Tuesday, December 22, 2015

In The Hood

Why?  It's a question I ask myself frequently on many occasions.  I have had hooded sweatshirts and jackets for years, but opted for hats, ball caps, and beanies in inclement weather even when wearing said hoodies.  Why?  It might possibly be because, on TV, hoodies seem to be the choice of young men who hide their faces, wearing their pants below their underwear, while performing nefarious deeds and I didn't want guilt by association.  (However, I think my bibbies would have been a dead giveaway.)  Only recently did I pull the hood up over my head on a rainy, windy day.  What a revelation!  One of the biggest benefits is that water dripping from the eaves of the sheds and barns that had previously hit the back of my neck with unerring aim can chill me no longer.  Ears numbed from the wind stay warm.  Why?  Why did it take me so long?  There is a Dutch proverb that says, "Too soon old, too late smart."  I say better late than never.

As for what's happening in the 'hood, I'm still working on the holiday spirit.  For the umpty-umpth time, I watched "Miracle On 34th Street" (the original 1947 film with Maureen O'Hara, Natalie Wood, John Payne, and Edmund Gwinn - by far better than the remake) and started putting my $5 Christmas tree together.  It only took an hour and a half this year, but I had help and supervision.  Multiple, multiple branches had been bunched and crammed into this box that was barely big enough for Celeste.  Each branch had to be spread, fluffed, and tediously inserted into slots in the "trunk," also in sections that had to be assembled.
The movie and the tree were finished at about the same time and I was able to put the tannenbaum in place.  Celeste was bored by this time, but Ralph, oh Ralph, was going to check it out.  Given Ralph's penchant for knocking this, that, and everything to the floor, I may or may not put ornaments on the tree.  This may be as holiday as it gets at Farview.

It rained without let up all day yesterday and throughout the night.  It's raining still this morning.  Mud sucked at my shoes down at the barn.  The goats were grumpy.  Chickens huddled in their coop.  I had a heart-stopping moment this morning as I made my way to the kitchen and found the front door standing open.  No, we hadn't slept through a home invasion; the wind was that strong.  Wind-blown rain had also soaked the firewood up on the porch.  I'd fought all day to keep a fire going yesterday, and it looks like it's going to be a rerun today.  Thank goodness for my hoodie.

Merry Christmas!

1 comment:

Kathryn Williams said...

I saw "Miracle" on the big screen this last Wednesday, as TCM along with Fanthom something sponsored it. But it was lack luster as there were only about 12 of us in the theater and I had hoped for a more vibrant experience. I had a version that has a black and white, a color option (quite good in my estimation) and a commentary over the dialogue from Maureen, if one chooses to employ it. She tells the story that children stopped her for years asking if she was the woman who knew Santa Claus and she always said, "Yes...what would you like me to tell him?"