Letter

Christmas 2008, Phoenix our cat died at 13 ½. Missed him more than I expected. Something exciting occurs each day even though we ‘go’ nowhere. Recently I spied a red-tailed hawk sitting on a stump outside my porch window. High point of year, I got my deer mid- November. Low point, October when we had to give up blood donations because I ‘collapsed’ and Tom barely passed iron req. and had low blood pressure. 2009 saw the return of squirrels, hummingbirds and swallows. I saw a deer fly past me, heard a turkey gobble, saw beautiful sunsets, red moon rises and a rainbow, 16 big orchid orchids bloom on my Aldi plant and 11 big flowers on my Star-gazer lilies. Book are still read. We even sell books and CD’s on Alibris. Best read of year ( ranks high in lifetime) was “1000 Places to See Before you Die.” February attended 1st Tea Party and a 2nd one April 2nd also local. Felt right at home with normal, concerned citizens. Weather report is lots of rain, not enough heat. Spring was the time of bee swarms, a record number. Spring and summer are mowing times. After my last walk behind the mower in July. My stiff back is still not fully recovered. Garden highlights were asparagus, a few brandy wine tomatoes (one 2#), snap peas, beans. Corn got blown down in windstorm as usual and had to be tied up with great difficulty. Neighbor’s corn was delicious. Picked cherries from neighbor’s tree. Only crap apples on our trees this year. Dill lots, basil few. Mother’s day son Sean bought me lovely framed, antique cross stitch of cats. Father’s day each child remember Tom with the usual complimentary card (which he deserves). We killed our fish cleaning the pond so had to purchase 2 new smaller ones. Leftie is the smart glutton; whitie, stupid, swims away from food pellets not around or to them like leftie. We hope W makes it in the ‘real water world’? October was black walnuts and grass raking time. Both required aspirin.
Sean works 24/7 at his businesses. We’re proud of his success. Grandson Kyle started community college but has sinus problems. Other grandson in computer school had drug and alcohol problem. Claims abstinence and reform but who knows? Colleen in Australia had her 2nd child, a boy on April 18th. She sent me a beautiful Coney fur coat for Mother’s day. Her daughter’s 2 ½ . In 2008 she came here to visit but jet lag awful. Trip takes 20 hours and one hardly recovers. Lauren in Munich, Germany visited us the end of October at which time we celebrated an early Thanksgiving feast. She gave me a lovely statue of a faceless mother/daughter for my birthday. Brian in Florida with 2 children . Kevin with 2 girls lives here but trouble seeks him out daily. List of problems include jaw, teeth, reflux, digestion and stomach, house renter, roof, furnace and neighbors. He cracked up his truck skidding on rain slick pavement end of November. Our dog’s legs holding up with a pain pill now and then. Cat loves to have sex with my leg at night; he worships Tom’s computer by day. My neighbor was diagnosed with a mild form of Parkinson’s and given medication. Perhaps mis-diagnosed but she couldn’t walk for over a month after a fall. She’s active and mobile again. Her husband is in a nursing home because he had pneumonia and Mersa and foot infection. He’s on a walker permanently. Tom still can’t walk for long without knee and hip pain. A neighbor got a new man so the ex-husband doesn’t appear anymore to visit his son. A woman moved in with another neighbor. Another neighbor lost lots of weight. The renter of a neighbor had to move out because relatives were moving in (after 20 years). Daily traffic on our dead end ‘highway’ is busy as ever. We go ‘nowhere’ but neighbors go everywhere, day and night without hats and coats in winter. Drat, our windows face the road.
BESIDES my deer, the excitement for year was retrieval of huge, abandoned wasp nest attached to eave of our house. 13 in high, 13 in wide, 45 inches in circumference. Go measure, you’ll be impressed. A 3 tier nursery is inside the paper covering. I’m humbug on consumer-driven gift-giving but big on calling the birth of Christ Christmas.