PNewL PNewS
Volume 32 Issue 2 “All the pnews that phits.” September 2024
Christmas in July
Sara has a thing about Christmas. Well, that is not totally accurate—I think she’s pretty average on the prep, decorating, celebrating part. She has a thing for the aftermath of Christmas…that lingers. Her Facebook page is peppered with photos of Christmas trees on the curb in April or decorations that are left up for months or even the better part of the year. I always think of her when I see something Christmas-y that is out of place.
I am not a huge fan of Christmas but I love the decorations. When I moved to this house, there was a tree down the road that looked just like a little Christmas tree in the wild. When the holidays approached, I decided to decorate it. Someone actually pulled it out by the roots. I thought that was a bit harsh but I was not dissuaded. I moved the decorations closer to home.
For years, I decorated the tree across from my driveway with large shiny ornaments. I did it anonymously. I remember one neighbor wondering who it was that was doing it. Someone said it was me –I didn’t say anything. Another said it couldn’t be Peggy—it started before she lived here. That made me happy. Then someone started taking the ornaments and that made me sad so I moved this harmless silliness onto my property.
I don’t just decorate for Christmas. I have Valentine’s hearts and St Patrick’s Day shamrocks and Easter eggs, patriotic hooha. I do it all though I just realized I forgot July 4th and Labor Day. Oops. Susan helps—she’s very clever, especially around Halloween. It’s a harmless hobby and I like to think it makes someone smile or roll their eyes or…react. I like that.
This past Christmas I hung some cheap red and gold balls in a tree in my yard—an American Sweetgum that I got from the Greenworks native tree giveaway. I planted it two years ago when it was a twig. It’s about eight feet tall now. Oh my. I thought I’d leave the balls in that tree until it got close to hard to reach them—see how long it takes to grow that far. It’s entertaining and when I catch a glimpse of a Christmas ball, it makes me think of Sara and that’s a good thing.
I also put a few of those cheap balls on the road below my house before the holidays. I walk Buster down there every morning and it is cheery to see the little glint of red. I also thought other people might notice it—locals and visitors and workers—and might have a moment. Wishful thinking.
Recently the Brain Trust that is the people who keep our roadsides…tidy? Safe? In check? shredded the vegetation alongside the road and I couldn’t find the ball—I couldn’t find the tree…it was gone. (When I see the ASPLUNDH: The Tree Experts trucks, I have an actual physical reaction. They are…savage tree destroyers IMHO. They broke my mailbox post in their shredding—well, they cracked it and I taped it up with bright duct take. So there!) Several weeks later I saw a glint in the bushes – it was red, it was whole, it was waiting for me? I re-hung the ball in another bush. It still makes me happy.
This morning on our walk, the balls, both the original red and another gold that appeared one day, are both gone. C’est la vie. Christmas decorating season is right around the corner.
Things I am Learning
& Miscellaneous Observations
• The humidity has been challenging this summer. It is not something I enjoy…at all. I find myself lying under the ceiling fan to dry off. I am unable to knit on the front porch because the needle sticks to the yarn. I’m done. (Not sure what that means—it’s not like me being “done” changes anything…I’m just saying…)
• A while back, I finished the book The Address Book: What Street Addresses reveal about Identity Race Wealth and Power. I mentioned it last issue. It was really good though took me a long time to read because I am that sort. In the final chapter, she talked about what's next in trying to get everyone an address--not having one prevents people from accessing services, including emergency services. (Did you know there are Vanity Addresses in NYC? They improve the je ne sais quoi – upgrades their image? Trump's property (properties?) has one--they are addresses for buildings that aren't where the address says they are and have resulted in death, because emergency responders can’t find them, but that's another story.)
In the final chapter, she talked about what3words which is a navigational system--a phone app--that assigns 3 words to every 3 square meters ON EARTH. I downloaded it and learned where I sit on my front porch is nightfall.disappear.plume. The words that are assigned have no relationship to neighbors, but it's like a GPS coordinate so that if someone needs to be found, this can pinpoint it. (They use simpler words for urban areas because they expect more use--the Arctic's words are multiple syllables.)
Shortly after finishing the book, I opened the Islander’s Assn. newsletter and they are using it on Georgian Bay! The words for our cookhouse on Osawa Island include headliner.quilts.dreaming. observe.tyrant.magnifies. bland.lasses.handover. (There are probably more but you get the picture).
It's a rabbit hole but I find it interesting and thought you might too. And so ends this public service announcement. You are welcome.
• I received a phone call at 5am on the landline. (Yes I still have one and it stopped working for a couple weeks and I survived so maybe I should disconnect it but there’s more to this story.) It was letting me know that the emergency services 911 number in NEW HAMPSHIRE was not working and gave me a 603 number I could call if I had an emergency…in NEW HAMPSHIRE. I think that was very kind of them but please don’t do it again.
• Recently I learned about a do-gooder trip that I would really like to take. I have been away quite a bit this year and I wrote, “I am very interested but my travel calendar feels used up for 2024. I am trying to convince myself that I could borrow from 2025.”
• Since Buster and I have started walking on a kinda busy road I have noticed that the sounds of cars on the pavement are so different—it’s obviously the tires. There’s a Rubicon Jeep I see almost every morning and we have gotten friendly, the driver and I—I wave, he waves…every morning—and I can hear him from up the valley and then down the valley. Jeff says tires on a vehicle like that are nobby (nubby?) for off-roading. Mystery solved.
• On a related topic, I bought some new walking shoes and they make more noise than I am accustomed to—turns out they too are nobbier (nubbier?) than my old shoes.
• Earlier in the summer, I stopped feeding the birds until fall. I continued to feed them to use up seed. On the last day, they emptied two birdfeeders for the first time since cold weather. Little pig birds!
• I rarely feel like I can speak authoritatively on anything. I follow some social media pages on Iceland and it always cracks me up that people are willing to go on and on about where we should all go based on their 4-day or week-long trip there. I’ve been there three times and I could tell you my favorite parts but I can’t imagine feeling that knowledgeable.
• One of the downsides of driving long distances alone is that I have no one to talk to about the things I see along the way that could be interesting to talk about. Recently on I-75, I drove for a period alongside a vehicle with vanity plates that read “3XALADY” or something like that. I thought, based on her driving, I could quibble with her on that. Then as I scanned the radio stations, I heard a very cheerful woman say, “There is so much freedom in Jesus,” and I wanted her to elaborate. And how many times are you tempted to call that number on the vehicles with “How am I driving?” painted on it—do you think some of those drivers forget they could be ratted on? And finally, my favorite company to hate these days: Asplundh Tree Experts (*see earlier rant above, continued here)…seriously? Experts? You should see our neighborhood. One neighbor said it wasn’t as bad as it has been in the past. A ringing endorsement. Another said things will grow back. Sigh.There they were--a flotilla of Asplundh trucks driving down I-75 in central Ohio or maybe Kentucky, jockeying for position and blocking the fast lane. I suspect they were headed down to help post-hurricane, and thanks for that, but have some consideration! Perhaps it’s best I continue to drive alone…
• I live in “the country” which is fast becoming less that and more suburbia I think, but there are some days when I’ve been listening to the birds and the squirrels and the peace of the neighborhood and suddenly there’s a lot of truck noise or grading the road or multiple mowers or chainsaws or all of the bove and it doesn’t feel like the idyllic backdrop I think of as home.
• I don’t have space to go into any detail on my new project, The Good Ship Please Don’t Pop, an inflatable kayak that has yet to experience water, but it's something to look forward to in the next issue!
“I could spend whole days in near silence reading or writing or speaking in the simpler heart-sure vernacular of human-to-dog.” Gail Caldwell, Let’s Take the Long Way
