TheBanyanTree: Boxing Day

[Margaret R. Kramer]

I often thought that the USA should make the day after Christmas be a
holiday, too.  It takes a lot of mental fortitude for those of us who
celebrate to get it together to go to work the day after.  I’m taking the
rest of this week off and will not go back to work until January 2, so
Boxing Day is a day off for me this year.  I haven’t taken Christmas week
off for years and since I have no money and no place to go, I thought, “Why
not?”  So here I am at home.

Christmas Eve was a foodie’s delight.  We ate ourselves silly before dinner,
during dinner, and after dinner.  We opened gifts and the boys declared it
their “best Christmas ever.”  Then we ate again before everyone went home to
wait for Santa Claus.

Ray and I had a quiet Christmas Day.  The TV was banned for most of the day.
I played carols on the stereo.  I got our dinner ready in the morning and
let it warm in the crockpot.  I walked to the store to buy eggs and salsa.
I hunkered down on the couch and read.  Ray was finally allowed to turn on
the TV and while we were all relaxing and feeling good, Shadow had a
seizure.

I could tell he was going to have one, because he got up all of a sudden and
looked very frightened.  Then he started shaking.  Ray stayed with him while
I went into a panic mode.  I could never work in the medical profession,
because I just go into a panic if anything bad happens to people or dogs.
If it happens to me, I’m OK, but I fall apart if it happens to anyone else.

I tried to look up the vet emergency number, thinking of all the dollars
flying out the door if we had to take Shadow to the clinic.  Those clinics
are very expensive.  But Shadow recovered and Ray told me not to call the
vet.  I went outside with Shadow and he seemed fine.

Shadow is a garbage bucket and will food surf constantly.  I’ve been trying
to be vigilant about what he eats and what gets into.  I know he ate all the
M&M candy canes about a week ago and just left the wrappers and the little
toy train cars behind.

I did notice, however, on Christmas Eve day when I went down to the
basement, that the main drain cover was in our “family room” area.  I wonder
if Shadow went down there and found something interesting on the floor to
lick and then tried to drag the drain cover upstairs.  Usually the basement
door is shut, but it had been left open that morning.  Maybe ingesting some
sewer water might have set him off.  We’ve had him since July and he’s never
had a seizure before.  Well, we’ll have to get him to the vet for some
tests, I guess.

Other than that, our Christmas Day was very nice.  The kids came over again
later in the afternoon, after tearing themselves away from their new Wii and
other toys.  We ate AGAIN and then watched “Pirates of the Caribbean at
World’s End.”  We spent most of the movie trying to figure out what was
going on, because we couldn’t remember the story from the second movie.  The
plot, I’d say, was pretty thin, but the special effects were good.

It started snowing on Christmas Day.  It was the gentle and pretty kind of
snowflakes, just like a Christmas card.  We were supposed to get just an
inch or so, but it snowed and snowed and snowed, and we ended up with 6+
inches by morning.  We haven’t had this much snow on Christmas Day since
1950!

I got up early to blow out the driveway and shovel.  Ray went to work.  I
began to gather up the trash.  When I went down the basement, I noticed the
drain had backed up again.  I took a shower and checked, and the drain was
spewing water onto the floor.  Oh, darn.

So I called the plumber once more and he came right out.  He snaked and I
shoveled, since the snow was already piling up from the morning.  Then he
stuck a video camera in the pipe.  He said there’s a T or something about 45
feet out from the house that seems to be a problem spot.  He could get the
snake through it, but not the camera.  He wasn’t pulling out any roots with
the snake, so he thought the T was causing a back-up.  He suggested waiting
a bit and then calling again if we continue to have problems.  They might
have to dig into the ground at that point to see what was going on.  There
was no charge for this visit.  Of course not, he just cleaned out our line
on Saturday!

I can see the sun starting to peek out and maybe, just maybe, it finally
stopped snowing!  Actually, I’m not complaining.  We need every snowflake to
fill up our lakes and rivers in the spring.  And I do enjoy this
“traditional winter.”  It’s Bah, Humbug to the brown Christmases we’ve had
lately.

Now it’s time to pull out the checkbook and see if we have any money left.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net
margaret.kramer at polarispublications.com

A Christmas candle is a lovely thing;
It makes no noise at all,
But softly gives itself away.
~Eva Logue