Happy New Year, my friends

This fall, Sunflower and I spent a weekend at Arbor Lodge. This is the home of Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day. We get down there every every spring as the apple blossoms are at their peak, and every fall as the trees are turning. We arrived a little early this year, and our room wasn't quite ready, so we sat on a bench beneath a tree and took this picture from the camera built into my MacBook. Right now it is snowing lightly outside, and we have had some freezing rain, but the spring will come, and the apple trees will bloom......

Good morning friends,

It is raining here. The last weekend of the year looks pretty dreary. We have no great plans for New Year's Eve. We will probably go out early in the evening for a quiet dinner, then home to get out of the craziness. I am sure the college boys in the rental house a couple of doors away will have a house full of noisy, underage kids drinking vast quantities of beer, but this will be no different than any other given weekend. I see a few police cars in their near future.....

I hope you all have a lovely and safe holiday.

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. (Luke 2:1-20 kjv)

Merry Christmas, friends

Well, a couple of weeks have gone by without a funeral to attend. We will see how it goes.

At one point, the company I work for was one of three locations. Fifteen years ago, my boss bought our location, cutting us off from the old owner. We have a pretty good working relationship. We do not encroach on each other's customers or territory, and once in a while, we order together to get the bulk discounts.

A couple of months ago, the guy who did my job at the Lincoln office quit, leaving them without a programmer. I have been rented to them off and on for the last month. I finished the bulk of the work today. Every day up there has just put me farther behind on my projects. Hopefully they will send someone to get some training, but it doesn't look likely. Today, I drove up there to load some programming. The panel was not done, and the CPU card was broken. The apparantly pulled the new card from this job and used it somewhere and didn't order a new one. I transfered the profgram to their laptop, gave detailed loading instructions and drove off.

More than likely, they will call when they get a new part and want me back up there. I don't think my boss will go for it. I hope not.....

The wake and the funeral are over. My nieces and nephew will now need to go through my sister's possessions and get the house ready for the market. Real estate is in a down turn here, so it may be a while before the house is sold. I have been speaking often to my sister in Texas. It is hard to imagine that we are the only ones left. She had planned to come this week for her daughter's Christmas party, and was unable to change her flight to get here for the funeral. I will pick her up at the airport Thursday for a long weekend visit. Possibly, I will have something other than depressing struff to post here soon.....

My sister had her carotid artery surgey a week ago today. A couple of days later she had a quadruple heart bypass. She did pretty good Thursday and Friday, but Saturday was when it started to get bad. Sunday evening she was in intensive care. She passed away this evening about 5:30......