Ho, ho, ho

Bed, bath and beyond what?

The week before Christmas is the worst time to shop for ordinary things, but I went to Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday looking for a shower curtain that doesn't blow around and stick to our butts like wet tissue paper.  Is there anything more annoying?

Bed, Bath and Beyond is crammed to the rafters with stuff you don't want or need.  They had a row of shower curtains on display hanging 8 feet above my head, so you couldn't actually touch them.  It didn't matter anyway, because the shelves below were mostly empty. 

I suppose you could order one at the front desk, but why not just do that from home? The downside of all this online is shopping is how hard it's becoming to actually see something before you buy it. 

If you went to Macy's at the mall now (even I'm not that dumb) there might be a few shower curtains on display. But they have dozens for sale online. Once our Macy's store was a multi-level emporium of shopping convenience, now a shadow of its former self.  As it turns out, I drove home and ordered one sight unseen from Macy's website.

We have a busy weekend coming up.  On Sunday afternoon we're going to the musical Jane Eyre at ArtsWest, our local theater. Afterwards, if we can get a table, that is, dinner out at the new Kizuki Ramen restaurant.  Our old funky "Junction" has become a trendy and bustling neighborhood at night, so might as well venture out occasionally and mingle with the young crowd. Although we might have to park at home and walk there. Or take Uber.

This morning, Puget Sounders are waiting for a big windstorm that may or may not materialize.  We have been thoroughly warned and alerted, but wind, like snow, is notoriously hard to predict here. Regardless, it will be a wet and blustery weekend.

Have a good one, dear family and friends.

Correction

Oops. Dad is 94, not 93.
He just looks 30 years younger.

The Colonel

Here's a picture of Dad at the Clark County Shooting Complex, having a good time target practicing with Marji and her friends.  Look closely, all those shots are within the target. Not bad for 93, huh?  

I'm looking forward to my visit with The Colonel and Marji next week.  Those blue desert skies are beautiful.

We are socked in with dark and rain, making the nights seem endless. In fact, Tuesday was the darkest day of at least the past two years in Seattle, by measure of the solar energy output.  It was even slightly darker than the (almost) full eclipse of the sun last summer. 

All is calm, all is bright

Amanda said they had about 6 inches last night, with more on the way. A two-hour school delay for the girls this morning.

Christmas mail

Over the next 72 hours, the Cascade snow-pack will jump from zero to 3-4 feet of accumulation. That's pretty astonishing, if you stop and think about it.  The east slopes of the Cascades are under a winter storm alert, including Twisp, where they might get a foot of snow, maybe enough to close the schools. I imagine a couple of excited little girls today. In Seattle, even 6 inches paralyzes the city. But so far, just rain for us down here in the lowlands.

I'm slowly getting things ticked off my Christmas to-do list. I went to our local post office yesterday to mail cards and a package. Looking around at that chaotic scene, it seemed like a miracle that the USPS still manages to get most things where they need to go. At least, I hope so.

I was waiting in the long line, and a postal employee rushed up with a hand-held credit card machine and processed my priority mail box on the spot. She shoved a receipt at me, then left the package on the counter, with the trays and trays of Christmas cards people were dropping off.  I suppose that's what passes for good service these days, but it didn't leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling. Marji, I hope it arrives in once piece this time.

Christmas boxes were once a big part of our lives, both the sending and receiving.  Now I miss both of our mom's wonderful packages, sent every year.  Like so many things, at the time we took them more or less for granted.

Mom loved Christmas, and started shopping in August.  Every little gift was wrapped with a special note attached.  John's mom Wilda liked baking, so her packages were full of goodies and always decorated oatmeal boxes filled with pizzelles.  We never told her of course, but they were usually broken in pieces. John didn't care and ate every crumb, because she put extra anise (ugh) flavoring in his batch.

But I have to say, my all-time favorite Christmas package was the one Amanda sent from Grenada when she was in the Peace Corps.  We missed her terribly that first Christmas, and it was thrilling when her battered little package arrived.

Grenada is the "Spice Island," and she sent a souvenir spice basket, a tree ornament and some other little things I can't remember. But I'll never forget the totally exotic, lovely smell from that unusual combination of spices when we first opened the box. I'd never smelled anything quite like that before or since.  It just shouted: Grenada!