TheBanyanTree: Star of Wonder

[Margaret R. Kramer]

Oh, it was so great and to go to workout this morning!  I haven’t worked
out, except for shoveling snow, for almost a week, and since Christmas Eve,
I’ve been shoving high calorie food into my mouth at a ferocious pace.
Cookies, potato chips, dips, peanuts, candy, and eggnog are totally OK for
me to ingest right now and my body feels like it’s weighted down by lead.
Ugh.

So working out at a good clip got my old heart pumping and some fat burning
and I felt a whole lot better.  It was a relatively quiet Sunday at the
club, but next Sunday will be pandemonium as the New Year’s resolutions
people invade the gym for their annual four to six week stint of working out
before their sore bodies scream, “Enough!” and then they stop, not to be
seen until next year.

We’ve had an amazing build up of snow since November.  We broke the December
record of the snowiest December ever and had the second most snow on the
ground at Christmas.  I don’t need to workout, since I’ve been hefting
shovels of snow onto ever higher snow banks and guiding the 10 ton Toro
snowblower up and down the long driveway.  We truly have no where to throw
the snow now.  As it is, it’s a guess whether cars are coming when pulling
out of the driveway.  We cannot see the street because the snow piles are so
high.

Snow is piling up on our roofs and then ice dams form because the snow
starts melting over the warmer part of the roof and then slides to the end,
where it’s cold and then dams of ice set up and can trap melting snow
rivulets from going anywhere except inside the attic and eventually going
through to the ceiling.

I got a few stains in my dining room ceiling, but I’m lucky, because where
the water was coming in is in an easily accessible crawl space just under my
roof.  Joe and I set up plastic on the flooring and then wrapped towels
around the 2 X 4s to prevent the water from seeping in.  That stopped the
damage.  Then Asher had a friend come over and he chopped the ice off of the
roof.  So far, so good.

Of course, the next night we had more snow.  And then more snow on Christmas
Eve.  I haven’t put together my roof rake yet.  That’s what I’ll do
tomorrow, since we’re supposed to get maybe two more snowstorms this week.

And it was great not to do some Christmas-related thing today.  I spent
Christmas Eve and Christmas cooking like a crazy chef on the Food Network,
although I love to do it.  Then I did all the things that are required when
one hosts Christmas at their home.  Plus, I have to talk to my guests and
make sure everything is flowing OK.  And that drains me.

I wasn’t sad when Asher, Susan, and boys left the house yesterday afternoon
after lunch.  Then Joe came over and helped me put the good dishes away up
in the cabinet above the refrigerator.  We had leftovers for dinner, and
then watched “Grumpy Old Men” after the Miami Heat/LA Lakers game.  He’s
never seen “Grumpy Old Men” before, and he liked it.  After all, it’s about
Minnesota in the winter, with snow and cold, and has kind of a Christmas
feel to it, plus it’s about old men, which he is, and I’m an old woman, and
we still have some fire in our bellies.  

And we have fire while we sleep.  I love sleeping with Joe, because he’s
long and lean, and I can fit my body within his and be warm and safe.  I’ve
never been able to sleep with anyone snug and tight all night long.  Ray
used to say I slept in a cocoon of blankets.  Ray and I never slept wrapped
up together, because I was wrapped up in my blankets.

But with Joe, as we turn in the night, we turn with each other, never losing
the snuggle.  My bedroom is very cold, as the heat is set low during the
night, and we’re buried under flannel sheets, moving together through the
night, following where ever our dreams take us.

And the best thing of all is that Joe doesn’t snore.  Ray didn’t either, and
that was fantastic!  I don’t snore and nothing is worse than sleeping with
someone honking in my ears.  My first husband snored.  In fact, I think the
ceiling is still off its foundation from all his snoring.  Oh, gosh, it was
awful.  He had one of those sleep apnea machines, but he never used it, so
if I slept with him instead of on the couch, I was privy to a symphony of
grunts and snorts.  Ick.

Joe is coming over later this evening for a dinner of leftover turkey and
cranberries.  No Vikings/Eagles game tonight since it was cancelled because
of the winter storm out east.  This is a wild winter everywhere.

Back to work tomorrow, which will be a slow week as a lot people take it
off.  We have New Year’s Eve off, plus the third of January.  New Year’s is
a less stressful holiday, a fun kind of holiday, which is just perfect for
me right now.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net
www.linkedin.com/in/margaretkramer

What is Christmas?  It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present,
hope for the future.  It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with
blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.     
-Agnes M. Pahro