Auld Lang Syne

Wet Back yard ............................>>>>>

Here we are approaching the end of 2008, an eventful year for many in our family.

Jason and Rebecca have bought their first home in Louisville, KY, the Millers have been gone on their adventure now for over two long months, and we have been reasonably busy here at Home Alone.

I have been busier than I ever expected at the job with First Student. One thing I miss are driving the charters to school events. I’m not doing the hands on training I was doing before, but am heavily into supporting the staff in the office and working to make sure all the administrative duties regarding compliance with state and Federal rules and guidelines.

The job is a very busy one with very crowded and difficult working conditions. And today I found I will need to carry more responsibilities while learning yet another new system.

The mother carried out yet another successful holiday season. The season culminates tomorrow with a house party at a friend’s home. I will take a couple of Tylenol PMs tonight so I sleep well and can feel rested for tomorrow evening.

We received over three inches of rain last Saturday. That amount set a new season record for this area of over 59” of rain.

The local cable channel and KMOV, the CBS stations were having a quarrel over fees. KMOV wanted paid for the over the air signal while Charter refused. KMOV was going to be taken off the cable on Dec 31. I would not have minded if they could pick up CBS from Peoria. The three stations in St. Louis cover the same things at the same time, giving little attention to Illinois.

It is windy here tonight. Must be going to get cold again. Yes, just checked the weather: high today was 59, tomorrow forecast is for 31 degrees.

That is about it from Home Alone…

Love to all,

Dad

The days are beginning to be longer. Finally. Five more days and we are entitled to a do over.

I have decided to establish Christmas as occurring on the 19th of December. This action will assure me that, hopefully, the “I have to’s “ and the “we have to’s” will be over and done with. Only then can I enjoy the true spirit of Christmas. But of course it will never happen. Mere men cannot fix this thing. I know that but still I can hope, can’t I?

We opened presents with Rebecca and Jason on Christmas morning. I fixed my traditional breakfast of sausage, biscuits, and sausage links. I also dared make gravy from the drippings. It was somewhat bland, but it was certainly gravy. I got the unusual negative comments so I will never attempt that again.

The wife works her tail off around this time of year. I am sure everyone appreciates that. I certainly do. She is s pecial.

The temperature got up to 60 degrees this afternoon. Cold front is going to bump in so three inches of rain is predicted along with storms. Bill and Dawn and kids are coming down tomorrow, so the house will be moderately full. Still, it’s not the same without the little ones. Dick and Jeannie have a 6-month-old set of twin grandsons. We are working a deal to borrow one once in a while. Jack and Nate are their names.

We are going to a party at the Sorgea’s house on New Years Eve. There should be around 12 to 14 people there; we know everyone so it should be a fun evening.

Worked at cleaning up the basement this evening. One of the remote controls has turned up missing so now I think I will look into getting a new HD TV for the basement. I will not replace the living room TV. It is a member of the family.

I have been looking at various aspects of MY Face. Not so sure I will do much with it, but I will check it out once in while.

Not much more happening here except the usual Christmas chatter. Lee and Wilma were over last night. We played that card game that Rebecca nd Jason taught us. It is fun and easy but I don’t see it being a full evening game.

Lee and Wilma gave us an extra nice gift; a box from Omaha Steaks. It is a nifty process they use for shipping in dry ice. The box contained stuffed potatoes, stuffed flounder, hamburgers, gourmet hot dogs, steaks, and chops. It also contained a set of steak knives.We had the pork chops for dinner on Christmas eve ( before church). They were quite good and juicy.

Well that is it from Home Alone.

Love to all,

Dad

Christmas Eve

Just a short missive to let you know we (Jason, Rebecca, and your mom / grandma are on our way to the candlelight service at Signal Hill.
I fixed a salad, chops, green beans, and corn bread for dinner. Simple fare but nutritious.

Dad and Jason

Sunday Before Christmas

It certainly looks to be cool and dreary there in Arizona. It is very cold in our area; +8 degrees right now with a fairly strong wind.

Walking across from the far end of the lot at the mall this afternoon (your mom forgot her cripple card) was very painful. No hat, no scarf, and a frozen face.

No snow remaining but it is predicted for Christmas Eve.

The church at Signal Hill is very pretty for the holidays. I meant to take my camera and get an inside shot but, alas, forgot.

Dick, Lee, and I helped Rebecca and Jason load the truck for their move to Louisville. One other fellow from Jason’s work helped for about two hours. But it still wasn’t too bad. Took us a little over three hours to complete the job.

Jason and Rebecca left about three o’clock but had to stop in Mt. Vernon. Jason had twisted his ankle (right foot) and it had swollen up so they stayed over at a motel ‘til this morning. They got to Louisville ok sometime after noon.

Your mom and I had to do the money counting at church then made the deposit. After that we went to the mall to finish (hopefully) our shopping.

Schools are out but I will be working the next two days. We have a lot of personnel files to update.

That’s about it for now.

Love from Home Alone
Dad

Hi, All,

I went to the post office today to send three boxes to Arizona. The postal services promised me the carefully wrapped packages (including fudge) would arrive safely in that distant, foreign place. I 'll wait and see. Also sent a few re-directed envelopes.


We are getting rain (some freezing) and a few thunder rumbles.

Jason dropped over tonight. He was going to include a couple of gifts in my shipment but I had forgotten that. Not enough room anyway so I will be the good dad and do his duty for him.

I think I will head for the bed now. It is closing onto 10:00 and I, as usual, have an early start. We are having a potlatch at the office, so I have to get that all set up and also take my dish; green beans with onions, mushrooms, sauce and butter. Simple, easy, and good.

Good night and love to all and big hug (…………………………………………………….)

Dad

Snow day

We did get ice and snow overnight. The accumulation was not heavy but the schools in the area declared a snow day.

I went to the mall for lunch and bought a new sweater vest. Also got a gift for your mom. Had lunch there and used the last 2 dollars on my Starbucks gift card. Actually, I still have 15 cents on the card. Where is the cents key on this keyboard?

Took your mom to work (did not want her to walk on the ice) and picked her up for her doctors appointment; preliminary visit regarding her carpal tunnel procedure.

Rebecca’s mom had surgery today. We haven’t heard anything. Which is good, I suppose.

Not much going on here this week. Oh, yes, I did get the shingles vaccine. No insurance coverage so I had to pay the, gulp, $200 bucks. Looks like my daughter gets the Starbucks card for Christmas. I am certain the shot will be paid for by insurance sometime after the first of the year.

Oh, well. If life were fair it would be called FAIR !

In 3 minutes it will be 10:00PM so that is my reminder that I get up at 5:00 AM. First thing I do in the morning is checking the school closings. If you were to be curious, go to KMOV.com and see what is closed. You have to wade through all the Saints Theresa’s and Saint Peters cause they all close first.

Well, quite enough of this. Love to all and to all a good…wait! Things came in the mail today. I shook them and smelled them and held them up to the light, but to no avail. Your mom said we could not open them. “But they are not wrapped”, I protested. She said it didn’t matter; they will lay unwrapped, in inelegant repose under the tree, in the far back. “Somewhat like a Goodwill Store display”, I haughtily re-joined.

Good night and love to one and all.

Dad

Sunday night,

Well we had a good time with the Stolles and with the Sorgeas last night.

Your mom made hot beef sandwiches and lasagna soup. Everything turned out ok.

Jason and Rebecca came by this afternoon. Jason had to go to work and Rebecca was headed to Louisville.

Your mom is feverishly wrapping gifts. I usually get to make the December 23rd trip to the post office. Maybe just maybe, I will do it a little earlier. As you can tell by the picture, I am looking forward to to that.

You are lucky that packages left for you will stay dry. All the delivery services here love to put packages where they can get wet.

Looks like we will get a little ice in the morning but not as bad as earlier predicted. Less than ½ inch on the trees so that should be ok.

I will be helping Jason load up next Saturday. They do not have many friends here anymore, so I am going to try to recruit Lee and Dickto help.

That’s about it or now. Love to all. Dad

Here in south central Illinois, we are waiting for an ice storm. As a reminder of what it looked like last year, here are a couple of pictures.

We had a lot of fun with the video cam last night. Savannah is an excellent tour guide. I am going to do some upgrading to my computer to, hopefully, make it a little faster. I'm sure the speed is limited somewhat by the cable connection.

We have a busy day ahead of us. We have company coming tonight to have hot beef sandwiches and a soup made from a recipe your mom found on the net.

Jason and I went to the Dandy Inn for wings on Thursday night; two ponds of whole wings for $7.50. They are good. No sauce.

Route 50 in front of Sonics in O’Fallon is experiencing severe mine subsidence fro the old St. Ellen Mine. Several businesses were forced to close temporarily. Water main has broken three times in a week. And the main sewer line is a disaster.

Lots of Illinois news around the world. A salesman told me once that there is no such thing as bad publicity so long as word about the product is getting out.

We think the Governor has lived beyond his means for so long that he cannot afford to resign and lose a paycheck. It is unfortunate that some folks would like to tie Obama into this in some way. They do not realize that it is critically important for Obama to succeed as our president.

Your mom likes to talk at length with Sally almost every night. So I have bought her a new cordless phone with a nice headset and microphone. Hope she uses it.

Jason and Rebecca plan on staying here from Christmas Eve for a couple of days. That will be nice. Then on to Louisville and their new life. I hope all this works out. Right now, everyone is so vulnerable economically.

The banks are the biggest danger to those who are just getting by. They are in some cases doubling interest rates on credit cards even for good, reliable customers. Another trick they are using is abruptly lowering a cards credit limits, sometimes below what is currently owed, then charging over limit fees and boosting the interest to 29%. An the taxpayers are bailing these criminals out of thir own mess.

Then letting the domestic automakers go down the tubes. The southern states are proudly anti union and have attracted a lot of foreign car makers. Of course the southern senators will gleefully let the big three die. It is in their own political interest. (WORD just scolded me for using a reflexive pronoun (say what?))

Ha ! I am going to leave it, so there.

Well enough of this,

Love you all

Dad

Decorated for Christmas

Your mom is done decorating. She wanted you to have a look see.

I hung wreaths out side. Several houses in the neighborhood went all out but I decided to go simple.

12 degrees this morning. Supposed to warm up to a freezing drizzle in the morning.

We went to church this morning then to Bob Evans for breakfast. Rebecca was at O'Fallon this weekend but we did not get to see her. I guess we will be hosting them for a couple of days over Christmas. That's good.

We enjoyed your last post. Keep it coming. I print them out and your mom keeps tyhem in a folder.

Well that's it for now. Love you one and all

Dad

Minutia

We went shopping a couple of times on Saturday and Sunday. Stopped in at the furniture store to look at recliners. We want a leather one; medium sized. But as usual, we could not decide.

We may never get one.

Your mother continues decorating the house for Christmas. I did my part by doing some outside decorating.

It continues to be busy at work. We are short of drivers We fired one, one has an injury from a car wreck and has quit, and another one has found love in Atlanta and is leaving us in two weeks.

Then someone did an anonymous call in to the paper, which prints any anonymous crank call. We think it was the one who got fired (made a threat of violence against the boss). We think the ‘new bus driver’ part was an attempt by the one who was fired to fool us into thinking it was someone else. She was the most malcontented and disruptive employee in the office.

Morale drops low
I am a new school bus driver for First Student in O'Fallon. The morale is very low here. The employee break room was taken away in September. In addition, the company has canceled the Christmas party to save money. All parents should be concerned if they have a child who rides on a First Student bus because low morale can create an unsafe environment. Many of the experienced drivers are leaving. Your paper needs to do a story on any other companies that are canceling their Christmas parties.

Oh, well, I am sure this type of person is honored in her circle of friends.

Well it sure looks like you are statistically improving the Arizonan Tourist Indices.
What is on your next weekend’s agenda?

Katy is in from California and visiting Sally in Sterling. I am sure your mom would love to go up for a visit. I don’t mind when she does that.

I tore the fence down between this house and Sorgea’s old house. The wind had partially wrecked it so I gave up on working with old stuff. I’ll put in a new one across there in the spring.

That’s about it from Home Alone…

Be safe out there, Love to all

Dad

At the Dome

Hi, again.
It’s just me.

I had a surprise call yesterday form Sally and Raquel. Raquel is a cheerleader at her high school. The school, from up in way northern Missouri (up by Iowa) was playing in the state football championships at the Dome in St Louis and Raquel wanted me to come to the game.

I did go and enjoyed being with Sally and Colton (Rick stayed home with a friend) and watching Raquel and her friends cheer the team to a 10 – 7 victory.

We went over to the Sorgea’s last night. Dick’s sister Theresa is married to a man who has a son, Chris, who is a corporate jet pilot. Chris is based in and lives in Phoenix. He is aware of the area and is familiar with Chandler.

We are anticipating getting about two inches of snow tomorrow. Christmas is coming like an express train. We will be helping Jason move the weekend before. I am finding it to be difficult getting into the spirit of the season.

Got to reminiscing about Savannah over our supper, which included FRIED POTATOES.

I spent part of the day hauling containers to the basement. I suppose that is good exercise.

Well, I find myself inexplicably at a loss for words, so that is it from Home Alone.

Love to all and be careful out there.
Dad

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving day was celebrated in Auburn at Bill & Dawn’s home.

Dawn and Bill prepared a splendid meal with all the traditionals and a couple of new items. Linda and Denise contributed dishes and deserts, Nancy contributed a desert, and we took a desert, a pound of fudge, and a huge crock of mashed potatoes.

Denise was married four weeks ago (in Cazumel) and was joined by her new husband Dan.

We picked up Nancy at her home and I drove her van since she has difficulty in exiting lower profile cars.

We watched some football, watched a video of Brandon performing with the Auburn band in a state competition, and a video of Brooke and a classmate performing in a comedic skit for a school competition.

Three deer ran across the backyard as we watched out the patio door. We could hear some gunshots in the distance. Firearm season ends next weekend.

After dinner, we played cards and a couple of board games. Jason called twice to get the rules for Golf. He and Rebecca were in Cincinnati for Thanksgiving at a friend’s house.

We got home about 10:30. So another Thanksgiving fades into our memories. Next up is Christmas. With Jason and Rebecca moving to Louisville the week before Christmas, and the economy in a death spiral, this may not be the best of times for celebrating.

The weather here has been mild. Unfortunately we live in a burning area so the prettiest days are filled with smoke. Truth be known, only a few people burn leaves, but that is enough to make the air harsh. It is a free country and people can burn leaves, but we need a law that forces people to keep the smoke on their own property.

I am up this morning at 4:30. I wish I would sleep longer.

Took a number of pictures yesterday. Unfortunately, several were blurry. I can’t get people to be still. My limited software can’t fix blurry.

That’s all for now except for some superfluous punctuation…!..?’.

Dad

Big Big Change

Big, big change in routine..
Guess what? Your mother put the trashcan back where it belongs, over by the basement door. No longer will I put trash in that 3-drawer chest. That puppy is now up stairs in, as your mom still calls it, Jason’s room.

And since she bought that bookcase for the family room, there is no place for the Christmas tree. Problem solved, I lose my recliner. It is in the cellar. Next I will be rooming down in the dungeon. At least the beer fridge is down there. I sure wish I still had the protection of my daughter.

I am fixated on all the news these days. It looks like bush is set to make a lot of presidential edicts to help destroy what you are now enjoying. The Grand Canyon will make an excellent landfill.

I think all development should be in Texas and Washington D.C. And Missouri.

Back to the Christmas tree; it is up and standing. Now for the agony of decorating it, my favorite ordeal.

“All right, what did you do with my snowmen!!!???”

The fudge is cooling in the garage. We are having that little lunch at work tomorrow so I opted to bring fudge.

A woman at work is giving away three kittens. I told her that when I was a farm boy, we put kittens in a feed sack and tossed them into the drainage ditch. The EPA frowns on that now, I would expect.

Well to bed and a little reading. I am half way through a book called Six Frigates, a non-fiction book about the birth of the U.S. Navy. It’s not a book to be found on Oprah’s lists.

Love to all,
Dad

These pictures are from our trip to Washington State about three years ago. Parallel with my ear and over my left shoulder, the white image coming down the mountain is an ancient glacier in the Olympic Mountains

The Millers will get to see these mountains in the Spring.

Not much is happening here at Home Alone tonight. I had a busy day, while your mom played hooky. She has taken down the fall decorations and has been eyeing the Christmas decorations, all of which is in about 342 storage containers all of which are 13 steps down into the basement.

We are talking about what to buy for our family members for Christmas. We think this is a good year to start being more frugal (along with the whole country). We are happiest when our various families spend more on themselves and less on us. Not that we do not appreciate all that our children and grand children do for us, but honestly, all we want is their love and happiness.

We are looking forward to being with Bill and Dawn and family on Thanksgiving. And we are happy to have Nancy going with us. She enjoys all table games so it will be fun.

No school here on Wednesday so the adult workers are going to do a pre- Thanksgiving potlatch. I have been waiting for an opportunity to use that word.

We have a new system of filing and personnel files to implement. We needed a day when all the employees would be gone so that we can spread these files (which are sensitive) out and get the job done. So, we will have a mini-feast to make the job more pleasant.

Well that is not a lot of news from Home Alone but it will have to do.

Oh, by the way, Jim. I got to thinking about those gullies and arroyos you have been taking MY grandkids into. Don’t forget that flash floods occur caused by rain at higher elevations; even when the sky is clear where you are walking.

Also, never, never open up a refrigerator found in the desert.

Ok, that is it… (pointless use of an ellipses) , don’t you love ‘em?

Bye,
Dad and grandpa

The Concert

Sunday morning,

Well we made it to thec oncert with 5 minutes to spare. Rebecca and Jason were running late but was not a real factor.

The concert had a large crowd in attendance. The Mozart section was lively and quite enjoyable. The featured artist on the ensemble was a man playing a concert grand piano. Only about 40 orchestra members were behind him. After intermission, the piano was gone and the orchestra swelled to over 90 members.

This section featured a composition that was completed in 1910. I guess that made it more contemporary. Anyway, the sets (right word?) were well done and, as expected, lasted about 12 minutes each. The concluding set ended with the string sections having their bows poised over their instruments. I expected a crescendo of sound, but the set seemed to whimper to a close. I suspect the composer ran out of clefts or something.

It was a very cold night and I heard complaints about the leather seats not being heated. Sorry but the last owners of that leather is long ago cold and eaten. Besides, the human butt can warm leather if given enough time.

We stopped in at Denny’s for desert. I had a club sandwich since I had not eaten dinner. My old nemesis the Earache had returned for a while. Also, my eye was really itching and I found it to be unpleasantly distracting.

We are having company this afternoon (as previously stated) and Jason has invited himself over for the soup. That’s fine with us.

Jason really looked nice last night. He has become as handsome as his brother and brother-in-law. Rebecca looked nice, as always. We are not looking forward to having them move to Louisville. Yes, I know it’s only ‘5 hours away’. I don’t consider that to be within easy driving distance.

I sure did enjoy talking on the phone with my son-in-law last evening.

Your mom is on her way to the store to finish up getting the stuff for this afternoon. She says ‘Hi’ and will do her own writing later.

That’s all the news from Home Alone.

Be safe. Don’t try to fill every hour with activity…it is perfectly fine to once in a while just do nothing.

Love all,

Dad (grandpa)

Saturday morning (early morning) and here I am doing my on line bill paying and watching that my various accounts have not lent themselves to hacking.

It got quite cold last night (18 degrees); fortunately there was very little wind so it was not too bad. Cold is good since (theoretically) it kills off all the germs in the air.

We went to Hobby Lobby last night looking for a frame for Bill’s birthday gift. No luck there so then off to Michaels, but no luck there either. I was having a low chocolate indicator so popped into Dierbergs and got a dark chocolate bar. That eased the pain.

I seem to have an ingrown hair in my eye. Sure does make my eye look evil. I wish I had a nurse practitioner in the area.

We are having some friends over on Sunday afternoon. Looks kike potato soup is on the menu. I hope I get to watch the Bears and Rams game. The Rams are dismal, but the Bears are usually fun to watch.

I have been hungry for some more variety in our meals. New England boiled dinner sounded good so I did a small roast in the crock-pot, added onions, carrots, and potatoes. That was good. Will do some pinto beans next week.

I’m going to get the big mower out this morning, and do some leaf mulching. I have a lot to do outside. A windstorm took down part of the fence last month so I need to get that taken care of. The thing that holds me back a lot of time is not having a truck. That is next on my want list.

I continue being busier than I want to be at the bus company. I do a lot of re-training. This activity if for people who have been observed not doing the job completely or safety. We have a theory that when people continually do the wrong thing, eventually some one will be hurt or killed.

Besides training, I am the safety coordinator and now have to do team building activities. Fortunately, I have a good boss (actually I have never had a bad boss) and good associates.

Being busy does cut into my exercise and walking activities. I need to mentally berate myself so I get back into the groove.

We went and looked at flooring again, again. I can make up my mind without conscious effort. However…….

Also looking for a new recliner for the family room. This is when the truck would come in handy, but then again, making up our (her) mind/s on any single item, is somewhat like me having to answer that ageless question, ‘does this make me look too fat?’

Jason got us tickets to Powell Hall to hear a concert by the St. Louis symphony Orchestra. On the program is Mozart Piano Concerto No. 19 in F Major, K. 459 and Mahler Symphony No. 9. This will be tonight.

The fields in this area are just now being cleared of corn and soybeans. Combining is late due to a wet spring and lingering moisture in the corn. Farmers prefer field drying since fuel costs to bin dry are so high.

The deer are starting to run now since there is less cover. And they are horny.

Well that’s all the news from Home Alone.

Love to all,

Dad

Went to church this morning by myself. Mom was not feeling too well.
Got home and we decided to go to Target. Bought a new speaker phone. Tested it out by talking to the kids.

Called Nancy Miller to invite her to join us for Thanksgiving at Bill & Dawn,s house. Dawn has been fighting pneumonia and a fever of 104 this week. Hopefully all this will clear out with cooler weather.

Watched the Rams get embarrassed. Again. Then watched the Obama’s on Sixty minutes. Twas a very good interview. I hope the retarded rednecks in this country can give them a chance to succeed. We need a win now and then after the past eight Bush years.

Went looking at trucks today. Choice between a Ford Ranger or the Chevy Colorado. Colorado is a silly name for a truck. Same as the Montana for a SUV.

If I buy the Chevy, I’ll rename it to the Chevy Illinois. Hey, the new prez is from Illinois.

Obama resigned as a senator today. We wonder whom that twit Blagoavich will name as his successor.

Gotta toodle,

Bye Now

Pizza Place

We went to the new pizza place in O'Fallon. We went there once before. I found the atmosphere pleasant but crowded. Seating is limited.
We were a party of eight (can you have a party of one?), drank 4 pitchers of beer, and tasted each other’s pizza.
I had a Philly cheese steak sandwich. Don’t like the pizza in this area; mostly tastes like hot cardboard
Later on we went to a friends house and played cards. We play 1500 Rummy, also called Saskatchewan Rummy.
It snowed a little while we were at the Pizza place. Didn’t amount to much. I will do the last lawn mowing this next weekend; mainly to mulch the leaves.

Thanksgiving

Bought a turkey, a small one (12 lbs.), last Friday.
No family expected for Thanksgiving so will just save it for Christmas.

We will be going to Auburn for the turkey feed. We plan on inviting Nancy, unless she has other plans.
Dad