Slight detour. On the way to decorating the tree, the mantle, the dining room, the front yard, I was accosted by the purple monster, the black and white spores that look like weather balloons.
Jim got sick during our camping trip at Thanksgiving. It was horrible, I knew I'd get it with my compromised immune system: bronchial asthma, asthmatic bronchitis, copd, whatever Doc called it when I had the spiromometer...or something test. 17 years of smoking...quit at 33 but the damage is done. I live by my motto on the left. I like being Pollyanna...she had ulcerative colitis just as I also have. And rheumatoid arthritis. Hell, now I know why old people like to die. It's hard work getting there. Example: it now takes 20 minutes for me to take a 10 minute shower. I used to jump in and out of the shower almost doing handstands but now I just shuffle. Shuffle in, shuffle out. I could do gymnastic feats drying myself off in my youth. Now I'm likely to throw my back out toweling off (hell, and then have to go sit down for 10 minutes to recoup.)
That's why I have to explain the following: I've had my Christmas tree for quite a few weeks now and haven't had the energy to decorate. Jim brought everything down from the attic. The tree lived in the garage in an orange bucket of water for a few days. I finally got the vigor to erect the Christmas tree stand only to discover the trunk of the tree was too big for the stand that we've had for over ten years. Plus the stand is all rusted so I got rust all over my hands and my shirt. Oh well, I did not need that exclusive Westbound tshirt. And, a very good excuse to call it a night. Went to Walmart the next day to buy a new stand...nothing but the best, bought the $7.50 plastic job only to find out that you have to screw the 4 ft. screws through flimsy plastic holes with no threads in them. I think of my Dad when I was a child that took 2 seconds to pull the tree off the top of the car and ensconce it in the den in some apparatus in ten minutes or less, thus having fulfilled his Christmas duty for the year.
Mission accomplished in the garage with no one but me to simultaneously secure the tree and make sure it is vertical. Looks vertical to me. However, Mr. G gave me a bottle of McCalan Scotch for Christmas and I had consumed an adut beverage. Jim out of town, so re-arranging of furniture in the Great Room accomplished by Susan, the atlas/determined person (boot scooting boogie as all you ladies know how to do.) Oh Lord, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. However, he may be knackered by the time you wake up Christmas morning. We have not even decorated yet, but the tree is IN THE HOUSE.
Took a day to hunt through numerous boxes to finally find the tree lights. Why, you ask? Because Mr. Ruffin put them up last year individually, as in one string in one bag and dispersed between different decorations, as in Easter Egg hunt. Some are outside lights, some are tree lights. OK, let's get serious, this is not the Rockefeller Center tree. It's the tree I buy every year from Home Depot sight unseen, Fraser Fir because Clif is allergic to anything else besides a Douglas Fir. So it's a crap shoot every year. I like the trees that have not been ogled over, so I pick a tree that is still wrapped...the guy briefly unwraps it to saw off lower limbs and to make a fresh cut on the trunk, then he shoves it through the thing that wraps it again in nylon netting.
Ok, found the lights, tree is IN THE HOUSE. Damn, it's a good looking tree this year! (Last year was a Charlie Brown tree.) THEN IT HAPPENED, THE DREADED PNEUMONIA AGAIN grabbed me by the butt. It has literally taken me two weeks to decorate this tree. I may have to leave it up through June to get a return on my investment.
Nah, the one above I bought years ago, my 3' by 5' afghan flag is below but should be finished by the time Clif graduates from LSU, gets married and has a baby. But I appreciate the help and I'm hanging in there.
Clif turned 21 in February, just in time for Mardis Gras. Spring Semester at LSU 2008 was just average but by gosh, Mardis was a success. Norman (our dog) celebrated the "year of the deer". Yes, he dragged many a deer carcass into our yard last January. We could have opened a meat market if you like your deer a little chewed on. And we even could have sold a couple of heads. Norman is known in our neighborhood as the deer thief. He's not picky, hooves, legs, ribs, he likes it all. 
