A Christmas Special

One of the special ways that Christmas effects our world is the way it takes people off of the streets. Sometimes I go out just to experience the non-traffic. This picture is Midway Road between Keller Springs and Trinity Mills. You usually have to fight to make a left turn right here, which we often do. (It's not quite as empty as it looks - I had to wait for a car to go by on the left and take the picture quickly before one came into the picture on the right.) I don't know if you've realized that you can click on the pictures on a blog and enlarge them. This is a good one to do that to.

Unusual train

For a couple weeks now there's been a long row of train cars on a siding near Addison airport. There are about twenty five cars - all exactly alike, all brand new, and they present an unusual image that sort of takes you by surprise when you stop and look enough to realize what they are. I've taken about 30-35 pictures of them. I need to go back now with a tripod so I can control the aperture and get more cars in focus.

To-do list for this Saturday before Christmas

Getting the condo ready to go on the market in a couple weeks -

1. Grout the tile in the upstairs bathroom - check
2. Grout the tile in the downstairs bathroom - check
3. Paint the molding - check
4. Touch-up paint on the kitchen cabinets - check
5. Clean the kitchen floor and grout lines - check
6. Clean the oven and stove top - check
7. Paint the closets in the study - Glynda did this
8. Put shelf liners on the lower kitchen cabinets - check
9. Hang curtains - check
10. Fix refrigerator shelf - check (if the Super Glue holds)
11. Pack up half the stuff from the closets to take to Q this weekend - check
12. Watch the Cowboys beat Carolina - coming up soon!

Bilbo Baggins

Good for you if you know Bilbo!

This started out when Glynda and Jill were talking about what the kids wanted for Christmas. Ren wanted the Lord of the Rings trilogy and I was glad to hear about that, being a long time time Tolkein fan. So we decided to get that and Jill then volunteered to do the purchasing since she was buying some things from Amazon and already knew what they had available.

Then I started thinking and decided that Ren should really start with The Hobbit, for both the easier reading book and the background it provides for the trilogy. Since I didn't know if the set Jill was buying included The Hobbit, I went out and bought it - brought it home - started leafing through it - and before long I was reading it. I got half way through it before I had to wrap it up two days later to take to Ren. However, I left the book in the car when we got there in hopes that it wouldn't be needed - and it wasn't. The set that Ren opened contained all four books. We told him about The Hobbit (he wasn't familiar with it) and when we left to go home he was already reading it! And when I got home from work the next evening, I unwrapped the back-up and resumed my reading.

Hayden's Butterfly!

A good start to a Friday!

It was warm enough to eat breakfast on the patio and Leonard wouldn't take our money - said he was buying today!

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Ode to Joy

Beverly, Bambi, Vicki, and Greg to hear it live - Checked this off of the to-do list!
(glad a few others got to hear it too)

Believe the critics on this one . . .

and don't waste your time or money on Lions for Lambs!

Friday morning breakfast!

Every Friday morning Glynda and I have breakfast at La Madeleine's. We've been doing this for years and we have some friends there. One of them is the manager, Leonard. Last year at our first Friday morning breakfast after Glynda's surgery, Leonard wasn't there - he'd been transferred to a restaurant in Arlington. Also, Jacque had gone back to France, leaving only John who is from South Africa and Gerber, a Hispanic who, in spite of his limited English, takes very good care of us, expecially when we eat outside. Last week was my week to buy so I went a little ahead of Glynda and walked in and there was Jacque! It was really great to see him and he still remembered our usual order. Then he said "Look who else is here" and pointed towards the cash register. It was Leonard! Now Leonard is a big African-American with a big voice and a big laugh! It was a reunion we hadn't expected. Glynda gave him a big hug when she walked in and Leonard had coffee with us as we ate our breakfast. We caught up on all that had been happening since we'd gone to Arlinton to have breakfast with him on the way to Herb's funeral. We're going to have to get up early at least one Friday a month after we move to Quitman to go to La Madeleines for breakfast.

My camera was in Carrollton last weekend . . .

. . . so I don't have a picture but I'm now the proud owner of TWO 8N Ford tractors. Beverly had sent me an email during the week about an estate sale close to our houses there and there was a Ford 8N tractor in it. She knew I've got some probelms with the current tractor and thought this might be a good option for parts. When I saw it, it just looked a lot better than my tractor and, long story shorter, I ended up with it as high bidder but below the asking price. Anyway, I 've got two tractors sitting at the Quitman house now and Bev suggested tractor races on Thanksgiving day.

The song not sung at the Party of the Decade

According to my advanced information, a certain song was going to be performed at the Party of the Decade. It was an old favorite and I was looking forward to it! But, at the end of the night I still hadn't heard it. But I found it somewhere else. The song that wasn't sung.

"Elizabeth: The Golden Age"

We went to see this movie last evening (first movie in several weeks). Cate Blanchett does an impressive acting job and the story is a good one. It was entertaining and very well done but didn't offer anything to say that it's a special movie. B+

Sister Cha Cha Cha

I told the fab five (Bev, Bambi, Vicki, Colleen, and Pam) that I'd let them do the sharing of this one. But that was before creating the blog. Now all that see the blog can see them perform! It's slow to load but worth the wait. Sister Cha Cha

We're moving!

We started a couple months ago and plan to finish on March 31, 2008.

It's an age thing and I think I'll use this space to share some of what's going on with Glynda and me related to the big change of life - retirement! I went to Aunt Marianne's memorial service yesterday. She was the last of that generation. Her obituary That makes me the oldest Flanders/Willis family member now. That's kinda scary in a way - but there's still a lot left in the plans for life on this planet. First we have to get to Q.

For now, we're slowly fixing up the condo with plans to put it on the market in January. At the same time we're working on Q to get it ready for full time occupancy - new appliances, new mower,etc. And we're moving a lot of little things OUT of the condo and subjecting them to fierce scrutiny to be sure they pass the test to move INTO Q. My study is all done except for swapping out a chair there for one in the condo and moving a filing cabinet. The Flanders library table is there and it is my new desk. Within the next few weeks we'll be putting some carpet in the condo and will use that occasion to weed out a few more things by not moving them back in after clearing the rooms for the carpet.

I never thought that I'd experience 'short timer complex' but at work my replacement is there in place to move into my office when I go and I'm not needed there as much. In fact I find myself looking for things to do and I've still got five more months of that. I'm really ready to go but the plan will take the extra months to complete.

The Ridgeline HOA board of directors has taken a lot of my time. I've been president of the board for many years and have been on the board for even more. Last month I declined any officer position for the next term and will be off of the board entirely in February. I started on the board at a critical time and have been fortunate enough to help lead the property from broke and in serious need of maintenance and repairs to a property that's got a couple hundred thousand dollars in the bank and one whose repair needs have gone from critical to normal maintenance. But now that's another thing being left behind.

Glynda and I find ourselves saying "That's the last time we'll do that" fairly often now.