Just Like Christmas!

           Oh my gosh! It’s been just like Christmas around here this past week!

         I stumbled on a bracelet-forming block when I was looking around on the internet and I thought, I bet Mike can make me one of those.

         “Mike, will you make me something?” I asked.

         “What?”

          “Come here and I’ll show you.” I scooted over so Mike could share my chair with me and I showed him the short video demonstrating how to use the block.

         “Mm-hm,” Mike said. “How much is it?”

         I clicked a few buttons to take me from You Tube to the website, then a few more clicks and a search of their tools before I found the answer. “Thirty-eight fifty,” I told him, but he was sitting right beside me and could see the answer for himself.

         “Just order it,” he said.

         “NO! You could make me one!”

         We talked about it but Mike didn’t think he could make one any better than that one. "I'd have to make it out of pine, which is a soft wood. That's some kind of a hardwood."

         Then we saw OUT OF STOCK printed diagonally across bottom of the picture. "Maybe I can find one someplace else.”

         “Like Amazon?” Mike asked.

         “Like Amazon,” I echoed.

         I found one on Amazon and with the gift card we had on file (I have no idea where it came from unless it was something they gave us as part of a rewards program) and free shipping, I got my block for fourteen and some change.

         The same day the block came, I got a package from my ex daughter-in-law. Angie thinks the bracelets I’ve been making are beautiful and she had a lot of beads around, “…more than I can use,” she said, and she sent me a big box full. Besides the beads, Angie sent pictures of the kids. Jessie looks like her mom —just beautiful! — and I can't believe how much Cody looks like his dad, Chris, our oldest son.

         There is such a variety of beads and they're beautiful! I can't hardly wait to start using them.

         “What’s the holdup, Peg?” you ask. “Start using them!”

         I know, right! If only it were that easy! I had a bunch of bracelets on my workbench, aka kitchen butcher block, just waiting for the bracelet-forming block to get here, so that’s what I did first. And just so you know, there is a learning curve. But once I got the hang of it, I could form a bracelet in a minute or two instead of spending twenty minutes or more trying to shape it by hand.

         “Where’s the picture?” you ask.

         Oh. Okay then. I’ll go take one. Be right back. There. You hardly knew I was gone, did ya!

         I still need to antique and polish them. They are not perfect, but hopefully, if I have a good price on them, they will appeal to someone. 

         I spent my afternoon on Friday making a few rings. There I was, a ring on the ring mandrel, tapping away on it to shape it — using a rubber mallet mind you — when wack! 

         “OWWW!” I yelled.

         Mike was on the couch, snoozing to the program on TV. “What?” he asks.

         “I just smacked my thumb and it wasn’t even close to where I was working!” I say all indignant-like. “I don’t even know how in the heck I did that,” I mumbled under my breath. I guess I was ‘tapping’ harder than I thought I was because by Saturday I had a blood blister and a very sore thumb!

         As I sat, working on stuff, the boys kept me highly amused. Spitfire and Smudge played for hours with all the wrappings from the packages.

         Speaking of Saturday…

         One of the churches in Wyalusing had a rummage sale — did I ever tell you I love church rummage sales? Most of the church sales I’ve gone to have lots of clothes — this one didn’t. I poked around for an hour and came out with a few treasures of my own, none of which I needed.

         “Is that an ashtray? Peg! Did you buy an ashtray?” you ask.

         Mike asked me the very same question! There aren’t any divots to hold your cigarette so I don’t think it's an ashtray, but it is very heavy! I thought I’d just use it to hold beads.

         The strangest thing I came home with is this.

         “What is it?” you ask.

         I didn't know and asked everyone I ran into at the sale but no one else knew either. The trays are numbered 1 thru 16. The dealer is marked and so are the directions, N, S, E, W.

         A long, long time ago, a newspaper I subscribed to had a column on the card game Bridge. Each of the seats was marked with the compass directions north, south, east, and west. Did this have something to do with Bridge? I had an inkling it did, but what the heck were all the trays for? I thought the cards were really cool and they’re hardly worn. If nothing else, I’ve got 16 sets of playing cards for fifty cents.

         Once home, I Googled it and found out it’s a Whist Bridge set and there are trays similar to these for sale on eBay — some for more than a hundred dollars! Not this one though because the box is broken and there's no lid, which is why I didn’t know what it was.

         But why the trays? I wondered. Maybe so the hands could be pre-dealt and play wouldn’t have to be stopped for the gathering, straightening, shuffling, and dealing of cards? Although I never thought that was any hardship. You could just reach behind you and grab the next tray. I Googled it and found out the trays are for club or tournament play so the teams all play the same hand. That way, scoring is based upon skill and not so much as luck of the draw.

         Well! The things I learn! And isn’t Google just the best thing since sliced bread!

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         It seemed like spring, here in the mountains of PA, for a little while anyway. Things are starting to bloom...

 and while out with the girls, a patch of purple catches my eye. In our hedgerow were three crocuses! Strictly volunteer, I didn't plant them.

         This little beauty is my desktop photo this week. Just look at it, would ya! Little flowers inside a flower! Who'd have thunk it! Oh, yeah. God did. All the world is full of His glory. Just look around you and you'll see it too!

         And these things...

         "Peggy, they are pussy willows!" Momma told me on the phone after she read my last blog.

         "But they don't look like the pussy willow tree we had when I was growing up. These are more bush like," I told her.

         "They are smaller than the one we had," Momma agreed. "But there are different kinds of pussy willows."

         "Oh. I didn't know that." See! I don't know so much as I think I know!

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         Mike and I took a shopping trip to Athens this past week. We get on route 220 just outside of Towanda and take it up to Athens. This stretch of road pretty much follows the Susquehanna River.

         We hadn't gone far when we see people standing on the other side of the guide rails. One guy had a camera on a tripod with a huge telephoto lens.

         "What are they doing?" Mike said.

         "I don't know," I replied, but as we passed by, I saw the answer. "There's an eagle's nest!" A little further up the road were their cars, parked in a pull-off area. "Can we stop on the way back?"

         "Sure." Mike is usually a good sport about these kinds of things.

         In Athens we decide to eat before we do our shopping; a good thing to do, according to the experts.

         "Where do you want to eat?" Mike asked.

         "Let's go to Arby's. We need to give them some money anyway."

         We don't eat at Arby's very often because there are a lot of places to eat in the area and we usually split it between there, the Chinese restaurant, and Burger King — home of the Whopper (Mike likes to have his cut in half, something they will do if you ask them to.) Add to that the fact that we split our shopping trips between there and Vestal, New York and it's been a while since we've been to Arby's. And the last time we were at Arby's they didn't take the money from our account. "It's money we owe them," I say conversationally. "We expected to pay for our meal and the money's already written out of our account."

         The manager at Arby's was taking orders and when it was our turn I told her, "We owe you some money."

         "You do!" She seemed surprised.

         "The last time we were here the money was never taken from our account," I explained.

         She waved it away, "You just had lunch on me then."

         We chatted for a bit and she said they had been having trouble with the new system when they switched it over, "When was that, by the way?"

         I flipped through the check register. "Oh. It was December nineteenth."

         "Merry Christmas," she said and scribbled the date on a piece of paper there by the register.

         I said it was the last time we were there but quite honestly, I don't really know if it was the last time we were at Arby's or not. I tend to think we were there once since then, but we've stopped using our debit card. With all the skimming devices and card thefts these days, it's much safer to use our credit card and pay it off at the end of the month. Our credit cards have fraud protection, but if they get our bank account, they can wipe us out.

         Shopping done, we head for home. "Where's that pull-off?" Mike asked.

         "It's the next one past the blue historic marker." I'm glad I took note of where it was.

         When we get to the pull-off, we were the only car there. "Are you going with me?" I asked.

         "No. I'll wait."

         "Okay." I took my camera and got out.

         Since it was nice out, Mike put the windows down and turned the Jeep off, settling in for the wait. "Be careful!" he calls after me.

         "I will!" I call back and climbed over the guide rail. No way was I walking down the road side of it - not on this road! Man-o-man! I walked and walked looking for the eagle's nest. I walked so far I was beginning to think I'd missed it. I turned around and the Jeep was a tiny speck in the distance. It didn't seem like it was that far when we drove past it! But then I saw the sign and my pulse quickened.

 Eagles are such majestic birds and I've never seen one sitting on a nest before, not in real life anyway. I took a few pictures and with my camera on full zoom, this is the best picture I got.

         They won't believe how far away I am, I think. I pull my zoom back in and snap a picture to show you. Then I drew a blue heart around it to show you where in the picture the nesting eagle is.

         "Peg! From a moving car! And with your Cadillac eyes! How in the world did you ever see that?!"

         Eagles are distinctive with their size and white heads. I caught an impression of a huge twig-strewn nest and a flash of white. I just knew it was an eagle's nest.

         It wasn't until I turned to leave that I saw the sign for eagle etiquette. Observant aren't I?

         "Not at all," you say. "I think you only had eyes for the eagle."   

         Aww. You're too sweet.

         "What does the etiquette sign say?" you ask.

         It was very interesting. I'll make it bigger for you and you can read it for yourself.

         Almost home, up on Wells Mountain, we come to a dirt road, Benjamin Road by name, and my church is on that road.

         "Mike, can we go down that road?"

         "What for?" he asked even as he slowed to make the turn.

         "The weather's getting nicer and the girls and I might want to walk instead of doing aerobics. I want to see how the road lays and where it goes and how far a mile is."

         "Yeah, Peg. How is your exercise class going?" you wonder.

         I'm so glad you asked! It gives me a chance to brag on my girls. I have seven devoted ladies and in two months we've lost of total of 83.5 pounds. Not only that but some of the husbands are losing weight too!

         "Is that because you're all eating healthier?" Pastor Mike asked when I made a report to the congregation.

         "Exactly," I say, and everyone clapped for us.

         When we get to the church, Mike set the trip meter back to zero and we drove down the road. Turkeys crossed in front of us. Mike stopped and I snapped a couple of pictures.

         This road isn't very long. It ends at the gates of a gas well. From the church to the gates and back to the church again is only one point six miles.

         I've spoken with a couple of my gals at church this morning. "I can walk on my own, I really need the aerobics, but whatever everyone else wants to do is fine by me," is the general consensus.

         Well, maybe they can, but I can't! Anytime I go out the door, I have an entourage! All of my walks have been confined to the property because the cats follow me. Sometimes as many as five of them! And I don't want them down on the road. I know people will go out of their way to run over cats.

         The temps were nice this Sunday afternoon and Mike took me and the girls, Itsy and Ginger, for our very first golf cart ride of the season. I noticed that the cats didn't follow us. "When I want to go for a walk, you'll have to take me out with the golf cart," I said to Mike.

         "You just take the golf cart and leave it at the end of the driveway," he comes back with.

         We will have to wait and see how this all shakes out.

         Let's call this one done.

         And remember...

         You are all in my heart.