A Very Fine Day

The Christmas card I made for Jackie shows our old house in Muncie. The tiny figure shoveling the driveway is Jackie herself. I was busy in our upstairs office writing my daily column for the Evening Press.
Some women might have resented it being that way. Not Jackie, though. She loved doing the outside work and still does, although now it is on our sixth floor balcony. Her Christmas present this year is a hand truck or dolly so she can easily move heavy stuff around. That's just the way she is and I'm the chief beneficiary.

She got a few other things, of course. One is a movie-style popcorn machine on a somewhat reduced scale. She also received a 150-page book of the photos she took on our trip to Europe some years ago. Most pages have two photos with text and they are printed on slick photo paper courtesy of Lulu and its printer, Amazon's Book Surge. It turned out beautifully, far better than I expected.

Our late friend, Ross H. Spencer, a wonderful writer, once wrote about Old Man Time and the toll he takes. It was Old Man Time dressed in his Santa outfit that brought me a cane made especially for lefthanders and something called a bunion sling. I thought it was a bunion brace but a second look showed it is a sling, an apt name because at times that's what I'd like to do with the bunion.
The cane is great. The palm of my hand fits on it so it is much nicer than the standard cane handle. I didn't know they made such things but I'm glad someone thought of doing so.

Our hamster Sophie didn't get much and didn't really care just so long as the food treats keep coming her way. Our visitor, tiny dwarf hamster Whiskers, did get a present, a tiny house just his size. He must like it because every time I check he is curled up sound asleep inside.

So that's the way it was, or is, here in the Western Reserve Territory of Northeast Ohio. A fine Christmas with no snow on the ground and no rain, just some clouds and an occasional glimpse of sunshine. A very fine day for us.

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