A little bit of minutea

With the Christmas decorations back in their respective boxes, Christmas tree downstairs, still half decorated but sitting placidly on the table where it will reside until December 2024, Christmas cards sorted, photos tucked away to be posted on my “picture board” later, I decided it’s time to clear my mind of the discouraging news, discord and ill-feelings that took over the news last year.
Time to say goodbye and good riddance to the woke nonsense and start praying for better times ahead. Last night I heard on the news that there is a resurgence of faith and a turning back to God in our younger generation. That is something to be thankful for. Reporters seemed astonished to discover this as they were taking the pulse of different generations on New Year’s Eve. A definite plus and we can all pray it takes hold and grows as the days pass. A positive to build on; we should all pray for the young people who are recognizing exactly what brings real peace to us as individuals, as a community, and as a country.
Are you getting as tired as I am of all the pre-election hype, the polls, the “slings and arrows” already taking over?
As I have said every year, I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. But I did promise myself to be more optimistic; not to dwell on things I cannot change. So, to keep my mind free of unwelcome thoughts, I vow to NOT listen to the annual State of the Union address. Way too much stress. I listen to enough news, I know what the state of our union is. I’ll just pray that it changes.
And, in case I forgot to say anything about it, I did find a beautiful Amish rocking chair under my Christmas Tree - or actually under the Christmas Tree at Joni’s. Santa Claus, or Mrs. Claus and her four children gifted me with exactly what I had been looking at every time we made a stop at the store outside of Buffalo.  So, I traded the swivel rocker, which has sat in disgrace in a corner of my living room since Oct. 13.
Jett brought the chair over Wednesday and made the exchange. While he was here, it was he who took my tree downstairs, emptied my garbage, put my new light together that makes using my computer so much easier, emptied all the boxes and got rid of them for me. He wouldn’t take any money, so I did insist on giving him money for lunch. Plus, he stayed and visited for a while - one-on-one time is sometimes hard to come by.
Now school is back in session, basketball is back, wrestling is also on the calendar. Don’t cancel me out, but I just never have cared for wrestling. Rick and Scott both tried it when they were 5 or 6. Scott and his friend Greg Black, not sure they were even in school yet, had to wrestle against each other at a big meet right here in Greybull. Would you believe that it went into at least four overtimes, when they finally gave up and the official called it a draw!   I’m not sure if either of the boys tried it the next year.
Rick and Tom Crichton made it to Casper when they were maybe fourth graders. (Tom went on and was a very good wrestler as he went up through the grades. Rick stopped the year he could play basketball.) Anyway, Tom’s parents took them to Casper, and the boys got a room all to themselves (next to Tom’s parents, of course.)  It was a new experience for them, and they were under orders not to leave the room.  So they tried something entirely new. They pooled their money and ordered room service. The only thing they could afford was two dishes of, as they called it, the soup du jour. When it came it was French onion - which was flushed down the stool. Not sure what they learned from the experience, but neither ever tried “soup du jour” again.