A bear in Kansas?

I had to work today in another snowstorm. The temperature hovered in the mid twenties so this snow had more moisture and the roads were a bit slicker. It was a beautiful snow most of the day.

Well, OK, this isn't a bear. It is a Great Pyrenees dog. However, I did find a web site that mentioned this breed resembles a white bear. He was loving the snow--I think he was dressed for it.

Boys will be boys

I saw these two macho bulls playing games in the field as I went by on the route today.













When I turned the corner and could see behind the trees I found that...

Girls will be girls

Christmas Music

The roads are clear so I am back in my truck and a radio. I started to listen to my usual sports talk radio, then decided to find an all Christmas music station to be festive. I found the local easy listening station was doing just that.

The station advertises itself as 70s, 80s and 90s music, so I began listening for the different renditions of well knowns songs. I heard the Hallelujah Chorus blended with a pop song, long time favorites set to jazz and, the most disturbing, changing the words to the traditional Christian songs.

Don't misunderstand, I do like the popular renditions and styles but I wonder if music companies are pushing every artist to make a Christmas album and then that artist feels the need to put their signature style on it. Maybe I am overreaching. It could be I should throw in some sports talk every hour for a break from Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire overload.

Mail route passenger

The snow storm last week caught every creature off guard. Obviously, this sparrow thought my mail car looked warm and dry.

I had parked the car to unload after the route and in the process left the door open. When I came back out, I had this little passenger looking out the window at me.

Birds are not a herding animal. Getting them to fly out of an enclosed space is a challenge. When I opened a door, it would fly to the other side. It ended up I had every door, plus the hatch, open before that bird would exit. This picture makes him look pretty content--I will say that was not the case. It was bashing into everything.

He did finally escape and fly off. Probably my car was the warmest place he had been all day.

Christmas tree makeover

This was our Christmas tree last Friday morning. It actually was quite beautiful with the snow. It also was quite frozen!

This is the same tree Saturday night. If you click on the picture you will see Christmas tree balls that have a beautiful crochet covering--sort of like an old fashioned doily. A customer on my mail route made these for me one Christmas. I have wonderful people on my route.

At Christmas, we all see the light differently

During these times, when it seems the whole world is divided into hundreds of warring factions, each battling to get its own voice heard, I hesitate to bring up yet another divisive issue. But I will.

Are you a multicolored-light person or an all-white-light person?

Like politics and religion, it's a topic best not brought up in polite company. But sometimes you've just got to take a stand. Otherwise, the Martha Stewarts of the world will take over and well, you know what happens then. Lawyers have to be call in.

This fall I ran into an old friend who went from grade school through high school with me, and seeing that we hadn't seen each other in about 35 years, we immediately began talking about Christmas tree lights. Obviously, this had been on our minds for decades.

Larry, a minister in western New York who survived what seemed like 147 years of Methodist Youth Fellowship with me, confessed that he is a multicolored-light guy.

I was relieved to hear this, because I kind of like him and, well, if he'd said he was a white-light kind of guy, I'm not quite sure how I'd have reacted. It would be like him telling me he had become a yogi and levitated daily. As we all know, Methodists don't levitate. I mean, they hardly even dance.

He then confessed that he's in a mixed marriage. His wife, Brenda, is a white-light woman. Sadder still, they have children. I see years of therapy in their future.

I didn't ask him whether he knew this unsettling fact about his wife before he married her. I can only assume he did not. He is a man who has dedicated his life to spreading The Truth and there's nothing truthful about a Christmas tree with all-white lights. I' m sure Larry looks upon them, as I do, as nothing but white lies.

he wrote about our conversation in his church newsletter this month, reiterating that there are certain important issues over which you have to draw the line.

"For instance, everybody knows that candy canes are supposed to be red and white," he writes. "Last year I saw some that had orange, yellow and green stripes. Here I make my stand. Is nothing sacred?"

Excellent question. But let's leave the candy cane issue for another day.

I'm more interested in trying to figure out what the white-light people are thinking. That Christmas is supposed to be monochromatic? Tasteful? That everything is supposed to be matching?

Don't they know Christmas is supposed to be a cacophony of color and sound? A celebration instead of sedation? Madcap instead of Martha?

My neighbor, Patti, a nice woman although a bit of a showoff, always has two Christmas trees. One is in the upstairs living room window. The other is downstairs in the dining room.

The upstairs tree has multicolored lights. The downstairs one has all white lights. I've never asked her what's going on there.

Talk about a cry for help.

Craig Wilson for USA Today 2004

Fun weekend

It’s been a hectic weekend.  There is nothing like entertaining to get things done.  We cleaned house, put up decorations and cooked.  Today 17 of the post office employees and their families came for a homemade lasagna dinner.  We pride ourselves in good food down at the Berryton PO and today we outdid ourselves.  LaWanna made the lasagna and the postmaster’s son made soup. I furnished the salad & breadsticks.  We always have fun even though we work together every day.  That speaks well for our supervisor and really the rest of us, too.

I took some pictures of our Christmas tree, but I cannot get blogger to publish.  So, check me out tomorrow night and hopefully, I will be able to show you how a red cedar looks all dress up.