Monthly Archives: December 2020
Can You Die Of Loneliness?
As I mentioned in today’s earlier post, my Aunt Virginia died this morning, from as my cousin said, probably loneliness and a broken heart.
And that ‘loneliness’ I heard in her voice on the phone, is why we had planned to be up in Athens this past week. She had been begging us to come up and see her since late summer, but we held off hoping the flu situation would slack off. But when it didn’t we were planning to make the trip anyway.
But when she mentioned that we were coming up to see her to her doctor, he really chewed her out about it. And when she called to tell us, she was so upset she was crying.
And now we’re so sorry we canceled.
Virginia (I always called her Ninny because I couldn’t pronounce Virginia when I was little) was an amazing woman.
Yes, that’s me, with Virginia and my uncle Theo. This was the summer of 1949 when I was about 9 months old. See I did have hair once upon a time.
She was about 21 at the time.
How many women with a high-school diploma do you know that could start out as the secretary to a bank manager, and then end up many years later as President of the bank and Chairman of the Board of Directors, with a college degree?
And this wasn’t some podunk local Alabama bank, but First Federal Savings & Loan, a nation-wide banking system.
Ninny was just one of those people that everyone liked, or loved.
My cousin Marjorie said that Ninny was really upset Friday when she found out about Aunt Janis passing, but Marjorie finally got her calmed down and she seemed OK.
But when she went by Ninny’s house this morning to see her, there were police, an ambulance, and more telling, the coroner’s van outside her house.
I don’t know for certain, but I assume that the lady who looks in on her several times a day found her this morning. And no word yet on what happened.
Maybe just as my cousin said, “Loneliness and a Broken Heart.”
She was 92.
Much loved, and greatly missed. A remarkable women.
A Busy Week Upcoming . . .
I got the word today that my Aunt Janis had passed early this morning.
She turned 90 this past August. This photo was from when we saw her in February 2019, the last time we were up in Athens.
She is loved and will be missed.
I mentioned Privacy.com the other day, the service that lets you create both one-time use credit cards, and ones that can only be used with one company and/or only for designated amounts.
Well, my first charge using a dedicated card when through yesterday with no problems. The charge, for $10.00 with MyFax, my Internet Fax Service, showed up in my bank account just like it was programmed.
I went in today and set up two more cards for CuriosityStream and YouTubeTV, two of our streaming services, so I’ve only got a couple of more to set up.
So far, so good.
Our favorite Chinese buffet, Yummy Yummy, apparently is no more. When we drove by there yesterday, not only was the “Temporarily Closed” sign on the door gone, there were “For Sale” signs all over. So I guess now that we’re left with only East Star up in Webster. It’s good, but it’s further away and more expensive.
Oh, well.
We’ve got a busy time coming up.
Sunday we’re meeting Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at the Floyd’s Cajun Seafood down here in Webster. Then they’ll take Jan back with them for a couple of days of Landon-sitting.
After I pick her up Tuesday afternoon up in Katy, they’ll all be back down here, along with Lowell’s parent’s, Sonja and Lindell, and maybe his sister Sherry. We’ll be getting together for our annual Christmas Eve dinner at King Food here in Webster, something we’ve been doing for over 30 years.
Of course, then Christmas morning Jan and I will drive up to Brandi’s in Katy for Christmas dinner and presents.
After that. on New Year’s Eve, Jan and I are heading up to Fredericksburg to one night, before meeting up with the whole family at our son Chris’ over in Kingsland, finally coming on Sunday, the 3rd.
A busy time. But fun.
Thought For The Day:
“I’ve been called a fascist because I believe in small government, which shows either a misunderstanding of me or a misunderstanding of fascism.” – Judge Ralph K. Winter
December 18, 2010
Landon’s First Christmas . . .
Since we didn’t get home from the Alvin Opry until after 1am, we both slept really late this morning, with Jan getting up after 9. And I didn’t get up until about 10:30.
I fixed coffee and we just enjoyed life for a while. Later Jan wrapped Christmas presents and I worked on de-virifying another computer.
About 3 I decided it was a good time for a nap, and it was a good one.
At 5 we headed up to Webster to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at King Food for a early Christmas Eve dinner.
It’s a family tradition that every Christmas Eve we have dinner at King Food, and we’ve been doing it for about 25 years. In fact we’ve been eating there since we first moved to Houston in 1978. And we’re actually on our 4th owners, but lucky for us they’ve all kept the same great menu.
But this is the first year we won’t all be together here in Houston. We now have to share Brandi with Lowell’s family in Oklahoma.
So this year we’re having two Christmas Eve dinners. One tonight because Brandi, Lowell, and Landon are leaving Wednesday to spend Christmas with Lowell’s family in Paul’s Valley, OK. And then another one with Chris, Linda, and Piper next Friday on the other Christmas Eve.
But Landon wasn’t very impressed with the whole tradition. He slept through the whole thing.
After dinner we went over to Brandi’s to exchange gifts, and got to see Landon’s first Christmas tree.
And he was fascinated by it.
About 8:30 Santa came by on a firetruck giving out candy to the waiting kids. This is something that the local volunteer fire department has done for the kids in the subdivision for as long as I can remember. And the kids turn out for it every year.
Landon couldn’t take his eyes off Santa and the firetruck. But he wasn’t letting go of dinner, either.
Chris and Piper came over for a while to visit with Landon. Unfortunately Linda had to work tonight, so she couldn’t be with us.
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Thought for the Day:
I’m not moody, I’m just exploring that fine line between cynicism and outright depression.
December 18, 2011
Christmas Trees and Christmas Cookies . . .
Today we wanted a quiet laidback day so we started off by having breakfast about 11 at IHOP. We’ve been eating here for a long time and it’s always nice to run into waiters/waitresses who remember us from last year.
Leaving IHOP we drove across the parking to Home Depot for a couple of things before ending up at Wal-Mart, where Jan was stocking up on supplies for her Christmas cookie baking marathon later this week. Then it was home for the afternoon.
On another note, we finally got our Christmas trees set up this week.
The inside one,
and the outside one.
Hey, it’s Texas, what can I say.
Since we’re always here for Christmas, we leave everything in our storeroom here and don’t have to lug it around.
Later in the afternoon, Jan fell asleep on the sofa, so I decided a nap was also in order for me.
That certainly was two hours well spent.
About 6pm we headed up to Seabrook to have supper at Hooter’s for a batch of XXX hot wings. Too bad we didn’t wait until Tuesday.
Tuesday is Sexy Santa Day!
But since Tuesday is also Bingo Night, it’s probably not going to happen.
Tomorrow looks to be another day of clients and errands with some Christmas shopping thrown in for good measure.
Thought for the Day:
Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blu-Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collection….again.
December 18, 2016
Christmas in the ‘Patch’ . . .
or that’s what’s scheduled right now anyway.
Todd texted us this morning with four days (or nights, really) of gates for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so it’s Christmas in the ‘Patch’ for us this year.
Looks like Santa will have to track up down here in Kenedy this year.
As the cold front rolled in starting last night, the winds really picked up, rocking the coach and flapping the awnings. And sometime around 1:30am it also upended our Winegard Satellite dish and the stand it sits on.
But luckily, when I set it back up and told it to rescan, the signal came right up.
Whew!
About 12:30 Jan and I drove into Kenedy to have the Turkey & Dressing/Fried Chicken Buffet at Barth’s, one of our favorite meals there.
If we weren’t scheduled to work on Christmas Day, we had planned to drive into Katy to spent the day with Brandi and her family, and maybe Chris and Linda. Miss Piper will be working a double at UTMB in Galveston.
But since we’ll be here in Kenedy for Christmas Day we arranged to pick up Christmas dinner from Barth’s. But we’ll have to do that on Friday before 2pm since they close for the holiday then.
So since I’ll be working nights we’ll have lunch there on Friday (Chicken Fried Steak Strips/Fried Catfish) and pick up our Christmas dinners then.
According to my outside thermometer here at the rig, the temp topped out at 39° today, never making it up the forecasted 42. And the scheduled low temp for tonight, originally 29°, has been slipping all day and now is at 26°.
So I did the prudent thing and disconnected and drained our Zero G water hose, switching us over to our rig’s fresh water tank for the night. We’ve been down to 21° a few years ago down at Galveston Bay RV Park in Dickinson, and 6° in Garrison, MT in 2008, so I don’t expect any problems. But we’ll see.
We finished up the last of our Christmas shopping after lunch, and will get them off by Priority Mail tomorrow. They all be there by Thursday, but if not, we’ve still got a few extra days leeway.
Thought for the Day:
A few days ago Corpus Christi had to shut down their city water system because of the release of less than 25 gallons of Indoline from a Valero asphalt plant in the industrial area. Apparently a 3rd party contractor opened the wrong valve.
What’s interesting about all this is that at the Valero plant Indoline is used as an asphalt ‘emulsifier’, in other words, to make it creamy. Strangely enough it’s also in common use in women’s cosmetics and anti-aging products for the same reason.
So it’s bad for your stomach, but OK to rub on your face.
