single... just found out he plans to be married and have kid(s) on the way within the next year. My friend is of the opinion that words and actions are two different animals so we'll see what happens. Whatever the outcome, I hope she finds the happiness she wanted.

Work is winding down for the season. Just a handful of poinsettias left that only took me 2 hours to water today. Already started on the cleanup for the spring crops, spraying weeds and shutting down most of my greenhouse. We're shut down between next Friday and Jan. 2, so that's a lean week with no pay coming in. Bummer.

Hubby sunk his work truck today. A customer had put fill dirt in his driveway, but it wasn't packed and was covered with snow. B drove over it thinking it was solid and buried the front of the Mack up to the axles. A nice neighbor with a tractor pulled the truck out, wouldn't take any money for the help either. God bless farmers.

We had a soup party at work yesterday in lieu of a Christmas party. I was impressed with the Thai soup (spicy but very tasty) and the ham n' bean soup. There were four soups plus chili; I had to try some of each! Our Christmas gift from the company was a single glass ball ornament in a plastic gift bag. I'm surprised we got that much, really... Angela in Human Resources tries to have a little something for gifts, anniversaries, and birthdays, and it's nice that she goes out of her way to at least give a token of appreciation even if the company itself no longer does. Not that anyone expects anything, but she believes recognition is a morale-booster and people do appreciate the thought.

My buddy and co-worker Ray was having chest pains the other day. I ended up driving him to the hospital in a company car (quicker than waiting for an ambulance, and he refused to let anyone call one anyway). He's okay, nothing serious, just high BP and stress from working out in the cold. I got to drive a new Chrysler, which I didn't like. Too low to the ground and I couldn't see the front of the car. I hate that. I like knowing where the nose of the vehicle is so I can tell how close I am when parking and turning. Whatever happened to hood ornaments anyway?

B and I made our one gesture towards decorating for the holidays by hanging a string of lights on the porch railing (the old-fashioned big bulb kind, not those bitty things) and putting out my Moravian star. It's hanging from the porch and looks absolutely beautiful. I wanted one of those for so long, finally got one last year... it looks so nice! (Below image swiped off Yahoo; mine looks just like it.)

(For background on Moravian stars, visit http://www.mcnp.org/edeb/star.htm )

I have to get started baking tomorrow. My annual tradition of procrastination is going to bite me if I don't. We have no $ for Christmas gifts, so everyone's getting cookies and munchies. It's a gift that's always enjoyed. I make great cookies too... The Amish market no longer sells a certain trail mix I used for my family-famous dump cookies, so I'm going with date-walnut rocks and white chocolate-coconut this year, plus the traditional sand tarts, chocolate chip, and peanut butter. Maybe some chocolate mint too if I'm not sick of baking by then (or sick of eating the ugly ones!). I got an excellent chocolate-chip cookie recipe from the Amish market, which I tried earlier in the year, and let me tell you, the oft-used Tollhouse recipe can't compare. They're that good!

We had two days of sub-zero AM temperatures, with highs in the single-digit range, then a snow/sleet/ice storm that turned the roads into car ballet arenas. Our parking lot was as slick as an ice rink, or maybe more so, since I'm sure if I'd gotten a running start I could have slid from the sidewalk all the way to the fence a few hundred yards away. Of course, temps hit the mid-30s the day after, turning everything to gray slush which then re-froze overnight. I couldn't get into the Bronco tonight because the doors were frozen shut. A 99-cent can of de-icer is a must-have item around here. (I bought two, since silly me keeps leaving the can INSIDE the vehicle, where it does no good whatsoever. Nothing like being iced out of your car and being able to SEE the solution through the frosty window. Now I keep a spare can inside for those "duh" moments.)

Nothing much else going on. I have 8 Christmas cacti that will be presents for somebody, I hope, so I can get them out of my hallway. Anybody want one?

Painting What?

A European trend has made its way to Podunk, Pennsylvania. Suddenly painted poinsettias are The New Big Thing. Therefore, we spent some time last week... guess what? Painting poinsettias. I read the emails from Sales today and the sparkly blue ones sold out first. Blue poinsettias...*sigh* Just doesn't seem very Christmasy to me, but I guess all those people with trendy color schemes for the holidaze like being able to match their plants to their decor.

Anyway, we had fun painting them. I did a few trials on my own that were well-received by the Sales team, but I won't post those pictures. Don't want anyone else beating us to market!





My boss and a coworker on the "spray line." That's me in the background mixing paint.

Sting returns!

Former WCW wrestler Steve "Sting" Borden is rumored to have signed a deal with TNA Wrestling. This was more or less confirmed at the end of tonight's TNA pay-per-view, when the Sting logo appeared on the video screens and his trademark coat and bat were shown on a chair in the middle of the ring.

To be perfectly honest, I was hoping he wouldn't go back to wrestling at all, but TNA is hands-down a better choice than Vince McSatan's trashy WWE. It showcases more technical wrestling and is more viewer-friendly to younger audiences.

Steve is a Christian man, an elder in his church... he gave his life to God in 1998. As a result his marriage was saved and he kicked his drug and alcohol habits literally overnight. Lately he's been appearing at Christian conferences, stores, and on TBN television to give his testimony. He recently co-hosted Praise The Lord for the first time after being a frequent guest.

There are several Christian wrestlers out there but few who are as well-known or as vocal about their faith as Steve. It will be interesting to see what angles he, as Sting, is involved in, knowing how TV wrestling is all about getting ratings at any means. The unseen side of wrestling is full of temptations too... having experienced it for myself, I can say that only a person with strong faith would be willing to walk back into the lion's den and take it head-on after having the same scene nearly ruin his life. I first met him in his darkest days and he's truly a changed man now. Best of luck, Steve, and go with God.

Sting fans, come check out the Official Sting Site and stop in the forum to say hello. I'm there every night and Steve himself drops in often. www.therealsting.com

Determination or stupidity?

So it's supposed to be 0 tomorrow. As in 0 degrees Fahrenheit. As in cold.

And what are we doing? SITTING IN IT. Not just experiencing a bit of chill going between the front door and the truck, not dashing from the house to the store and back, not sticking our heads outside and saying " Woo! Cold out today" before returning to the relative warmth of the indoors.

Nope, we're going outside to deliberately park our tails in the woods for several hours. 5 AM to 5 PM, with an hour for lunch, which is just long enough to thaw out. Yesterday we were out in it, and even the deer were smart enough to stay in their beds. Not a creature was stirring, literally, except the two morons dressed in safety-orange winter gear, shivering under a tree in the snow. I lost my toes for a while... I mean, they were there, tucked into boots and socks equipped with heat pads, but the cold got to 'em anyway and they just didn't want to cooperate. I'm test-driving some battery-powered heated socks tomorrow. *eyeroll*

It's our last day to hunt so I hope we trip over a deer. I have a feeling it's the only way...

Now, if you know me, you know how much I love winter. I love the cold, the snow, pretty much everything except driving in it. I even like shoveling the walks. But there's a limit. I'm going to test that tomorrow. We were out hunting once when it was about 5 below, but we were moving the whole time so that was fine. Sitting still is going to be a challenge.

Too bad it doesn't apply to husbands!

He who knows the way of the Lord can find it in the dark.

Opening Week

The end of the first week of hunting season for us, and it's Deer: 3, Us: 0. Between us we've seen three bucks. One was a spike (not legal), one was a 4-point (not legal), and yesterday a big 6-point ran past us. B couldn't get a clean shot so we had to let him go.

I had a scary ten or fifteen minutes in the woods last night. I was walking back to the truck up the main trail while B went along the ridgeline parallel to me. I could hear and see him until I stopped to listen to some rustling nearby, thinking we'd startled a deer. When I started walking again just a moment later, my husband had disappeared. I whistled... no answer. I called him, still no answer. Now, a big man going through brush and dead leaves makes a lot of noise in empty woods, and I was hearing nothing except my own voice echoing back at me from the next mountain over. I called him for almost 10 minutes, at the top of my lungs, scared out of my wits thinking of what might have happened to him. I wanted to run get the truck but at the same time didn't want to leave in case he was lying in the woods someplace. By now it was dark and I had my flashlight out. I was two seconds away from firing off a three-shot distress signal when I heard a whistle from far off... and a minute later here came hubby down the main trail. Apparently when he dropped down over the ridge he couldn't hear me, nor I him, and he was almost back to the truck (a quarter-mile away) when he finally got up high enough to hear me yelling and came running. I wanted to beat him senseless but I settled for a hug. :-D My heart rate didn't drop for another half-hour though. Note to self: no matter that they might scare the deer, next year we WILL have two-way radios. My sanity depends on it.

Oh, and he was almost shot on Monday. We aren't going back there. Got some nice quiet private property to hunt on next week, thank God. The public lands attract ignorant, gun-toting, deer-fever-addled lunatics.