2006 Has Arrived

It is officially 2006. I went outside a little before midnight and looked at the stars as the new year arrived. I said silent prayers for those I love and for those I don't. I said prayers of thanksgiving for graces received and prayers of entreaty for graces needed.

2006

I'm having a very sedate New Years Eve, as I usually do. My brother and sister in law and I have been out to dinner and are back on the farm before 7 p.m. I'm not a big partier, so this day is largely lost on me. The last few years I've been with Nathan on this night - always at home, but always together - so this year is definitely different. But, change is good.

I visited the cemetaries today and put new flowers out. There's something very spiritual about connecting with one's history in that way. It's a way to honor the past and realize that our future is ultimately right beside them in that place, which means the present is all the more important.

I do not make New Year's resolutions, but I do use this time of year to think about what I want to focus on in the next year's time. I think this year will be the same as last - more serious about quiet time for prayer, meditation and thinking. That was my focus last year and it was a good one. I need to do even more of it.

It's hard to know what you think when you never take time to think.

Rainbow Beauty

This afternoon about 4 o'clock, we were treated to an amazing sight - a double rainbow. It was incredible.



It went all the way across the sky, clearly defined. I've only ever seen one or two double rainbows before. I couldn't get a shot of the whole thing because my camera doesn't have a wide enough lens.



We didn't know about it, but BC came down and told Mary Ann. She ran in to tell me. We were looking out the living room window and when I went outside to take pix I realized it was a double rainbow.



I went back in to let Mary Ann know so she could come outside and see it too.

For the briefest of moments, there was the beginning of yet another rainbow on the left. You can see it faintly in the photo below. It's just to the left of the main one, about where the trees start. It was faint, but clearly visible, but it never fully developed.

Bits of An Old Life

I hit the road today to catch bits and pieces of old lives I've lived. I guess that's as good a way as any to say it.

My destination was Murray, where I spent my first year of college and where my Aunt LaVerne is buried. I wanted to put new flowers on her grave and just see what had changed in the town since I was there a couple of years ago.

On the way I stopped in Mayfield at the Happy House Restaurant. I was just driving by and saw it and thought - hey, that looks like a place I would like - so drove around the block and visited.


It is the home of Mayfield citizen Howard Happy, who owned an office supply company. The house was built in 1937 and has been a restaurant for about 20 years.

I had the chicken with curry dressing. Dressing was Hellman's mayo with curry in it. Really, it was quite delicious. The chicken was shredded white meat, and there were grapes, almonds and other goodies there. It came with the dressing piled on top of the meat so you could mix in as much or as little as you wanted.

When I saw it on the menu I was instantly reminded of my favorite lunch at Angelina's Tea Room in Paris - the curried chicken salad. They're not the same food, but both are good.

I love the south. Other places note what sort of fine wines they have. Here they noted on the menu that they use only Hellman's Mayonnaise. So do I. Great minds think alike. I'm brand loyal to very few things, but that's one of them.

Anyway, it was a very pleasant diversion. I enjoyed the salad and finished off with a cup of chamomile tea. If I lived in Mayfield this would be a regular stop, as it was for many of the others in there. The staff knew them by name.





I give the Happy House a high rating. The food was good, the staff excellent, the service great and the surroundings charming.

I went on to Murray and did my business there. I had planned to hit the library on campus, assuming they'd have a wireless connection I could tap into. However, it's Christmas break. So, I decided to head on down/up the road to Paducah and go to the library there, where I know there's a good connection.

Unfortunately, their wireless connnection was not working. I did, however, get on another one. The signal wasn't great but I did get a few things done. I needed to upload another podcast and had not realized that I still needed to download some files for converting to mp3 format. I was able to get that done there.

Also met a gentleman there and had a pleasant chat about various computer things. I was downloading and uploading while we were talking - always in a race before the battery dies.

I was reminded of how much I do not know about computer and technology. I wish I knew more. I'm really just a geek wanna be.

Quiet Day

I have not set foot outside of the house today. I slept in, which has been a rarity for me the last few weeks. I got up, showered, and started working on Mary Ann's computer. She was infected with the lop spyware. Good grief. I didn't think I was ever going to get it off of there. I deleted and rebooted and edited the registry and rebooted and searched and rebooted in an endless cycle until the late afternoon. But, finally, success when I logged on and didn't get that infuriating little toolbar.

I spent the last couple of days in bits of time now and then getting rid of the my search bar. Yeah, you may not call it spyware/adware/malware. Sorry, if I didn't get a choice about it being put on my machine, it's not something that should be there.

Anyway, tonight her computer is loading faster and running better and I'm thriled I was able to help.

I've been working on my Art of Gracious Living podcasts tonight, as well as some other projects. I'm hoping to get answers to questions I have about this set up in the near future. I'm not in the business of generating content for people for free.

Terry reports that all is well at my house and I'm happy to hear that. Had a nice note from Jim today. It's good to be in touch with him regularly. All in all a nice day of hunting down computer bad guys and working on computer things.

Tomorrow I'm going to put flowers on my Aunt LaVerne's grave, as well as some others. It's nice and warm here, which is great. Last year we were snowed in with over two feet of snow. So, this is a pleasant change of pace. I'm trying to just ignore what it says about global warming and enjoy the fact that I'm walking around in T-shirts during the winter.

Sport Shopping

I went to shop today. I'm calling it "Sport Shopping" because I wasn't really longing for anything, but I go every year on the 26th and didn't want to miss out. Generally, I'm not much of a shopper, so for me to shop for as amusement is quite unusual.

I was in town before 6 a.m., and considering it's a 35 minute drive, you will know that I got up early.

My big finds of the day where some Martha Stewart tea ornaments at K-mart and the Hallmark Barbie ornaments. Between Greg and me we got all of them.

I got home about noon and went immediately for a long nap. I got up and showered just in time for everyone to arrive for dinner tonight. Mary Ann cooked yet another wonderful meal and we all had a good time.

Dylan's girlfriend came, and I hadn't met her before, so that was nice. Also, Dylan's best friend, Ben, who is a very smart cookie, came down. We were all playing a trivia game after dinner and he's not one to be messed with when it comes to history and politics. Very smart. I'm sure his parents are very proud of him. At one point, I answered something at the same time he did and felt better about myself because I tied him on a question.

It was also fun to see Kim's parents - Clydie and Ann. I always enjoy them so much.

One of the things I did today while in Paducah was go to the library and enjoy the wi-fi hot spot so I could upload some pix from yesterday's Christmas celebration.

I call this the "Meeting of the Minds" - That's my nephew, Bobby, who's just two years older than me, on the left; his father in law John Henry in the middle; and my brother, Jackie, on the right.



Santa was able to get the ipod to BC in time - nano, of course... but just barely - it arrived at noon on Friday. I had BC pose with it Christmas morning.

I'm not sure if he has had time to download many songs onto it yet or not. I can't imagine when he would have as he went hunting this morning and this afternoon. It's duck hunting season, and missing a morning of hunting is a near crisis. I heard shots even on Christmas morning, but none of our family was out then.

One of the things I love about the hunting is that it gives me some good gift options for them. There are about as much widgets for hunting as there are for cooking. And while I don't hunt, I certainly understand the affection for widgets of various sorts.

We had a full day - the morning at Bobby and Cathy's, then church at 10, then lunch at Mary Ann's, then opening presents with everyone, and then playing games in the afternoon.



One of the things I love about my family is there's always lots of laughter. Everyone is funny. I'm not sure how we got so lucky, but everyone is funny.


My nephew, Jackie, on the couch here, is a great story teller. I always love it when he starts a story because I know we're going to all be laughing at its conclusion. He can also enjoy someone else's story.

His brother, Bobby, is no slouch in the story telling department either. But, he's a king of one liners.



We were all getting tired by the end of the day yesterday. At one point, Jackie was reclining to read the questions from the game. It was a good Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas

It has been a full and wonderful Christmas Day. The Ipod nano that was a must have arrived at Friday noon, the presents all got wrapped, the food all got cooked, the games all got played, the family is all worn out. So, that's a successful day I think.

I woke up a little after 4 and although I didn't get up until about 7:30, I never fully got back to sleep. BC called and we went up to see what he got, which included the Ipod his mom thought Santa wasn't going to get on the sleigh in time to get under the tree.

We then went to Christmas morning services and came home to a wonderful meal, compliments of my Sister in law, Mary Ann. We talked and laughed and joked until time to open presents and then continued throughout the opening. Kim and I gave each other the same gift. Apparently we both think the other needs to bake more bundt cakes in the shape of roses. Who would have ever guessed that? We've had more than a few laughs about that.

We then played games - Buzz word and Eat It. We're pretty lax about the rules and the teams, but much laughter ensued.

Now, it's 9 p.m. and I'm ready to hit the sack so I can go out and shop tomorrow with the other fools. Sometimes I wonder at myself. I know my Mama raised me to have good sense, it just seems to escape me every once in awhile.