Month: December 2005

Here’s Hoping You Have a Healthy Winter!

Miss Beatrice, the church organist, was in her eighties and had never been married. She was much admired for her sweetness and kindness to all.

One afternoon the pastor came to call on her and she showed him into her quaint sitting room. She invited him to have a seat while she prepared tea.

As he sat facing her old pump organ, the young minister noticed a cut-glass bowl sitting on top of it, filled with water. In the water floated, of all things, a condom!

When she returned with tea and scones, they began to chat. The pastor tried to stifle his curiosity about the bowl of water and its strange floater, but soon it got the better of him and he could no longer resist.

“Miss Beatrice,” he said pointing to the bowl, “I wonder if you would tell me about this?”

“Oh, yes,” she replied, “isn’t it wonderful? I was walking through the park a few months ago and I found this little package on the ground.

The directions said to place it on the organ, keep it wet, and it would prevent the spread of disease. And you know, I haven’t had a cold all winter.”

Long Distance Sunday

Springlike day here in Aiken. There was a big chance of rain all day, but it only came down for a short while this morning and quit. About 9 o’clock we wanted to go for a bike ride, but wet streets and lingering green splotches on the local radar made us think twice.

By 10:00 AM the green was gone and the streets were mostly dry and after a couple of clothing changes to be dresses right for the warmth, we pulled the tandem out of the garage and headed off.

This was to be a test of the new seat which has been sitting obediently on the bike since before Thanksgiving. After 8 miles it felt pretty good. When we got to the 8 mile point at a tee in the road Donna suggested just turning around and going back the same way we came. The normal right hand turn to complete the 15 mile loop passed right by a church and it seemed like a lot of traffic heading that way. I proposed alternate 3, turn left. It meant a 20 mile ride, but it was a nice day and we were feeling good.

The last couple of miles were a little painful, but not because of the seats, it was our backsides. We have only been riding 12-15 miles and the extra 30 minutes in the saddle were more than we were used to.

I have to admit that I’m enjoying the tandeming much more than I did when we first had one 10 years ago. I’m not sure what the reason is, and I’m not going to lose sleep trying to figure it out, but I look forward to riding the tandem more so than riding the half bikes.

Started up, went down, still down.
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The Water’s Cold

Even though there was a chance of rain coming up tomorrow, the temperature was only in the lower 50s and no one was going to notice as it would be dark when the MMC gathered to go on the light tour, I washed the car today.

Started up, still up.
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Hark The Hearld Angels Sing

Well I thought I might not listen to any Christmas music this year, but I cracked tonight.

Tomorrow is the MMC‘s annual Holiday Extravaganza and my part of it is to lead a Christmas Light Tour. It started four years ago based on an article in the Augusta Chronicle and it seems that every year the number of gargantuan displays of holiday overload dwindle in number. Two years ago we moved the party location to a different spot and that cut down on the possible routes to take too. Tonight we went to see what we could come up with and the answer is very little. There are only 2 houses left on the tour worth seeing. We did find one more, but it was a 17 mile trip to add it to the route…next year we will have to find something else to do as a prelude to the party.

What better way to go driving and looking for Christmas lights than with the top down and seasonal music playing on the car’s audio system. So I popped the CD full of 700 Megs worth of Christmas MP3s.

Tiny Kangaroo Down Sport

We have memories scattered all about the living room. Donna and her sister dragged down out of the attic about a half dozen boxes filled with pictures and memorabilia that their mother had collected over the years. When everyone was here over Thanksgiving, the brothers and sisters went through the boxes and took back with them some of the photos and their childhood report cards, etc. But what went back with them was a fraction of the collection.

Over the past week Donna has been going through the boxes a little at a time. She has unearthed some treasures, her grandmother’s high school diploma, year books from her mom’s two years at Marysville College in the late 40’s, a wedding photo of her aunt…

She has also unearthed a few pieces of trash as well, a souvenir I sent back from a 1979 U.S.S. Midway liberty stop in Perth, Australia, a genuine kangaroo skin.

Started down, went up, still up.
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