2017 Life Logs, Day 365—Happy New Year
2017 Life Logs, Day 365—Happy New Year!
Date: Sunday, December 31, 2017
Weather: Sunny and Cold; High 22, Low 7 degrees F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe in Mt. Juliet, TN
Happy New Year! We are having a quiet New Year’s Eve here at Patsy and Joe’s. It is just too cold to go to any outside activities, so other than a trip to the grocery store, we all stayed inside for the day. It was sunny but the high temp for the day was 22 degrees F. Not as cold as it could be, but cold enough. I talked to Justin this morning and the temp in Rincon was in the 80’s. That certainly sounds delicious! Thankfully the solar power is still chugging along giving them no problems for now. They have been collecting piles of wood to burn and were hoping for a big bonfire for New Year’s Eve. Justin said that from a small 50 by 50-foot area, they collected enough wood for two huge bonfires. Maria took down so many trees. But thankfully, in their climate, new trees are emerging to take the place of the fallen. Justin is texting as I write letting me know they had a great New Year’s Eve with friends, watching fireworks from their rooftop.
I had a great conversation with friends Ed and Lynne tonight. It is just so fantastic that they were able to sail Constance from the Florida-Georgia line to Fort Lauderdale and now have her tied to the dock at Ed’s son’s home on the New River. Ed’s son and family are away for the holidays, so Ed and Lynne have had the house all to themselves. They have spent the past week getting everything off Constance and they are so thankful to be able to do in the warmth of Florida sunshine. Ed is feeling and looking great.
My last phone call of the evening was from Heather, Jed, and the Pebbles. They have returned home from Maine and despite the severe cold, they had a wonderful time. And they had a great visit in New Hampshire today, on the way home from Maine, with friends of Heather’s from her high school days at St. Paul’s School. They all gathered in Nashua, New Hampshire, where their children enjoyed sledding together.
2017 has been quite a year for me. I spent time visiting with my sister in Nashville, time with Justin and family in Puerto Rico, time sailing on Windbird in the Bahamas with Sam and Dawn, and time with the Goldpebbles. We had magical reunions with all of my family in West Virginia in June and with all of Mark’s family in Florida in November. All of those were wonderful times, but then we had the hurricane season. Irma hit Florida and Puerto Rico, and then Maria hit Puerto Rico with a vengeance. The past 100+ days have been a roller coaster ride for the people of Puerto Rico and for those of us so connected to them. The ride is not over, but the thankfulness to all of the wonderful friends and family who have supported the rise of the new Puerto Rico is deep. The generosity and kindness of so many people will never be forgotten. In 2017, you turned what could have been a time of despair into a time of hope. Happy, happy 2018!
The solar had arrived!!! I wanted to shout from the rooftops. But I restrained myself, waiting to hear that the system had been installed and was working. Later in the day, Justin sent photos of the system installed and the lights on in their house.
I was elated. I am so happy that they will enter 2018 with electricity.
Their electricity from the grid was restored the first of December, but that didn’t last long. It was intermittent and then it was gone. But now the lights are on as long as the sun shines. Happy, happy for Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. But so sad for so many Puerto Ricans who still have no electricity. I sure wish I could wave a magic wand to restore power to all of Puerto Rico. 
It is truly interesting how my granola recipe has evolved over the years. Somewhere I have the original recipe that I got from a woodworker in Minnesota in the 1970’s. I’ll have to find it to compare to today’s version. I used the same recipe for 40 years, but in the past couple of years, the recipe has gone from mostly oats with some nuts and seeds to a half and half mixture. I used to use olive oil; now I use coconut oil. I used to use honey; now I use maple syrup. I used to eat granola almost every morning; now I have it for breakfast no more than twice a week. Just interesting how things change over time.
Sam got the sled he wanted,
Jonah got Legos which were high on his list, and Ollie got a hanging tent for the backyard called a Hugglepod. Ziggy got electronics sets
and Coco got the American Girl Welly Wisher Doll she was sure she couldn’t live without. It was love at first sight this morning.
Justin said Ziggy really enjoyed inventing different gizmos and gadgets with the LittleBits set I sent him. And Justin and Jo sent me a family photo from today that I had requested. Since there was not a strong enough signal for a video call, the photo was perfect.
And at the Goldstones, the boys dug into their stockings stuffed with goodies from Santa before opening Santa’s gifts. They love their stockings!
After opening Santa’s gifts, we stopped to eat a bite, and then launched into the many presents. I got Sam a draftsman’s table top board with all the things that go with it to encourage his recent interest in architectural and engineering design. I tried something new with Jonah and Ollie by giving them a shared gift. They both had asked for adventure gear for the backyard. Ollie really wanted a zip line, but I ended up getting a Slackers NinjaLine and Cargo Climbing Net.
This line and net are strung between trees with equipment for turning little boys into monkeys.
Heather read one of the books Ollie got aloud and it made us all teary eyed. The book was Malala’s Magic Pen telling the story of a little girl in Pakistan who thought she could change the world if she had a magic pen. It is a true story and, indeed, she is changing the world through writing with her ‘magic pen’ and has even won a Nobel Peace Prize. There were many special moments,
and special ornaments and cards made at school by Ollie and Jonah which were so precious. And Sam had gifts for everyone that he bought with his own money at school craft fair which was so very thoughtful. So we had a lovely morning and then all of a sudden the world darkened a bit and we looked outside to see icy rain pouring down and trees blowing sideways. For a few minutes it was a proper blizzard. But it stopped, or slowed down considerably, as fast as it came. By the time I left in the early afternoon, the sun was shining. But the blizzard was enough to shut down the airport in Boston for a couple of hours and to cause Heather and Jed to cancel their travel plans to Maine for today. By late morning when Jed talked to his mother, they had gotten 5 inches of fresh snow on top of the snow they got earlier in the week, and it was still coming down. So the Goldstones will drive to Maine tomorrow morning and I took the bus to the airport which was open again before noon. My 6 pm flight to Nashville went out about 25 minutes delayed, but I was at my sister’s house by 9:30 pm. We stayed up late talking, but it was the perfect end of a perfect Christmas Day.
