The Christmas is Down for Another Year
I'd planned to start taking down the Christmas tree today, but not finish it. Just getting out all the boxes for the ornaments, then taking off all the ornaments is a huge chore. Then I really carefully separated the fragile, breakable ornaments from those that are less so (or not breakable). So when I packed them away, I think I did so with organization and tenderness. I really want to protect everything if at all possible.
As is the case with such processes, it makes a big mess while I'm in the middle of getting things done. The tree is upstairs in the living room -- the boxes are stored away under the staircase, which is located in the laundry room (off the family room) downstairs. So there's a lot of up and down and up and down that goes on.
As I went along, I just decided it would be great if I could totally finish getting the tree down and packed away today. It's long overdue this year! Work and being sick kept me from the usual day.
Anyway, I finally got all the ornaments put away. Then I got the boxes for the tree and took it down and packed it up. It works better now that I pack it in two boxes instead of one box it came in. The damn tree barely fits in one box and just got mangled when shoved inside it every year! (It's just cardboard! Why can't they spare a bit more of it so it's easier to put away again???)
Even so, the box holding the bottom part of the tree (which is two-thirds of the tree, plus the base) is pretty heavy to lift. By the time I had the tree out in the garage where we keep it, I was worn out.
I had a bunch of other things I needed to do, but I never did get to them! I'm a bit mad at myself that I didn't do more. Instead I got a cup of tea and sat down in the chair in the living room and just watched TV and sipped tea.
I did eat leftovers from dinner for lunch, though -- but I did that before I finished up the whole thing...
The poor cats!!! They were so upset the tree was coming down. Especially Colin, who loves it so very much. He was there the entire time, under foot and in the boxes. I would normally pick up the tissue paper we let them play with during Christmas, as well. But I couldn't bring myself to do it! They were all over the tissue paper -- probably to cheer themselves up about the missing tree...
Marilyn had a long, hard day at work. She had an important meeting to start her day. And we've had some serious issues this week. One is about personnel (a former employee) and the other issue is regarding our half marathon. It's all stressful and upsetting...
And Marilyn got word today that two very dear friends are moving away to back east. I can't discuss it yet, as they haven't told many people. We're happy for them -- but sad for us. We will miss them so very much.
What a crummy week, all in all. Just difficult and depressing. When I saw the news at noon about our race, I was just shocked by how it was covered. The whole thing is a mess. Marilyn was tied up until late because of TV reporters being in the office.
I wish I could share the details of the former employee situation, but it's highly confidential. Today we found out things that were unexpected, disappointing and upsetting. Anyway, I guess you can't always tell about people.
By the way, drugs lead to bad things. That might sound simplistic, but we seem to always be seeing terrible fallout from drug use.
And it's also important not to get caught up with the wrong people. I'm not trying to be judgmental here, I simply mean that people can end up doing terrible things as a result of outside influences. Sure, we might believe we can change others, but sometimes they end up changing us in negative ways.
Well, Marilyn and I need to run a late errand, so I need to wrap this up.
In spite of everything, I'm not going to start saying negative things about 2016. (I've been hearing others say that it's already a crappy year and so on...) Here's the thing: There will always be hard things, every year. There's no point in focusing on it, or giving into it.
I'm sure everything will turn out fine, eventually. Meanwhile, we're hanging in there!
I think I might still be running a temperature. I wasn't totally myself today. I'm still fatigued from being sick, I guess... Oh well. It only shows what you can do when you put your mind to it!
Sleep well, my friends!
As is the case with such processes, it makes a big mess while I'm in the middle of getting things done. The tree is upstairs in the living room -- the boxes are stored away under the staircase, which is located in the laundry room (off the family room) downstairs. So there's a lot of up and down and up and down that goes on.
As I went along, I just decided it would be great if I could totally finish getting the tree down and packed away today. It's long overdue this year! Work and being sick kept me from the usual day.
Anyway, I finally got all the ornaments put away. Then I got the boxes for the tree and took it down and packed it up. It works better now that I pack it in two boxes instead of one box it came in. The damn tree barely fits in one box and just got mangled when shoved inside it every year! (It's just cardboard! Why can't they spare a bit more of it so it's easier to put away again???)
Even so, the box holding the bottom part of the tree (which is two-thirds of the tree, plus the base) is pretty heavy to lift. By the time I had the tree out in the garage where we keep it, I was worn out.
I had a bunch of other things I needed to do, but I never did get to them! I'm a bit mad at myself that I didn't do more. Instead I got a cup of tea and sat down in the chair in the living room and just watched TV and sipped tea.
I did eat leftovers from dinner for lunch, though -- but I did that before I finished up the whole thing...
The poor cats!!! They were so upset the tree was coming down. Especially Colin, who loves it so very much. He was there the entire time, under foot and in the boxes. I would normally pick up the tissue paper we let them play with during Christmas, as well. But I couldn't bring myself to do it! They were all over the tissue paper -- probably to cheer themselves up about the missing tree...
Marilyn had a long, hard day at work. She had an important meeting to start her day. And we've had some serious issues this week. One is about personnel (a former employee) and the other issue is regarding our half marathon. It's all stressful and upsetting...
And Marilyn got word today that two very dear friends are moving away to back east. I can't discuss it yet, as they haven't told many people. We're happy for them -- but sad for us. We will miss them so very much.
What a crummy week, all in all. Just difficult and depressing. When I saw the news at noon about our race, I was just shocked by how it was covered. The whole thing is a mess. Marilyn was tied up until late because of TV reporters being in the office.
I wish I could share the details of the former employee situation, but it's highly confidential. Today we found out things that were unexpected, disappointing and upsetting. Anyway, I guess you can't always tell about people.
By the way, drugs lead to bad things. That might sound simplistic, but we seem to always be seeing terrible fallout from drug use.
And it's also important not to get caught up with the wrong people. I'm not trying to be judgmental here, I simply mean that people can end up doing terrible things as a result of outside influences. Sure, we might believe we can change others, but sometimes they end up changing us in negative ways.
Well, Marilyn and I need to run a late errand, so I need to wrap this up.
In spite of everything, I'm not going to start saying negative things about 2016. (I've been hearing others say that it's already a crappy year and so on...) Here's the thing: There will always be hard things, every year. There's no point in focusing on it, or giving into it.
I'm sure everything will turn out fine, eventually. Meanwhile, we're hanging in there!
I think I might still be running a temperature. I wasn't totally myself today. I'm still fatigued from being sick, I guess... Oh well. It only shows what you can do when you put your mind to it!
Sleep well, my friends!