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!