November 29, 2013
Dear Everyone:
I anticipate that everyone had a very enjoyable
Thanksgiving.
I certainly did.
Spent it quietly at my place, working on one
Christmas Project or
another. (Hope the guys like
their hand-knitted car covers this year.)
“Jeannie” and “Marshall” went to
Monterey.
Our niece, “Liza”, and nephew, “Trevor”, decided to join them.
I was invited, of course; but with the natural assumption that I
didn’t really want to spend hours walking all over the place, which I
didn’t, thank you very much.
Now it’s the infamous
Day After Thanksgiving, traditionally the day that
the Christmas Holiday Season gets underway.
Many news stories about “Black Friday” shoppers-gone-wild in
various locations. A new
spectator and/or contact sport.
I once made the mistake of going shopping the day after Thanksgiving.
I found what I was looking for and bought it in under fifteen
minutes. It took me over an
hour to get out of the parking lot.
Since then I’ve made it a habit to avoid shopping centers and
malls over the Thanksgiving Weekend.
Years ago, when I worked in the company’s “Pleasant Hill” facility, you
knew it was close to Christmas because it took longer to get home in the
evening. About ten minutes
longer on average. This is
because the facility was just across the freeway from a major
shopping
mall. So many people driving
to and from the mall after work added enough traffic to make getting
through the various intersections take longer.
Ah, The Good Old Days…
I did spend some time this morning placing brightly colored
holiday
lights on the top of my patio fence, much to the chagrin of some
squirrels who consider that their personal landing space when launching
from the tree in front, or the balcony above.
Last year one of them got his little foot caught, just for a
moment, in the wires. So
this year I’ve moved the patio chairs that they like to use to get up
and down in hopes that they will take the hint and go under the fence
instead of over it. Only
time will tell.
Also, in preparation for the festive season, I purchased a new
Christmas
Tree stand. What’s wrong
with the old one? Nothing,
really. Except that now it’s
an ad hoc bird feeder. It’s
one of those large, plastic stands with a diameter of over a foot at the
bottom. I used the
screw-thingies that usually hold the tree to hold a plastic dish in
place. Then I filled the
dish with sunflower seeds.
Sunflower seeds are immensely popular with many varieties of birds… and
squirrels. When a squirrel
is sitting on the edge of the dish, and suddenly takes off at a gallop,
something squirrels do frequently, instead of the dish going flying, the
whole base goes skittering a little ways across the concrete patio
floor. I often hear it
moving around from time to time.
It travels quite a bit.
And always stays upright.
Isn’t modern science wonderful?
Love, as always,
Pete
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