Saturday, December 24, 2005

Christmas in Michigan

Ugggghhhh! I remember now why we moved from Michigan to Virginia thirteen years ago. The sun doesn't shine here in the winter. The sun became a bright spot in the clouds for a moment. It looked like a piss hole in the snow, and then it was gone. The snow along the roads looks like somebody threw coal dust on it. It is cold. The cars get filthy from the mud and salt combination. Uggghhh! It is awful. It's a good thing that my sister and five of the grandkids live here or I would not return next year. Summers here are wonderful but winters suck!
Oh well. Santa comes tonight, and the grandkids are wound up tight and probably won't sleep much. We are going to church tonight with one group of kids and then running over to another group to spend the night. I don't remember what the schedule is. Fortunately Pat does. I just go where I am told.
I talked to Nancy this morning. She is at her in-law's house. Little Will is getting bruised from all of the kisses. :?)
The Ol' Curmudgeon

Monday, December 19, 2005

Christmas

Today we leave for daughter Nancy's house in Chesterfield, and then it is on to Michigan for Christmas with five grandkids who are already wound pretty tightly. I remember the days of my youth when I would be so excited two weeks before Christmas that it was basically all that I thought about. The last two days were simply unbearable, and I never did more than doze all night Christmas Eve. Grand daughter Emily gets as excited as any child that I have ever seen. She really looks like she is going to explode at any moment. Last year on Christmas Eve she said," Mom! Can I scream just one time?" her mom said yes but she had to go outside and do it so she did. There was an ear spliting scream as only a little girl can do it. She came in the house after and we could tell that she still had plenty of steam left in her.
Christmas and Santa are meant for children. We enjoy spending Christmas with the grandkids and sharing their excitement. We really feel sorry for people who don't have grand kids to spend the holiday season with.
I am so excited! Just a second while I go outside and scream!!

The O' Curmudgeon

Saturday, December 10, 2005

old poem

I was browsing some books of poetry yesterday in a Border's Book store when I stumbled on a poem that I had seen many years ago. The poem was annonymous, but the first time that I heard the poem years ago it was allegedly written by an old farm woman. I laughed out loud in the middle of Border's when I read it yesterday!!

Carnation milk is the best in the land.
I have a can right here in my hand.
No tits to pull. No hay to pitch.
Just punch a hole in the son of a bitch.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Christmas 2005 is almost here

Christmas time is rushing toward me at an unbelievable pace. My dad used to tell me that the older he got the faster time moved. I didn't believe him. Time was a constant. It moved at the same pace. I found out that I was wrong. It seems anymore that I get up on a Monday and when I go to bed that night it is Friday. Months go by like weeks. It seems like just yesterday we were all concerned with the milineum bug, and it has been almost six years since then.
Well anyway, the grandkids are getting wound up pretty tightly. I made my first inspirational call tonight to the Harmon household and did a Santa imitation. I will call the Sengs, and the Vulgamore's next. I will start calling more frequently shortly. It is my duty to wind em up tightly so that mom and dad can watch them bounce off of the walls. I love it!

The Ol' Curmudgeon

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Salt marshes

I went for a long walk this afternoon. I left the house about 3:15 PM and walked down the shaded road toward the salt marsh which is a couple of miles from the house. The sky is the palest blue this time of year and the afternoon light is very soft and difused. The temperature was barely out of the thirties and I felt the chill as I ambled along in the shade. Not a breath of air moved. I came out into the sunshine as I entered the salt marsh which was cleaved neatly in to by the ribbon of asphalt on which I walked. The marsh grass is asleep for the winter and therefore is a light brown and shows golden in the late afternoon sunlight. Cedar trees, Juniper with blue berries, and old dead snags of pines frame this endless espanse of grass on one side and the Chesapeake Bay contains it on the other. The quiet fairly screamed at me as I did a 360 taking in every bit of the beauty that surrounded me. It is lovely here in Mathews County this time of year. The summer people are gone, and most normal folks stay inside. The grass has stopped growing and the flower garden is asleep for the winter all of which leaves much more time for long walks and reflection.
The Ol' Curmudgeon