20 December 2009
Christmas Weekend
26/12/09 12:38
On Thursday night we all got together for Christmas-Eve dinner. Barbara had turkey and all sorts of other things on the table. We brought rice krispy treats, an apple pie, and chocolates. Gifts were exchanged and we all celebrated well into the evening. Mike gave Marsha a very nice vase made in New Mexico by a pueblo artisan and me a Mr. Peanut cookie jar (I guess it means Marsha is a classic and I'm nuts). Barbara gave us some home made jellies, and a really nice T-Fal colander. All in all it was a very fun evening with laughter and stories.
One of the stories Mike told was from when he was teaching in the Northwest Territories. They had just arrived in town and wanted to fit in. Being accepted was rather difficult in these remote towns, especially for a young couple when everyone else in town was First Nations and had lived there for generations. They had been there a couple of weeks when one Saturday there was a knock at the door. It was one of their neighbours who wanted to use their phone (he didn't have one). Wanting to be neighbourly they agreed. He made a few calls lasting about an hour and then left. The next Saturday he showed up to use the phone again.. This continued for a few weeks. Then the bill showed up. The guy had called Yellowknife, and Winnipeg, and Vancouver, and Toronto, and Halifax. The long distance charges were well over $200 (and this was in the early 1980's, so in today's dollars today it would be at least twice if not three times that.) Mike hit the roof so on the following Saturday when he saw the fellow coming up the road he popped open the door before the guy could knock. "What the hell do you want?" ,then he saw the guy was crying and his cheeks were covered with frozen tears. "My mother died." he sobbed. So now Mike feels like the lowest heal there is. He let the guy in and they got him calmed down, gave him a cup of coffee. When he regained his composure they let him make his telephone calls to talk to his relatives in Yellowknife, and Winnipeg, and Vancouver, and Toronto, and Halifax. When he was done and had regained his composure once again, Mike walked him back to the door. As he left Mike asked him when his mother had passed on. The fellows eyes filled with tears again. "Five years ago" he wailed and disappeared sobbing into the cold arctic night. They later found out from the locals that that he always got that way after a few beers.
Christmas day itself was rather quiet. We slept in till 4:30 and then got up made a little breakfast and then retired to bed and opened our presents. Afterwards we went to sleep again. Around 10:00 we got up and went down to the beach. Yes while many of our friends were dealing with heavy snow, whiteout conditions, and travel warnings, we were walking hand in hand on the beach, taking pictures, looking at the boats on the water and seagulls in the sky, picking up brick-a-brack, and enjoying the Christmas morning sunshine. Have we mentioned how much we like living here?
There are things that you have but don't really think about. They just are. Today, Saturday, is Boxing Day, when all the stores discount whatever they have left over from Xmas to clear them out by the end of the year. We picked up a couple of things, among them were some computer speakers, a late Xmas present from Marsha. I work at the desk and listen to internet broadcasts or iTunes all day so she thought a good set of speakers with a base driver was a nice idea. When I got home I removed the old set and installed the new. It was amazing. Not only was the base much better the mid range is clearer and the highs are really crisp, almost sparkling. I hadn't realized how lousy the old speakers were. As I packed the old speakers up, I looked at the label on the bottom. They were made in 1993. I got them with my Mac LCIII, which was around 12 computers ago. You know, things like speakers do wear out. It's just sometimes hard to notice, because it happens so slowly.
So that's about it from us for this year. I hope everyone had a good, and for those of you in the Midwest, a safe holiday.
Remember you can follow our exploits on our web site
http://web.me.com/geoduck/Site/Welcome.html
My plan is to add a number of things to the site in to coming year.
This weeks pictures are from our Christmas morning walk at the beach.
Doug & Marsha
This was a piece of driftwood. It didn't look painted but we have no idea what natural process would leave this mark. It seemed like a good image for Christmas Day.
Low morning sun shining off the bay.
Cormorants drying off
One of the stories Mike told was from when he was teaching in the Northwest Territories. They had just arrived in town and wanted to fit in. Being accepted was rather difficult in these remote towns, especially for a young couple when everyone else in town was First Nations and had lived there for generations. They had been there a couple of weeks when one Saturday there was a knock at the door. It was one of their neighbours who wanted to use their phone (he didn't have one). Wanting to be neighbourly they agreed. He made a few calls lasting about an hour and then left. The next Saturday he showed up to use the phone again.. This continued for a few weeks. Then the bill showed up. The guy had called Yellowknife, and Winnipeg, and Vancouver, and Toronto, and Halifax. The long distance charges were well over $200 (and this was in the early 1980's, so in today's dollars today it would be at least twice if not three times that.) Mike hit the roof so on the following Saturday when he saw the fellow coming up the road he popped open the door before the guy could knock. "What the hell do you want?" ,then he saw the guy was crying and his cheeks were covered with frozen tears. "My mother died." he sobbed. So now Mike feels like the lowest heal there is. He let the guy in and they got him calmed down, gave him a cup of coffee. When he regained his composure they let him make his telephone calls to talk to his relatives in Yellowknife, and Winnipeg, and Vancouver, and Toronto, and Halifax. When he was done and had regained his composure once again, Mike walked him back to the door. As he left Mike asked him when his mother had passed on. The fellows eyes filled with tears again. "Five years ago" he wailed and disappeared sobbing into the cold arctic night. They later found out from the locals that that he always got that way after a few beers.
Christmas day itself was rather quiet. We slept in till 4:30 and then got up made a little breakfast and then retired to bed and opened our presents. Afterwards we went to sleep again. Around 10:00 we got up and went down to the beach. Yes while many of our friends were dealing with heavy snow, whiteout conditions, and travel warnings, we were walking hand in hand on the beach, taking pictures, looking at the boats on the water and seagulls in the sky, picking up brick-a-brack, and enjoying the Christmas morning sunshine. Have we mentioned how much we like living here?
There are things that you have but don't really think about. They just are. Today, Saturday, is Boxing Day, when all the stores discount whatever they have left over from Xmas to clear them out by the end of the year. We picked up a couple of things, among them were some computer speakers, a late Xmas present from Marsha. I work at the desk and listen to internet broadcasts or iTunes all day so she thought a good set of speakers with a base driver was a nice idea. When I got home I removed the old set and installed the new. It was amazing. Not only was the base much better the mid range is clearer and the highs are really crisp, almost sparkling. I hadn't realized how lousy the old speakers were. As I packed the old speakers up, I looked at the label on the bottom. They were made in 1993. I got them with my Mac LCIII, which was around 12 computers ago. You know, things like speakers do wear out. It's just sometimes hard to notice, because it happens so slowly.
So that's about it from us for this year. I hope everyone had a good, and for those of you in the Midwest, a safe holiday.
Remember you can follow our exploits on our web site
http://web.me.com/geoduck/Site/Welcome.html
My plan is to add a number of things to the site in to coming year.
This weeks pictures are from our Christmas morning walk at the beach.
Doug & Marsha
This was a piece of driftwood. It didn't look painted but we have no idea what natural process would leave this mark. It seemed like a good image for Christmas Day.
Low morning sun shining off the bay.
Cormorants drying off
Counters, Counting the Days, & Holiday Memories
20/12/09 12:46
Christmas is in full swing here. The locals tenaciously frolic away with preparations. I'll admit that I've got an odd take on Christmas. The Nightmare Before Christmas is my favourite holiday film. This week I ran across something that I hadn't heard since I was a kid. It's called Chickens in the Chimes. As kids we'd look forward to hearing Chickens in the Chimes every year. When the KUGN morning show played Chickens in the Chimes it meant Christmas was here. Check this out. It might explain a lot :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttmqy1hel7A
The other Christmas song I remember when I was a kid was the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. It's beautiful and all that but as a kid growing up in Oregon I just couldn't appreciate anyone singing joyfully about how "He will RAIN forever and ever and ever and ever." It sounded more like a threat than anything else.
That might also explain a lot.
Here at the house we've been decorating as well. This year though, we've not been able to do the full Xmas do-dads dripping from every inch of the house thing with two trees and multiple ornament collections and figurines and holiday bric-a-brac on every level surface and garland everywhere including Geiger if he's napping. This year we've only put up one table with a small tree.
OK It's my cycad plant with a few earring ornaments and a cat toy for a topper. But it'll do for this year.
The reason we didn't do the full decoration thing is because of the counter tops. In October we contracted to have the kitchen counter tops replaced. Why did we do that?
That's why. They were pink and worn out and porous, and awful. We replaced them with new counter tops that are still Formica but it's SO much better than the old stuff. We got a granite pattern that looks great. We also took the opportunity to extend the countertop on one side of the peninsula to make an eat at bar.
So what does this have to do with Christmas decorations? Well, you see, originally we were expecting the new countertops to be installed the last week of November. We didn't know how much mess they were going to make so decided to decorate after the countertops were installed. As it turned out the countertops were delayed and we didn't get them installed until the 17th of December. Unfortunately, that's a little late to drag the decorations out.
In other news this week Marsha began her new job. She's still at Superstore but this is much better. When she was at the Customer Service counter there was no consistency in her schedule. She'd open, she'd close, she's work two days in a week, she'd work eight or nine days in a row over two weeks. It was rather difficult. In this new position Marsha is in charge of regular candy. (You all will have to ask Marsha for her Job Title) (I'm called the 'Candy Bitch" - mga) She has regular hours, three five hour shifts on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The drawback is that her shift is 2:00 to 7:00. That's 2-7 AM. However it's worth it to have a fixed schedule every week. Now she can resume meeting Barbara to walk in the morning, or she can take classes, or we can plan to see a movie, or she can volunteer at the Library or SPCA. It's going to be much better.
Well this is our last note before Christmas. Hope everything is going well for all of you. Let me leave you with a traditional sentiment from a traditional holiday song of my people. (That would be the Ancient Geeks.)
Though it's been said many time, many ways
Qapla!!
To you.
(OK maybe it hasn't been said THAT way before. It's Klingon.)
Doug & Marsha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttmqy1hel7A
The other Christmas song I remember when I was a kid was the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. It's beautiful and all that but as a kid growing up in Oregon I just couldn't appreciate anyone singing joyfully about how "He will RAIN forever and ever and ever and ever." It sounded more like a threat than anything else.
That might also explain a lot.
Here at the house we've been decorating as well. This year though, we've not been able to do the full Xmas do-dads dripping from every inch of the house thing with two trees and multiple ornament collections and figurines and holiday bric-a-brac on every level surface and garland everywhere including Geiger if he's napping. This year we've only put up one table with a small tree.
OK It's my cycad plant with a few earring ornaments and a cat toy for a topper. But it'll do for this year.
The reason we didn't do the full decoration thing is because of the counter tops. In October we contracted to have the kitchen counter tops replaced. Why did we do that?
That's why. They were pink and worn out and porous, and awful. We replaced them with new counter tops that are still Formica but it's SO much better than the old stuff. We got a granite pattern that looks great. We also took the opportunity to extend the countertop on one side of the peninsula to make an eat at bar.
So what does this have to do with Christmas decorations? Well, you see, originally we were expecting the new countertops to be installed the last week of November. We didn't know how much mess they were going to make so decided to decorate after the countertops were installed. As it turned out the countertops were delayed and we didn't get them installed until the 17th of December. Unfortunately, that's a little late to drag the decorations out.
In other news this week Marsha began her new job. She's still at Superstore but this is much better. When she was at the Customer Service counter there was no consistency in her schedule. She'd open, she'd close, she's work two days in a week, she'd work eight or nine days in a row over two weeks. It was rather difficult. In this new position Marsha is in charge of regular candy. (You all will have to ask Marsha for her Job Title) (I'm called the 'Candy Bitch" - mga) She has regular hours, three five hour shifts on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The drawback is that her shift is 2:00 to 7:00. That's 2-7 AM. However it's worth it to have a fixed schedule every week. Now she can resume meeting Barbara to walk in the morning, or she can take classes, or we can plan to see a movie, or she can volunteer at the Library or SPCA. It's going to be much better.
Well this is our last note before Christmas. Hope everything is going well for all of you. Let me leave you with a traditional sentiment from a traditional holiday song of my people. (That would be the Ancient Geeks.)
Though it's been said many time, many ways
Qapla!!
To you.
(OK maybe it hasn't been said THAT way before. It's Klingon.)
Doug & Marsha