Until yesterday I didn't know we lived so close to a stream. It's not a regular stream but only shows up with copious amounts of rain but now I know why the small dug out area along rural roads, not ditches, are there. They carry rain water down the road in an organized, mostly, way. So a river ran through it yesterday as I went to the road to pick up our trash can. I can attest to the wonderfully waterproof Uggs I purchased in 2010 that they are truly waterproof and oh so warm being fur-lined. If my pesky raccoon hadn't broken the rain gauge I would know how much rain has fallen since Sunday night but it seems it is probably over the three inch mark. The rain is supposed to end this afternoon and bringing cooler temps to the area. At some point yesterday Mike the mower man brought more large stones for our rock stairway to the flatter part of the yard and the first cut rain runoff he began is working really well.
Sequishshaun the Tundra got his first little scratch on his bumper Saturday afternoon at The Moose Cafe. The man was trying to back in the space next to me with a vision hazard of a newly purchased Christmas tree taking up most of the room in his covered truck. The lowered tailgate scratched the back bumper on the plastic part. I was looking at the scrape and heard a woman saying I told him to let me get out of the truck and help guide him in. The man and young son soon joined her, the husband so apologetic and vowing to make it right. You know I told him, this is just the first of many scratches that will come with time and there's nothing to do about it but to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas. We all visited, Darlene, Patsy, family and I for a few minutes and passed a few good moments together. Really, it was better to meet the first scratch giver at the Moose than to find a scratch made by an anonymous grocery shopper with cart.
The weekend ubiquitous view, wrapped Christmas trees on the tops of cars. The $15 tree lot sold out quickly but there are still trees available at the $25-35 lots. In Rancho de Five all the white lights lining the roof line of houses are probably in full display lighting up suburbia of all the available shades of brown and beige homes. Strict HOA. Out here, there are Christmas decorations on houses but not in grand scale. All the cities and towns around have Christmas decorations on the light poles bringing back a nostalgia of Christmas' in the long, long ago, when we would drive to downtown Houston and pass under all the magically lighted streets of commerce and usually on a Saturday we would go see the store windows at Foley's celebrating the Christmas season. Foley's is where we would go talk to Santa. Downtown Foley's took up a whole block which gave us many things to see in those festive windows. The days before Thanksgiving all the windows would be covered by paper so we, the general public, would be surprised and wowed at the transformation from mannequins posed in the day's fashion to Santa's workshop artfully displaying all the toys every boy and girl could ever want thus making a very long letter to Santa that would be written sometime prior to Christmas Day. Even in the late 70's when I worked downtown at Pennzoil, Foley's still sponsored the Christmas parade and a few of the windows would have all the wonders of Christmas a display could hold...soon after that the energy crunch made huge display windows antiquated in conservation of energy and so the windows were permanently sealed up. The thought probably occurred that the display window had gone the way of Christmas catalogs and there were new ways to sell merchandise. These thoughts come to me on these back roads of North Carolina and the places are different and the times changing but there is that connect of good and fun and spirit and songs running a thread through traditions and celebrations of the season. That God would become a tiny baby and He even went further by becoming smaller when He fit Himself into letters, that form alphabets and ultimately words and sentences...so that we could understand and comprehend Him at some beginning level. He is the Word!
I just looked at the radar and I think the rain has come to an end for a few days. The temps will be a tad cooler but the sun returns tomorrow. I got all of the storage boxes back out to the garage and have cleared a path as not to be too messy when people come through the back door. I'm excited for new traditions to begin this year, although I miss some of the former ones...like driving through River Oaks and Memorial to look at Christmas lights and tamales for Christmas Eve...we still may have tamales...I need to see if I can find fresh verses the ones frozen at the grocery store.
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