Almost Christmas

Wasn’t it just Thanksgiving? Is Christmas really less than a week away? The past couple of weeks has been sort of like driving through Cross Plains--if you blink you miss it. And if you're wondering if I'm ready for Christmas the answer is no.

SICKNESS. There's some sort of bug going around and I got it. I started feeling rough a week ago Saturday (the 6th) and was puny all last week. Ben has caught this bug now. He started feeling rough on Saturday and has missed church and two days of school as well as Monday's ball game.

CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES. We have enjoyed a few Christmas festivities in spite of being under the weather. The Cross Plains Christmas Parade was a week ago Saturday. They moved it back to the daytime this year. It was a lot of fun but seemed to be smaller this year than it has been before.

Last Saturday we went to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes. They've been performing in Nashville for several years and this is their last year to be here. It was quite a show! Everything about it from the dancing to the singing to the costuming was, well, spectacular.

BALL. I mentioned above that Ben missed a ball game. I know he really wanted to play but I think he was feeling too bad from being sick to be disappointed too much. They lost that game by just four points.

They only had one game scheduled last week and we pulled a win off there. It was a nail biter of a game all the way to the end. Both teams fought really hard. I'm proud to see our boys improve like they have.

Ben came home so pumped up from that game that he asked Vicki if she thought they could beat Springfield the next time they played them. Beating Springfield would be a major accomplishment. Vicki brought Ben back down to earth as easily as she could by laying out all the things that would need to happen for us to win that game. Somewhere in there I caught words and phrases like "miracle" and "all their team sick with the flu" and "abducted by aliens" and maybe even “when hell freezes over.” Let's just say anytime you need a reality check call my wife.

A TOUGH DECISION. A few weeks ago Ben came to me and asked me a question. I could tell he had really wrestled with this as he brought it up with me. Ben has decided to leave Boy Scouts.

I think what made this decision so had for Ben is that he did not want to disappoint me. I told him that sometimes in life you have to make the decision to leave a good thing because it isn't the right thing for you and I am proud of him for recognizing that now rather than continuing on with something that would ultimately make him more and more miserable. Nate is still in Scouts and will continue on with it at least for now.

100,000 MILES. My truck joined the 100,000 mile club Wednesday. The odometer "turned over" as Nate and I were going to church. I bought the truck with 27,000 miles on it so I can't claim all that driving on this truck, but this is the third vehicle I've driven to this milestone. Given that it's paid for and running well I think I'll keep it around a bit more.

While I'm thinking about my truck I should mention I've had to dig out my old ice scraper. I've hardly had to use it in 20 years but now that Jenna has a car I've given up my parking spot in the shed for her so my truck gets to park under a tree in the yard. Both boys thought this was really cool at first but the novelty wore off pretty quickly. Fortunately we haven't had a lot of frosty mornings so far.

THE WONDER OF THE WEB. This is one of those things my kids will grow up taking for granted but I cannot. I think you can learn to do most anything from the Internet, and with a smart phone that information is accessible in an unprecedented way.

For example, I've looked up tutorial videos for years to see how to change a light bulb on our vehicles. This may sound a bit funny but when one of the tail lights burned out on my truck I couldn't figure out how to get into the fixture to access the light bulb. Thanks to someone posting a video on YouTube the mystery was solved and I got the job done within five minutes.

I've stepped up to a new level. Our dryer began squeaking a few weeks back. The squeak got worse and worse until we knew something had to give. Neither of us wanted to pay for an appliance repair call. I found a website that sells appliance parts. Their support rep helped me diagnose the problem and sold me a kit with all the parts to fix it for $35. Their instructional video walked me through the repair and 20 minutes later our dryer is quietly drying clothes once again and I am a hero with Vicki.

I make a big deal out of this because to me the idea of chatting to someone in another state through your computer and ordering a part online as well as watching a video on an iPad while I tear down the dryer still seems like it all belongs in the realm of science fiction. I know I work in this every day with my job, but I am simply amazed.

Now, I did draw the line the other day on an Internet assisted self repair of the overflowing septic tank. I was more than happy to pay someone else to do that one. While I'm on the subject, if anyone knows where my 50' sewer tape is please speak up.

Joe