My father died 11 years ago but my Mother remained active in the house until just before her death last year. She died in the fall and the winter was snowy and cold. We hurriedly took stuff out of the house and when I opened one box, I took a deep breath and closed it quickly. My dad’s things were in there from when he was a boy and a young man in the army. Today I opened the box again and just grazed the surface. There are a lot of personal things there, but when you’re talking about a little town in Indiana, some of those items have a bit of history to them.

From the Danville Commerce:

Babe Ruth

and then

Lou Gehrig.

And then there are these guys – such as they were. I don’t know the year or the name of anyone in the photo, but considering it was with my dad’s stuff and given the heavy cardboard, I’d guess maybe one of the players is my Great Uncle Parke Grismore.

A couple of days ago I wrote about my nutcrackers who avoided the end of season trip to the attic. As of now, they are claiming they have an easement on the top of my cabinet, but that’s another story. The nutcrackers are not the “story” to which I referred in the post title.

This is the that story:

A nice lady wrote a comment about her “Santa” situation and, so you don’t have to go bopping back to the original post again – if you did following the link – I am publishing it right here.

Albug // Jan 17, 2011 at 12:05 pm

I have a large collection of Santas that never made it into the light of day this year because of the flu (mine not theirs). This has happened before and I always hear them in the attic calling me asking to be set free. I would be afraid to let them out during the summer because I know they would never want to go back and I would loose the battle. Then my little house would be taken over by Santas and my family would commit me I’m sure. Good luck on your negotiations, my suggestion is to turn their faces to the wall and begin packing immediately.

Then, today, I received a note from her about an encounter she had earlier in the day. I must say I feel somewhat comforted knowing I am not alone in my dealings with these fellows from the North Pole.

Are you ready for it? Well, here it is.

Okay, I must be insane.  Today I was taking the back road to Garrett from our house.  I was thinking about nothing at all when I saw a yield sign with a SANTA attached to it with one of those plastic zip ties. His eyes were bugged out, his little Santa hat was all whopper jawed and he had a demented grin on his face. I couldn’t take a picture, my phone has no camera.  I don’t know what the poor thing could have done to deserve such punishment, maybe he kept calling from the attic, let me out, let me out.  I  almost went back to rescue him, but then I would have had to put him  in the ATTIC, what a dilemma.

I swear on my grandkids’ heads, this is a true encounter.

Oh, by the way, I did have an Alien Tree you know, but I am not linking to that post now. I’m keeping my head below the radar.

Albug

When Sydney was young and Cameron was little.

Two special guys.

I woke up in the dark, feeling well-rested. I had no sleep in my eyes and out the window the sky seemed light. I lay there, all snuggled in and wondered if it were close to morning or if the sky was just light because of moonlight, weather or whatever. I finally picked up my phone, pushed the button and saw it was 2:33 am.

Ack. I had almost convinced myself to get up get going, but then I saw it was THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. I took it with aplomb; I snuggled down deeper and decided to pretend I had just finished a project and could go to sleep with a good conscience. Well, that brought on a sense of relief and euphoria that was so delicious I considered it might keep me awake. Maybe it did . . . for two or three minutes. I woke again about 15 minutes ago and went outside to the garage to grab a cold drink.

I heard DRIPPING instead of the crystal silence of cold. I had known that the high was to be 37? today; I just had not expected it to be that temperature in the early morning. How long it will stay this warm I will have to check, but I suspect it is a matter of a few hours.

I walked back in and asked if there were a school delay and the answer was yes; I suspect fog came in the night and perhaps that was the light I saw outside in the dark of night. I imagine county roads are slick out there, as well, with water sitting on top of packed snow. In fact, I would not be surprised if my driveway were like that.

I am meandering here . . . meandering in the minute facts of the moment while part of my brain yells at another part: Hey, bozo, remember the euphoria of last night? So forget all that stuff about relaxing by imagining  yourself on a beach; when stressed, just close your eyes and feel that last period being typed. Remember the feel of pressure falling away as you think, “Done” and just enjoy it.

I guess I have spent many years with procrastination; it is like beating yourself over the head because it feels so good when you stop. (Not that I have done that literally.) I’m getting too old for it. I guess I’ll have to sit in my rocker and re-tell stories about the times I woke up knowing a 20-page paper was due the next day . . . and I hadn’t even read the book yet.

LZP sent us this photo of himself with this question:

Well do I know how to party or what ?

I downloaded it into iphoto, but did no editing. This is it  – without enhancement. The colors radiating around him are really that bright; his cheeks are that rosy. And when I went to name it for export to my desktop, I saw it was already called “Mustachio” and thought, “Well, okay, I can go with that.”

I asked Der Bingle if he thought this was the result of a delirium brought on by 34+ hours of non-stop caregiving when nursing shift schedules were disrupted by nurse-illness. He started telling LZP stories and . . . I think he should tell some here. Or not. What are the chances of a fez-wearing, banana-eating, bandito chasing us down?

In the meantime, I guess I will

Party . . . oh, yeah.

This is the comment left below, but I feel it needs to be up here:

LZP, aka the Hanging Judge, adjudicates all appeals of traffic/parking tickets issued at the University of Iowa.  He has a stuffed vulture mounted over his desk.  The only thing missing from this picture is the black robe.  The moustache, however, appears augmented as if he had been sniffing cotton balls….

Christmas baskets were put in white kitchen flex bags, as were wreaths. Most of the garland went into the bigger black flex bags, and, of course, there were the boxes of ornaments and lights and paper and just a lot of stuff. It all went up to the attic. Cameron moved it from the staging area in the sitting room to the lobby under the attic stairs and the bucket brigade began – with me at the top. It didn’t take long to do and then I came down and vacuumed.

I noticed them out of the corner of my eye as I sucked by; they were massed on top of a cabinet and they looked threatening. Somehow a virtual army of short nutcrackers did not get packed up. They were all summoned to the port of departure but their ship forgot to show up . . . and now they don’t want to go at all. They want to be the “Home Guard” for the year; they want to experience summer.

I have not negotiated with nutcrackers before and, to tell the truth, I do not know what they are capable of when I fall asleep. They have hinted at it. I am leaning toward giving them a lease on a shelf this year.

Yes, yes, this is all nonsensical but it is Monday morning.

Gosh, I’m going to have to go look at the hand-painted plate I have to see what the date was here.  In fact, I may just take a picture of it tomorrow. (Update, Der Bingle pointed out I have missing front teeth – so the 50 Anniversary thing seems not right.)

Anyway, let’s see:

All dressed up for the party.

Daughters Mary Grismore Woodrow, Dorothy Grismore Stucy, son Robert Grismore, Nellie Grismore, Byron Grismore, daughters  Evelyn Grismore Alexander, Geraldine Grismore Branham.

Informal before party.

Dorothy, Evelyn, Robert, Nellie, Byrom, Geraldine and Mary.

Spouses of children (and of one grandson)

Glen (Mary) Woodrow, Eileen (Robert) Grismore, Fred (Dorothy) Stucy, Phyllis (Duane) Woodrow and Al (Evelyn) Alexander. (Geraldine’s husband is missing.)

Grandkids.

Backrow: Ann, Ronnie, Glenda, Duane Woodrow and Robert Alexander

Front row: Jody Grismore, Susie Woodrow and Lana Alexander.

Some in-laws and one grandson.

Glen Woodrow, Eileen Grismore, Phyllis Woodrow, Fred Stucy. That kid in the chair would be Robert Alexander. He stayed with my grandparents a lot when he was little and used to come in with his six guns in holsters and launch himself onto the sofa. My father had a heck of time trying to teach him not to shove his peas around on his plate and our Grandpa would take him to bed with a “Come on, Little Buddy”.

It doesn’t happen every single day, but we often have discussions about correct usage of the English language. Quentin sent me this SITE ADDRESS for a place where all they do is discuss it. YES! Fortunately, English is not like chemistry – do it wrong and you won’t  blow yourself up, but it is interesting to analyze the virtual blast.

When I went to Indiana University back in 1966, I think my parents paid about $11-13 per credit hour. And then there was the room and board part. I took it all for granted . . . and skipped class a lot of the time. It was the story of sort of smart girl goes to school and majors in stupid.

My attention was drawn to Dickinson College this morning and I figured I’d hop over to the site and see what they offered and how much it cost. You know, I really had to do some clicking to get to the amount of dollars part. First they presented a piece on the value of the Dickinson Experience and then I clicked on this tiny little spot at the top of the page where they actually listed what they call Cost of Attendance.

Brace yourself:

Cost of Attendance – 2010-11

Direct Cost of Attendance (standard fees for which the student is billed)*

Tuition and Student Activity Fees        $41,520
Room and Board                                              10,430
$51,950

Estimated Indirect Costs (estimated additional expenses that vary for each student)

Books                                                                  $1,000
Personal Expenses                                           1,500**
$2,500

Total Estimated Cost of Attendance $54,450

I didn’t do the bracing thing and was jerked upright in my seat. Well, in my mind at least. Wow. Imagine not going to class to that tune.

Yesterday I stepped on a nail and it went into my foot. I was certain I had had a tetanus shot a couple of years ago, but then I began to mistrust my memory. So I thought, “Aha, I’ll bet I blogged about it – given my family phobia with lockjaw.” I hadn’t. I blogged about Summer stepping on a nail; I blogged about the story of my ancestor cutting his foot with an axe in Southern Indiana in 1822 and dying of lockjaw; I did not blog about my getting a tetanus shot. I called the office and, yes, I had one in 2009. I felt bad about them having to look through my records, so I am at least making note of it here.

It was about the time I went to Kings Island and rode the Diamondback, so I can see how memory of it got a little foggy. I’m not linking back to the Diamondback post; I can do without refreshing that experience in my mind.