Dear Blog Reader.
I hope that this finds you doing well. I am fine. The winter
weather has come on pretty strong. If the wooly worm’s markings predicted an
intense early winter, he is a prophet of monumental proportions and I am glad
that I ran over so many on my October rides. If his markings predicted a mild
early winter, he should apply to meteorological school because he is just about
as successful in prediction as the weather channel.
The snow on the road has certainly curtailed my bike riding
the past 3 weeks. I believe that I have overcome this problem this past week.
That’s right, the studded bicycle tires that I have coveted for 2 years, have
arrived and been installed on an old beater bike that I had.
Thanks to the internet, you can find anything you may or may
not need to improve your lot in life. Now if I can just get Obamabike passed,
others will be able to pay for this obsession . . . I mean healthful activity in which I
participate and the world benefits. The irony was not lost on me when the
package containing tires with 256 steel studs for “sure grip in icy and snowy
conditions” arrived with a Florida
I am prepared now. This afternoon, I shall take my
surefooted steed to the highways and byways. I am super excited because not
only do I receive the benefits of safe traction. Should I come across an
assassin deer on my ride, I can turn him into ground venison with the repeated
application of my 512 steel studs. “Honey! Look who’s coming to dinner.”
This Christmas season has brought about a big change for the
lovely Miss Beverly and me. For the past 4 years, we have been transitioning
nicely into the empty nest. This year the transition took two major steps
forward with Ben’s graduation and subsequent teaching gig and the Kozak wedding
that involved Grace. If you would like more information about these two
wonderful events, read a few blogs from mid-year. You miss an installment; you
miss a lot. With their two major steps towards independence, our empty nest
situation has shifted into high gear.
This has been most evident during the Christmas season. The
number, of traditions that a family has that surround the children, kinda
sneaks up on you. Cutting the tree, decorating the tree, candy wrapping, and
present wrapping; all were traditions that involved Ben and Grace. Even as they
went off to school, the long semester breaks provided plenty of time to fit
these traditions into the fabric of our lives, with just a few wrinkles. We
were able to leave detailed instructions for them in the bottom of the cereal
bowls. They would be able to read these as they got up from their long winter’s
naps around noon and complete the tasks that evening after the lovely Miss
Beverly and I went to bed and they had gotten their feet underneath them.
So, this is a year of new traditions, or rather further
refinement of the old. It started last week. The cold temperatures and snowy
Saturday, highlighted by a fantastic morning sun, catapulted the lovely Miss
Beverly (a catapulted lovely Miss Beverly is a sight to behold) out of bed and
into the woodlot, where she had spotted a nicely shaped 11 foot cedar tree. The
old traditions were holding form nicely. I had the chain saw. Bev had the
camera. Two quick cuts and a couple of lumberjack pictures later; we had a stellar
eight foot tree with some extra greenery for wreath making. Then the wheels
fell off. We were 600 yards from the house and had no children to drag the tree
carcass back home. Thankfully, the lovely Miss Beverly has also been called the
sturdy, lovely, Miss Beverly before my editor insisted that I reduce the use of
commas to help the flow of these blogs. She dragged the tree to the front
porch, while I made a couple of trips bringing greenery and the saw in.
With the arduous task of bringing the tree in, and getting
it set up straight completed, we suddenly also realized how much we missed the
kids and their tree decorating skills. “Maybe we should wait until the rest of
the snow melts from the tree,” was my suggestion. I will admit I had my eye on
another prize. I had intended to watch college football all day. This would
have never been a problem back in the good old days. Grace and Bev would have
decorated the tree sharing stories about each ornament, richly weaving many
inches onto the Christmas tradition tapestry. Me? I would have had horrible
flashbacks as to the rules of tree decoration from my youth. “Big ornaments on the bottom,
small ornaments on the top, keep that 5 watt light bulb away from the crepe
paper Jesus. You don’t want to burn down the house do you? Come on pay
attention.” Soon, I would have been curled up on the floor in the fetal
position with my hands over my ears trying to keep the voices out.
Bev is very gracious. Waiting later was an accepted
suggestion. On Sunday the one watt cool bulbs came out and were strung on the
tree. Thankfully, we lost momentum, and we both think that the tree looks
pretty nice with just Christmas lights. So we have a new tradition.
On to present wrapping, we shouted after solving the tree
decoration crisis. I was brought up short. I have had a cherished present
wrapping tradition through the years that has been thrown into disarray with
transitions of this year. I have long turned over the sacred task of wrapping
presents to Grace. Okay sacred may be a bit much. But it does approach the very
important. You don’t believe me? Go ahead and put a bow on the target bag and
leave it under the tree. No! Present wrapping is a very important Christmas
tradition. So I have asked Grace to do it all of these years. Sure, she found
out what she got from me. You may think that it ruined the surprise, but it
didn’t. She was just as surprised on December 10th as she would have
been on Christmas morning.
As the Santa in brown, the UPS man, started to appear the
Monday after Thanksgiving, I immediately saw that things were amiss in the new
world order. Grace was not available to wrap presents and I have neither the
patience nor the attention to detail to wrap presents. I was faced with two
choices; either practice patience and attention to do a heartfelt imitation
of present wrapping or create an internet meme and convince the world that the
new chic is to put a bow on the target bag and shout Merry Christmas. Both
seemed like a lot of work and the success of either did not seem probable and
then it dawned on me. Like the Grinch when “his heart grew three sizes that
day”, I grinned as I realized that I could hire a youth of America
Then it struck me, this is the way it has always been for
the Sharritt’s. All through my youth, we had to wait until the morning chores
were done around 10:00 before dad came in and the presents could be opened
followed by sticky roll and sausage and scrambled egg brunch. My grandmother
had the aluminum tree with the three color spot light disk rotating through
red, green and yellow. Then she was gone and so was the tree. For several years
after our marriage, Bev and I spent the early dark hours traveling between
family homes watching houses wake up one by one; a few more lights coming on as
we traveled further down the road. Our years of creating Christmas traditions with
our children have been fantastic, and it appears made the preparations easier
through the division of labor. Now once again, traditions will spin off
throwing new light on our tinseled life like that three light disk slowly
spinning on and on.
Take care,
Roger.
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