respublica

Christian's time machine

On Wednesday our oldest grandson, Christian, went with Dale to pull the tiny town buildings out of our storage unit and set them on the driveway. Christian is 14 and as it happened, exactly ten years ago to the day, November 25, 2010, he and his family were visiting us from their then home in Washington DC. He was 4 and helping paint the first house that would sit next to the church in Tiny Town. I had pictures from that day and took some Wednesday as a comparison.

Christian was wearing the Hawk shirt and just painting away. Later that night he sat with Dale quite happily after a job well done.

Now, ten years later he is almost taller than Dale and carried out of the truck the exact same house he painted.

Time truly marches on. As it happened I found a short video from that day with Christian and his brother talking away with Dale.

 

Tiny Town coming our way today

I'm pretty excited. Dale and our oldest grandson are on the way to our Collinsville storage unit to pull out the buildings that make up our Christmas Tiny Town. For at least ten years the town has been placed in the side yard of our seminary house. We added lighted trees around them and it was such fun. Kids came by to play with the farm toys we put into the barn, adults just walked through for the novelty of it.

I have no idea how this is going to work in a much smaller space that is our front yard now, but we are going to give it try. Our neighbors have no idea about this as yet and I hope they won't be horrified. What makes me happy is seeing some of our other neighbors already having put up outside decorations. This is new for our street and I believe it is because there are newer families with kids. The neighbor across the street had a professional service come out and hang light across the roof line. Next to that is a family who placed big inflatable Santa and snowman along with lights.

Christmas on Tillotson will be different this year and I'm happy.

Thanksgiving via Dr. Fauci

I was reading Dr. Fauci's warnings about Thanksgiving safety due to the Coronavirus outbreak. He said he would not go anywhere on Thanksgiving this year out of health concerns. "He warned that if too many people choose not to abide by the basic health guidelines and advisories set by health officials such as social distancing and wearing face masks, a bad situation could be made far worse."

Then this: "The chances are that you will see a surge superimposed on a surge," Fauci predicted. "Things lag by a couple of weeks, so what we're seeing now is what happened two-plus weeks ago. What we're doing now is going to be reflected two, three weeks from now."

My highlighted text is the important part and is exactly what I've mentioned earlier. The outbreak we are seeing now....what happened two or three weeks ago?  The election! People in long lines to vote early, more people voting in person, that is what went on all over the country two or three weeks ago.  It nags at me that no where have I seen any major news reporting on this connection when they are quick to point to any other big events and covid out breaks.

Why is this?

Now this is an ornament worth getting

This ornament has all the things we said or thought or worried about this year due to the Covid virus. If it ever ends, we may not feel much like walking down its memory lane, but in better times this might be quite the keepsake. click to enlarge And if you're interested here is the link to get one.

I'm pretty sure I've said or thought all of these

The funniest comment of the day

Saw this question today and I pretty much laughed out loud:

"So who is going to get a Christmas ornament this year with 2020 printed on it?"

Here are a few I've seen already for sale.

 

One this day

It's Veterans Day which normally means a parade in Collinsville to honor those who served. Sadly, the Covid has taken this away as it has so many other things. My Dad served in the marines during WWII, spending his time in the South Pacific theater.

For what we are missing, some photos of past Collinsville parades which brought lots of people out to watch.

My mom and dad

Anyone seen a turkey?

Most years frozen turkeys have been piled up in big grocery story freezer bins by this time. This year I haven't seen any and worry that this may be one more item that will be hoarded and bought up by the first shoppers to see them. We got the newest Schnucks and Dierbergs weekly sales flyer in the paper today and I intend to check for turkeys.

And yes they do advertise turkeys beginning on Wednesday.

It's a small thing, but it's bothered me.

Candy Chutes for Halloween

This is clever. Some people for fun or for real, have created candy chutes to roll Halloween candy down to trick or treaters. This to avoid close contact during these days. The link has photos of many different ways home owners have designed their candy chutes. I kind of like the idea.

What is the best temperature setting in your house?

This is an article I came across today. The advice and information goes on and on until the conclusion: "So, the answer to the question “what is a reasonable temperature for a house in winter?” isn’t black and white. Whatever temperature setting you find is comfortable for you and keeps the heating bill reasonable is your answer."

One of those sets of 5 minutes I won't get back.

Changing the time

This coming weekend we will once again be fooling around with our clocks as we turn them back an hour. If you have a number of clocks, some are harder to turn back than going forward. The old fashioned clocks with the hands are easy. In any event it will be lighter earlier in the morning and darker earlier in the late afternoon.

Here is an interesting history of time change, it's actually a British thing.

We all probably have a preference as to when we have daylight, I prefer it in the early morning. It is now ten to 7 and it's still pitch dark, not my favorite. I don't mind it getting dark earlier in the late afternoon because I'm pretty much done with the day and want a reason to stop doing things.

But in many ways, I would much prefer we go to CST and just leave it there. The time change twice a year kind of wreaks havoc on our body clocks and for what? I like this sign I saw, it's perfect.