Saturday December 21, 2013

First day of winter. One of my favorite days because the days will now get longer. Today we had 9 hours of daylight. In June we will have 15 hours. I prefer 15. We had a thin coat of ice on all our concrete. I salted the drive. Today I put on some steel ice grippers on my boots. They work great. I walked to Bill's for the oatmeal breakfast. I took a detour on my walk home to the post office. Later I drove Nancy to the MAC so she could empty her locker. A storm is moving in so we do not think we can go out tonight. We stopped at Breton Village and bought a pot pie and TV dinner. I spent most of the afternoon packing. Actually it did not take that long. We had an early dinner and then watched some news. It is now 2135 and I am watching the UM/Stanford BB game. Nancy went to bed early. Every radio station and retail store are playing Christmas songs. A lot of the songs have lyrics about snow, sleigh, and other cold weather items. When I was a boy most of the population lived in areas that had snow for Christmas. Now most of the population lives in warmer climes. Can young folks relate? A story of Christmas past. In 1957 I was on the UM wrestling team and the team was going to a Holiday tournament in Wiles Barre, PA. We were to leave on the 27th of DEC. I decided that it was too difficult to go home to Alpena for a day or two. I would have to take a bus. The bus trip was over 10 hours. UM closed most the the dorms over the holidays. They left East Quad open and I got a room. The first night it was so quiet that it was spooky. Finally I got so lonely that I got on a bus and headed home. I walked into the house about 2200 and my Mom and Dad were playing cards. My Mom looked at me and said what are you doing here. I told her I was not ready to spend Christmas away from family.