PNewL PNewS Volume 19 Issue 5

PNewL PNewS

Volume 19 No. 5 “All the pnews that phits.” January 2012

 

                                   What’s the matter with Christmas?

Note: I wrote this article and then screwed up and didn’t save it so I may not be as brilliant as I was in the lost version. HA. I love that excuse!

I have not been particularly good about the holidays for the last many years. After The World Tour, I vowed to leave this country from Thanksgiving to New Years whenever I could. That has never happened though I just heard about a trip to Mali next December such that I could be gone before Christmas and return after New Year’s...that’s a start...Anyway, Gini asked me what it was that I didn’t like about the holidays and so, in this my issue of lists, I decided to make a couple more.

What I like about Christmas

* Music (love love love it all—I like carols and pop, and Jugband, James Taylor and Jewel, Fred Waring and The Pennsylvanians, Kings College Choir, the Messiah. And I just bought a CD version of Calypso Christmas that was played throughout my family’s Christmases forever. ‘Course I don’t work in a retail establishment that plays Holiday music on repeat from October through December)

* My Decorations

* Date nut bread

What I don’t like about Christmas

* Shopping (Don’t do it any more but feel that I should)

* Crowds (I popped into the mall once during December to get moisturizer of all things. There were 15 people ahead of me in line. I looked around and thought, Really? You folks put up with this?)

* Traffic (Popping into the mall was a miracle, it’s usually at a dead stop on Tunnel Road for several weeks around the holidays.)

* Forced gaiety (As Ann Marie said a hundred years ago in my youth, we are supposed to be hibernating at this time of year.)

* Build up (endless)

* Being short on family during a family oriented holiday (I know we should look to our chosen “family” but it’s the thought that counts)

* Spend spend spend (endless)

* Advertising (endless)

Waking up on Christmas eve morning this year, I felt like the weight of the world was off my shoulders: it felt like...Christmas and birthdays all wrapped up together! We were no longer building up to Christmas--it was HAPPENING!! FINALLY. And that meant it would be over soon.

A few days before, neighbor David said he was thinking about a bonfire on Christmas night and I thought THAT’s my idea of celebrating. As I hit the crest of my driveway I was reminded that I had the makings of a bonfire, a slash pile, in my front yard. The party happened there with an assortment of neighbors numbering around 15. It was sweet—it was different and I wasn’t dressed in nice clothes and sitting in hard chairs making small talk (memories of Christmases of my youth when I did have family!). New Year’s was more of the same and now it IS a new year. Yay!

 

Things I am Learning

& Miscellaneous Observations

• You will see later that I am still oh-so-fond of this place I landed in the wilds of Buncombe County. There is a listserv for our neighborhood and the following message appeared on it (reprinted with permission from the author). It reminded me, once again, that I got lucky.

“There is a long Southern tradition of waving to neighbors as well as oncoming traffic--if not an all-out wave, at least a raise of a couple of fingers off the steering wheel to acknowledge the other person. It is like giving a smile. If you do, you will get them in return. It is a very civilized practice that our Mommas would teach us and expect us to heed. As our busy lives have moved into a new century of cell phones and Tweets, we would do well to be reminded of our “proper upbringing.” If someone is new to the South, or to our wonderful rural setting, pick up this habit and you will feel great as people respond in kind. Everyone loves to be acknowledged.Y’all have fun now and make someone smile. John Hill”

• According to the Cooking Oil Recycling Program, over 66 gallons of used cooking oil is produced per person each year in North Carolina. First of all, that makes me want to barf. But, think of it--that's over 1 1/4 gallons a week. I tried to figure it out to the day but I got to the point that it's .181 gallon a day and there are 128 oz in a gallon and then I got confused. Am I right that's almost 3/4 quart PER DAY??? Someone is definitely helping with my share.

• When I arrived at the grocery store yesterday, after driving the six-ish miles from the house down a gravel road, then a windy road and finally a speedy road, I found my 25' Stanley Powerlock II measuring tape resting happily on the top of the trunk of my car, right where I left it. I was amused and very relieved.

* Bear loves the cold weather and prods me to go out more than normal. The other day we went out and he was running along and then suddenly lay down...in the snow...and raised his paw to me—Help! Fix this!—I think his feet were freezing. I made fun of someone who got her dog booties a while back. I am now wondering if they come in extra large!

* I’m taking a wood turning class and a blacksmithing class in the coming months. Moving from the soft crafts to the hard? We shall see. Martha gave me a book on blacksmithing and now I am a little nervous—more about things in my eyes than burns.

* I find wording on labels and signs interesting. It usually feels like it was created by committee and perhaps legal counsel. In NC, the sign in public restrooms--restaurants, grocery stores, among others--reads something like “Employees hands must be washed before returning to work.” So who, other than the employee, would be doing the washing? Santa put Buffalo Jerky in Bear’s stocking. On the tag is this note:  For the safety of your pet, observation is recommended when feeding your pet treats, bones or chews.

* I just came across an article I cut out from NRDC's ONEARTH magazine about bamboo. Apparently processing of bamboo into fiber can be really toxic, rayon-like (just when we thought we had found something sustainable...). So look for bamboo labeled "bamboo linen." That's mechanically processed. If this is old news I have only wasted a moment of your time and I have cleared yet another piece of paper off the desk.

* I got on the highway after leaving the gym a few days ago. About a mile down the road, there were cars driving towards me in my lane. It is really disorienting. I doubted that I had been right to get on the highway going the direction I was going. I wasn’t sure what to do. I slowed to a crawl—there wasn’t much traffic. Soon I came upon stopped traffic and all of the cars were turning around to come back and go down the on ramp and drive off on the surface streets. I wound up doing the same---when in Rome?—but it felt very odd and creepy. Not a cop around. There was what looked to be a rather nasty accident up the road a piece. Still...weird.

* I put three dollars in the bucket of the bell ringer at the grocery store. The ringer said "God bless you" (he had seen me looking for change just outside the door so he was prepared), but then he saw it was $3!!! He said, “God bless you--and your whole family." I almost went back and said, Do you mean that because on the Brown side alone we're at probably over 290 by now...but I didn't.

* When the computer program says, “Do you want to save your changes?” Pause, then respond. I just knee-jerked no need to I already did, only I didn’t. Boo-hoo.

Things to be thankful for

·      The beach--The combination of sand surf and sky

·      Friends

·      My family, alive and dead

·      Blue sky in winter

·      My neighbors (see friends, above)

·      Arugula that grows even after frost

·      The big dog

·      Candle light

·      Living in Weaverville

·      The library

·      Knowing so many who do such amazingly good work

·      Knowing so many who are so generous with money, time, talents

·      Sunrises sunsets

·      Pilates, yoga, etc

New Year's Resolutions

Once again I looked at last year’s list and I could keep most of the things on the list. I did talk to a solar guy before 2011 ended (yay) and he is coming back next week. He had the coolest gizmo that determines the amount of sun I get on my roof. Not enough for full on solar, but I can do hot water...so there, one off the list.

In no particular order

* Train us (me, the big dog...note order of the two)

* Learn to say no....diplomatically

* Quilt more

* Have fun

* More adventures

* Read NY Times Magazines in the year in which they were published

"You've got to be a thermostat rather than a thermometer. A thermostat shapes the climate...; a thermometer just reflects it." Cornel West