Jack Frost Nipping at My Nose

It was in the high 20s when I woke up this morning and in the mid-30s when I came home from Logos.  In between there were nice moments of warmth, but it's fair to say that winter is right aroud the corner.

I had better luck at Atria today.  Found a parking place and had lunch with my mother.  Dementia was the usual, nothing that made me cringe today, which was nice.  I'm used to her not remembering if she ordered lunch (or what she ordered) minutes after she has placed her order.

It was my afternoon to work at the book store.  It was busier than it has been the last few times I was there.  I had a conversation with a young woman who bought a book of Kennedy speeches for her mther for Christmas.  I asked her if she understood the "Kennedy mystique," as those of us of a certain age did and, like my children, she could not conceive of a president's idiocyncracies being protected by the press and she didn't get the whole "Camelot" thing either.   I feel sorry for young people who don't at least have those brief warm memories.

The book cost her $9 and she told me that after she bought it she had only $40 to her name.  She's been interviewing street people, wondering if she will be sleeping with them.  She's going home in 2 weeks and she hopes her money lasts that long.  When I asked if she would be able to get money when she went home, she shrugged and said "probably not."  She said she's been looking for a job for months, everything from fast food work to office work to just anything that will pay her something.  I felt strange wishing her a Merry Christmas when she left.  If I'd thought about it, I would have bought the book for her.  I didn't think of that until it was too late.

Toward the end of my shift, Sammy arrived. Sammy is Susan's son's dog and was there to bring the joy of the holidays to customers for the last two hours of the book store day, after I had gone home. I was amazed at how patient he was when his hat, beard and coat were put on him.  No way would any of our dogs stand of that kind of get-up (not that I would even try).

I had to take a picture to send to Char, since Susan is her cousin.   

When I left work, we headed for the E Street Plaza, where the Davis Christmas tree lighting was to take place. One thing I love about living in this town is the little community things that take place here, like this tree lighting ceremony.   It was freezing cold, but hot cider and pigs in blankets -- one regular size hot dog wrapped in the middle with one small biscuit-in-a-tube -- helped. Pretty awful, but in that cold, anything warm felt good.

Things started for two blocks full of people probably at community park, where they paraded up to the plaza.  There was a double decker bus with Santa and Mrs. Claus leading the pack, followed by an old fire truck and all the parade folks.   I never did see the paraders, but did see Santa and Mrs. C when they got off the bus.

Other than the Pied Piper of Davis, who has been planning and hosting these events for the 40 yrs we have lived in town, we didn't recognize anybody, but the familiar things we've known for 40 years were there, just looking different.

This is the high school jazz choir with whom Paul, Tom and David all performed, and the guy in yellow is the Pied Piper, for whom Paul, Jeri and Ned worked for many years.  They are all standing on the mobile stage, which Paul, Ned, Jeri and Phil helped to put up more times than they can probably remember.  Some things never change around here.

One thing has changed, though. Sort of.

This is Hamburger Pattie, the town mascot, still attending all these public events, though I remember when she was more than 6 feet tall.  Obviously she is getting old and is a mere shadow of her former self. (They had a contest years ago to name this new mascot and the winner, Hamburger Pattie, was submitted by Dick Brunelle, the legendary music teacher at the high school  Dick has been gone for years now, and now that I think about it, the last time I saw him was at a city-wide event held in his honor and he was about at the same stage of dementia that my mother is now.)

I sat near the clock in the middle of the plaza, so I would easy to find when Walt was looking for me, and I would also be near the tree when lighting time came about, but I was facing the street and there didn't seem to be any announcement that I could hear about it happening.  All I knew was that suddenly the crowd was counting down and then the tree was lit.  I missed the OoooAhhh moment, but did get a picture after it was done.

It was fun looking around the crowd of young families (none of whom looked familiar) and college kids.  Lots of people carried candles, which added to the ambience.

By the time the tree had been lit, our fingers and toes were frozen and it was nearly time for Jeopardy anyway, so we headed back to the car.   Walt had been smart and had come downtown early, before the rush, and so was only parked a block and a half away.

After dinner, I settled in to watch the live production of The Sound of Music.  In truth, I am so sick of seeing this show, having reviewed it so many times, but I was a bit upset at how many people were condemning Carrie Underwood without having heard a note of the show.  I kept trying to say that Julie Andrews does not hold the copyright on the show and I have seen many community theater productions, some good, some not so good, but before condemning her or the show, people should at least SEE it.  

Well...I lasted not quite an hour before I decided I was hating it.   In truth, part of why I was hating it was that it was not a spectacular production and, as I said, after all these years I'm sick of seeing it.  I didn't see anything good enough to encourage me to stick with it.  I actually thought Underwood was quite good, but I hated the guy playing the Captain and the whole thing was just too slick and lacked heart...at least up to the point where I gave up on it.

So that was my day and I am now nicely chilled again, from the wind blowing in from the dog door, and I think it's time to go bundle up and get some sleep