CHRISTMAS CARDS

After a rough beginning, I’ve gotten my act together, I know how the carbon paper works. I have artist’s masking tape (what a blessing that is!). After trying four different designs, I settled for one because it’s the cutest one of the bunch and somehow feels more like holiday than the others. I’m now just about half done with the drawings, but as I do them, I work faster so I believe I’m on track. I need these finished by the end of the month to give Garry time to inscribe them … and time to mail them so they get where they are going before the holidays. There is something a bit sad about a late Christmas card. We are going for “on time” this year.

RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

I have Rheumatoid Arthritis. It’s not rare and I’ve had it since I was in my 20s, so it’s not new to me. For many people, it’s a problem that never entirely leaves. For me, it’s a remitting, returning problem. It shows up after I’ve had something else go wrong and my immune system is low. It makes me totally miserable for anywhere from a couple of days to just short of a week, but it does go away. With a little luck, it won’t come back for another year.

Not everything triggers it. Just sometimes and often it takes me awhile to figure out what’s going on. It got very bad last night. The fever went up up up and by morning, with a little help from Garry, I was normal or as normal as I ever get. Why these things show up in or around the holidays is extremely annoying. Can’t it do its thing when life is calmer? When there are fewer things waiting for me to accomplish? Maybe it is because of the holidays that it drops by. Maybe stress pushes my immune system down and along comes RA …

I am definitely better this morning. Much better. With a little luck, at least this little complication of my life will go silent and leave me in peace.

FROZEN SHRIMP

Seriously, what’s with shrimp? All the cookbooks say that it defrosts “almost instantly.” This is a complete lie. It doesn’t do anything of the sort. I took it out of the freezer four days ago (it’s pre-cooked) and when I went to cook it last night, it was more than half frozen. I didn’t feel good anyway and the idea of dipping my hands in freezing water to defrost the shrimp and remove the tails — why do they leave the tails on anyway? — was just too much for me and we ordered sandwiches. One small meatball sub later, I felt a whole lot better.

Shrimp does NOT defrost quickly and sometimes, it seems to not defrost at all. It manages to stay icy long after it should have become edible. Especially these pre-cooked ones. The raw ones take even longer.

SQUIRRELS

I haven’t seen a squirrel in weeks. One day, they all apparently moved on to find more abundant food. This morning, there was one — rather young — red squirrel in the flat feeder. I know many birders have mixed emotions about squirrels, but I like them. They are adorable and fluffy. There’s nothing cuter than a curly-tailed young squirrel emptying an entire feeder in one long feeding. I was just really happy to see one. It has been a long time.

PODCAST

For the first time in 42 weeks, there will probably not be a new podcast this weekend. It will get taped — on Friday because Tom has a doctor appointment on Wednesday — today, actually. Taping on Friday doesn’t leave Tom enough time to edit it by Saturday.

We are all busy and world spins round and round.

Categories: #cactus, #Flowers, Anecdote, Christmas cactus

Tags: humor, Marilyn Armstrong