A Brief Personal Note on October and November

This fall seemed more hectic than usual and I’m not sure why. In October I took the kids up to the Poconos for a weekend. On the way someone hit the back of our van. That led to a lot of paperwork and inconvenience. The rest of the weekend had some serious ups and downs as well. The Ford Fusion I had for a week waiting for repairs to be finished was a pleasure to drive, though the rear window could be a little bigger. We will probably be in the market for another car in the next year or so and the Fusion is one on my list to investigate. The car I had included satellite radio and was set to the Coffee House channel which I really enjoyed and the screen readout listed the artist and the song playing. Very cool.

While in Stroudsburg we went to the Christmas shop. Mr. J and I have been looking for a nativity scene for a few years, to add to our household Christmas decorations. I found one that looked like it would fit our tastes and our house. When we unpacked it this past weekend we realized that it didn’t include any animals. Mr. J grew up on a farm and said it just wasn’t right to have the Wise Men, a shepherd, an angel and the Holy Family but no animals. It is a manger after all. We put the shepherd in a tube sock to keep it from getting scratched and went out shopping. After looking around in a few stores we found an ox and a goat (creatively named Ox and Goat) that match the rest of the figures. The scene now seems complete.

In October we started a room overhaul in the house, replacing carpet and getting some new furniture. Every possible thing that could go wrong did go wrong. It was a disaster. About 10 days ago it all got sorted out (except for one chair that is yet to be delivered, and a $700 carpet refund that, for some reason, is being delayed).

We all had a four day weekend over Thanksgiving. We ate, rested, played board games, moved some furniture back, sorted through papers, got used to the new look of the house, planned out Phase II, and admired the nativity scene (including Ox and Goat). We also did some pre-holiday planning which will help make December more peaceful and less hectic.

I hope you and yours had an equally restful holiday, with much to be thankful for.

And now back to politics ….