Mid-Week Missive

The internet isn’t always such a great thing… I’m using my computer ostensibly to write, but instead I found myself constantly distracted by the the latest “breaking news” that is really the same already-broken news, and scrolling scrolling, reading the same stories, different headlines, over and over.

On the edge of Obsession, I took action and retreated.

Grateful that I have a big enough house to get away from myself, I turned off the computer, made myself some hot tea, walked down the hall to a comfy club chair surrounded by books and windows and cozied up near the fire.

We cut the cord on cable a while back and have been just fine with rabbit ear antennas bringing in our local stations. Through Roku we are subscribed to Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, but we usually just watch whatever cowboy show he picks or some home/cooking show I choose. On Monday, though, we subscribed to the new “Discovery+” and I have to say it saved my mind. It has several different channels, including some of our super-favorites from HGTV, Discovery, Cooking Channel, DIY, and more…

It’s like a dang miracle, the fun I’ve had watching decorating shows from the 90s, reuniting with shows like Gardening by the Yard, Decorating Cents, and my current fave – Design on a Dime… In this one, Charles, Summer, and Kevin redecorate a room for under $1000. That same $1000 won’t go as far 25 years later, but really they don’t do much more than paint and re-arrange the furniture. Back then, HGTV had lots of decorating shows that were something you could do at home. While the fixer-upper stuff is fun to watch, knocking down walls is not something you can just randomly do. Even though their stuff is so Dated, I’m motivated to play the game and do some re-decorating…

Oprah’s channel is on there, too, and I eagerly tuned in to watch some SuperSoul Sunday. The episode that I chose was from last March, just before the lockdown. In it, Oprah discusses the book “The Universal Christ” with its author, Fr. Richard Rohr. I had listened to some podcast homilies by him that I enjoyed, but I wasn’t expecting such Inspiration. Soul-Sister Kathy long ago recommended Fr. Rohr to me, especially “Falling Upward”, in which I am now engrossed. I highly recommend both books.

Still and all, I have No Idea where this is Leading,,,

Peace

As soon as we’d unpacked from our Disney Celebration, we began to decorate the house and grounds for Christmas. We are quarantining for 10 days, keeping busy preparing the tree for Olivia and Samantha to decorate this week-end.

Bringing down the Christmas decorations is like Archaeology, the deeper levels going back to My childhood in the 50s and 60s, followed by my children’s childhood in the 70s and 80s, culminating in the 21st century additions from the grandies. We have tons of string lights–white, icicles, multi-colored — and no matter how many times we check them, some will whimsically go dark after they’ve been arranged on the tree; so I’m off to buy some new strands this morning.

Our new neighbors, the tree-killers, have lit up their house with bright white, triggering our inner Competitor. Our icicle lights produce about 50,000 Lux, illuminating the front garden in cold white, and we haven’t used them in several years. They will overwhelm the paltry lights of the rest of the neighbors…hahaha >evil laugh<…and Casey is using the fair weather to hang them All Around the Homeplace.

Inside, I’m still working on the Disney Pictures. Here’s what I’ve got for you…