Is There Life After January 1st

December was a wonderful month, the best Holiday Season since I started working for DOC.   Various projects for my Historic Camp got done, the house got nicely cleaned, & Christmas presents were bought or made.  Gypsy Jane was here quite a bit, I got to spend time with my Urchin, had a wonderful day with Jo & her son Matt at their new old house,  went to a Christmas Party at D&D’s, visited with Eric & Linda & ended it all with the Rathbone 2nd To None New Year’s Eve Party. 

Then 2001 arrived & I soon felt my train had derailed, fallen down an embankment, crashed & burned.  I wasn’t able to get any time off in January, so no Julian Calendar Nativity for me this year.  No time off also meant no real progress on projects either.  There was a day of OT pay for an extra work shift, which was nice for the check book but rough on my sleep & energy levels.  February showed little improvement – a frustrating day spent at the Urchin’s doing taxes (trying to file the taxes were frustrating, not my Urchin who was wonderful), another day spent getting routine maintenance done on the truck (oil change, alignment & brake fluid flush) & far too many days of cold windy rain.   I got the last couple of CD’s loaded into iTunes & upgraded my laptop to Win Vista but accomplished little else. 

Since I seemed to be working, sleeping & not much else, it was the little things that brightened things up a bit.  I finally bought my cats a window sleep shelf.  It was an unqualified success right from the start.  It’s a rare minute when it doesn’t have at least one cat snoozing thereupon.

Skiddy & Pippen Field Testing the Window Shelf

Paws-in-Trouble & Skiddy Take the Afternoon Test Shift

I also bought myself some new silverware.  I’d been meaning to replace my Dollar General Special set a long time ago but couldn’t seem to find a set I liked at a price I was willing to pay.  Sportsman’s Guide to the Rescue – I bought a 4 place settings for less than $30 delivered to the door.

So I now have the very best that the Austrian Army Surplus had to offer.  Nice heavy weight stainless & they looked brand new.

They even have this cool bird-ish design on the handles.  I have no idea what German phrase “BWU” stands for.

I also have this really neat pocket watch hanging up in my room.  Matt gave it to me as a Birthday/Christmas present.  Its Russian, spring run & very accurate.  I don’t think these are made any more, an internet search into various watch posting sites leads me to believe that the Moinija factory is no longer in business.

So much for winter – I am ready for Spring, it can arrive any time now, I won’t mind a bit.