AND THE SUN RETURNS

Well, I woke up after the longest night of the year about 7:20, it was still dark. I dressed in the dark because Jamie was still in bed and I didn't want to disturb her by turning on the light. I put my stockings on, then one shoe, it felt funny. Did my foot swell up in the night? Did I have the shoe on the right foot? It looked like it was on the right foot. I put on the other shoe that felt funny too. What did I do yesterday? Did I walk a lot? Did my feet swell up? It felt strange walking down stairs. I got down to the living room, turned on the light, examined my feet. I did have my shoes on the wrong feet! I didn't think these shoes were loose enough to go on the wrong feet. I know this happens to grade school kids. Is this a second childhood? Galloping senility?

The rest of the Morning has been okay, except that I was questioning and watchful. Instead of automatically turning on the correct faucet, I stared at them trying to remember which was the hot and which the cold. It lasted only a couple seconds, but unnerving. Things like this happened when I was thirty, forty and fifty, but one notices it more when your over eighty. Oh well, aging can be fun. I am going to write a blog on growing older, but not today.

We are going to a Christmas Party tonight many of our old friends will be there. The party starts at 6:PM and I have a dentist appointment at three this afternoon. I hope I am not still all numbed up.

For the first time in many years we don't have a party scheduled for Christmas Day. We have been invited by family members but it would require travel. It is going to be cold on Christmas and traveling more than fifty miles seems too much. Another sign of age I suppose. We have a beautiful beef roast and Jamie will make Yorkshire Pudding. We will have a good time. Who knows, we may have visitors.

I didn't let my chickens out because I didn't think many would accept the invitation and I wanted to conserve the heat in the coop for the cold that is coming. However, it is 23 F I didn't expect it to get that warm. The below zero temperatures were originally forecast for tonight. I think they pushed the bitter cold about 24 hours into the future and Saturday Night it will get cold. This blog is really a ramble, isn't it.

My original intention was to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Festivus or whatever we choose to celebrate. Every culture seems to have some celebration to mark the shortest day and the return of the Sun. Today is two seconds longer than yesterday. It won't be long before we start dreaming of Spring and planting our gardens.

Let us have glorious celebrations to welcome the return of the Sun.

Love and Peace, Gregg