Month: December 2020

Much is written about ringing in the new year and ringing out the old.  Let’s not go there.  You know what you will be doing on New Year’s Eve.  We don’t need to talk about it.  It might be good for us to look at the future – near and far.  HOW DO YOU PLAN FOR THIS NEW YEAR?  Only you can determine that.  I’ve decided this week to not give you a diatribe about the customary pleas we hear for going into a new year.  Rather, I determined to give you two poems to think about this time in our lives.  This first poem was written a year ago for the Tips and Chips newsletter of the Denver Gem and Mineral Guild; it was published in the January 2020 edition.

When I was kid, we used to sing, “Christmas comes but once a year.  So, you’d better make hay while the snow is falling.”  As kids, we figured that the sing/song meant that merchants had to make their money during the busy Christmas season.  And, I suppose we were right!  But, now I wonder.

Snow has been falling, lately.  Maybe, “making hay while the snow falls” means making those people connections that may be gone because of  times like this.  Maybe, it means getting things done because we have time to do them.  Things that we have been avoiding until “the snow is falling.

As promised, with this article, I want to celebrate the women in my life.  And, a few more men because as I was working through these past few weeks, I realized that there are additional people (men) that must be included in the accounting of my friends, helpers, and relatives.  While thinking about all of these people, I was made aware of how many folks with whom I come in contact, sometimes every day, whose names I’ve never learned – never taken the time to simply say, “Will you please tell me your name?  It will be nice to know.”  I’m hoping you will stay with me for this long haul.  These people deserve our attention.

At the top of my list, of course, is my family.  My mother Hazel taught all of her daughters to be independent and never ask someone to do anything you were not willing to do yourself.  And, she could make something out of nothing better than anyone else in the world.

Just before Thanksgiving, we had our second snowstorm of the season.  Of course, in the high country, there has been more than one storm, but here in the city, we’ve had only two, so far.  I’d heard on my public radio station that we were in for some snow – how much I didn’t know.  When I went to bed (I usually hit the hay about midnight, or so), I looked into my back yard and could tell that there was only brown/green grass – no snow.

Rising at my usual time, the yard was shining with very white snow.  My morning habit is to make my daily oatmeal (microwaveable), open the living/dining room curtains, and check the front porch to see that no package deliver person left anything for me to take into the house.  These people work really late and start very early, and I sometimes find a package that had been delivered either very late, last night, or very early, today.

I’m going to write this in as delicate a manner as possible; but, know that this is not a delicate issue.  And, I can only speak from the woman’s perspective.

Have you thought about public restrooms, especially those found in restaurants?  I think about them every time I find it necessary to enter one.

First, let’s talk about the temperature in most of them.  They are COLD – really COLD!  Sometimes, I think they are cold because they are usually located along the outer walls of restaurants.  Maybe, but there seem to be no working heat vents in those rooms.