It was too good to be true! We actually saw gas prices drop to $1.50 a gallon in this area. Of the cost for each gallon of gas,we pay at least $ .70 in tax in this area, so that’s an amazingly low price per gallon. Unfortunately, that’s ended. The range of prices we saw yesterday were $1.57 to $1.69. Dear Husband has stopped at four gass stations with low prices which did not have regular gas. They could sell him the high test for twenty cents a gallon more, but the holding tank for the regular gas was dry.
I’m sure that the suppliers are waiting to see if their cost of gas drops again. My understanding is that they have to order in large quantities, so they’ve been waiting to see if they could get a lower price. And by now, the refineries are probably on a slow down because the demand for gas has dropped this winter.
Cop Car will be happy to see the price go up! *G* As for me, I plan to stay home and keep warm!

I was chatting with my youngest sister this week about the fact that I am blogging less. I took a look at the archives and you can see that my blogging dropped significantly after June when EM had her seizure. My sis says it’s not that I have run out of things to say, it’s more a problem of being able to fit the blogging in with my current obligations. She’s right.
There are times when I am driving, and I’ll see something along the road, or hear something on the radio, and find myself mentally composing a blog entry. I love the sentences that come with that first attempt, but the problems is that when I finally get the chance to sit down and put them on the computer, I’ve forgotten what I wanted to write about. So, memory is playing a part here, too.
There are no rules to follow. Nothing says that I have to make a specific number of entries a month. or a week, but, I know how hard it is to follow a blog that tends to lie fallow. That any of you come to read is a miracle.
I know that the demands on my time will change eventually. I may even become more organized and make blogging a regularly scheduled activity. Until then, I appreciate that you come to read.
If I don’t make it to your blog in the next couple of days, Dear Husband, Elegante Mother and I all wish you health and good fortune in the coming year, and a Merry Christmas!

Everyone is counting down the days to Christmas. A friend e-mailed me, moaning that she would never be ready. I commiserated with her. I’ve been there, and thought we’d have to either call off Christmas, or sit in an undecorated room. I even left the Christmas tree to be decorated on Christmas eve several years in a row.
This year I had help. My youngest sister, and two of my nieces have assisted me, moving things up from the basement, and getting things set around. Dear Husband has done the shopping for the kids and grandkids. Of course, the only two people I still have to shop for are DH, and Elegante Mother. My bad.
I spent today writing thank you notes, and trying to get the last of the Christmas cards done. I’ve taken over the sending of cards for Elegante Mother, both gift cards for the 25 members of her family who are under 21, and greeting cards. The Empty Nester’s Sweatshop met for lunch on Tuesday and several of the thank yous are going to those ladies. A few more are going to the quilting bee.
I’d like to steal a little time to write three long letters to friends I won’t get to see at Christmas. I have a few quilting projects to work on, and some baking to do, but otherwise, we seem to be making headway! I just have the dreaded shopping to do, and we’ll be ready to celebrate.
If you are mired, my best advice to you is to lower your expectations, simplify, and keep in mind WHY we celebrate. I’ve done a little of all three this year, and I can do more yet. There’s a lot to be said for simplicity.

I seem to have made the shift to rising at 5:00 a.m. I still need a little assistance to do it, but it’s not as difficult as I thought it would be. I have the sense that if I was working outside my home, it would be easier to heed the alarm. Dear Husband and I have learned not to let the radio wake me if it’s absolutely necessary that I be up. I can coast listening to the radio for 45 minutes, even when it’s on LOUD! *G*
I’ve created a morning ritual that helps me get things squared away. DH wakes me and then leaves to make his lunch. He goes down the drive to drop off the mail, and then returns to warm up his truck. When the weather is bad, he’ll snow plow the drive before he leaves While he’s doing that, I start Elegante Mother’s coffee, and make myself a cup of tea. I empty the dish washer and refill it, and get a load of clothes started. Once DH leaves, I carry clean clothes to my bedroom, make my bed and get dressed.
This pattern of activity seems to help me get into work mode. It clears off the counters and creates working space, and limits the distractions At that point, I can fix toast or breakfast, do a little office work, check e-mail, or attend to anything that needs to be accomplished before going off to exercise.
I’m a creature of habit. I operate better when I’ve cleared the decks, and don’t have a lot of detail hanging over my head.

The house is mostly quiet now. Elegante Mother is ghosting around, but I expect her to settle soon. The trees on timers are dark, and the TV is off. Soon I need to find my bed.
We took EM to the doc today for a checkup, following her visit to the emergency room the day after Thanksgiving. All is well. She seems to do exceptionally well when she is the center of attention. You can see her trying to rise to the occasion. But, as we came home, she said she was tired, and hoped that we were going to have a quiet week. I think the effort involved in going out really wears her out, and then she makes it more difficult to care for her.
Dear Husband just keeps on keeping on. He never complains, and he’s chock full of good advice. I wish he’d let us help him sooth his back. This is a man who doesn’t do drugs unless the doctor insists. To get him to relieve pain, imagine us having to sit on him and use a pea shooter to deliver pills. That’s about how difficult he is. Only Ed, the cat is worse.
I’m perhaps three-quarters of the way through my Christmas decorations. They will be done by Friday, and then I can spend a little time baking. I need to plan the meals for the rest of the month so that chore is out of the way. It makes shopping SO much easier, when you know what is going to be served! *G*
I’ve been quilting fabric for several projects. I hope to have a little more time to work on that. We’ve pitched out a chair that was taking up breathing space in our bedroom, and I have the name and phone number for the upholsterer. I hope to take Dear Husband out on Saturday morning to choose fabric to refinish the chair in the kitchen. Bit by bit, I’m tackling things that really need to be done.
It RAINED most of today. The temperature wasn’t unbearably cold, and we managed to off-load EM under cover of porticoes, so the day wasn’t too hard on her. Late this afternoon the temperature dropped, and it shifted over to snow. DH decided to wait it out to clear off the area in front of the house, because it’s supposed to snow until about midnight. The birds were thrilled when I delivered seed today. I’ll have to be sure to do it again tomorrow.
I need to water plants, shift a load to the dryer, and close down the office for the evening. I hope you’ve all had a good day, and are enjoying the preparations for the holiday.
My wish for the season for all my friends and family is that you have good health!

Elegante Mother’s birthday is Sunday. She will be 92 years old. Last January, a month after her birthday, she began telling people she was 92. She was really eager to hit that next goal!
My oldest sister is gathering some of the family to attend church and then go out to breakfast with EM. I need to order a corsage for her to wear, and we plan to take her shopping at her favorite store for some new duds. If we are lucky with the weather, we will also go hat shopping. The pastor at EM’s church loves that she wears hats to church, and he always compliments her on her hats, which are very elegante (what else?)
A nursery about ten miles west of us is having a free picture day on Sunday. I thought it would be cool to drive out there after breakfast and have her picture taken among the poinsettias. We could pick up a couple of plants to decorate the house while we were at it.
I hope the day turns out to be fun for her. We haven’t had a lot of fun this week. She really enjoyed Thanksgiving, but the aftermath has been hard on us all. We’ll do a little bit each day to extend the celebration of her birthday, rather than trying to do it all in one short span. Thursday, she has hair and nail appointments. Friday afternoon, a good friend is coming for a short visit. Our quilting bee is going to go to dinner Friday night. I thought I’d get a little rosebud boutonnière for her to wear. Saturday, we’re going to shop for an hour early in the day, and then Sunday we’ll do church (with a gardenia corsage, her favorite), breakfast, and the pictures.
We’ll see how she is doing, and if she is still raring to go, there’s the opportunity for dinner out, and a ride through our community’s light show. Everything has been planned so that there is the least amount of walking required, and long spaces between the need to walk. I hope it all goes well.

The refrigerator is still full of food, and the floor needs to be swept. I’ve washed almost all the linens, and we are in the process of swapping the oranges and golds and browns for the reds and greens of Christmas. The rented tables and chairs have been returned.
My youngest sister and her youngest daughter came to visit yesterday. We had planned to start decorating Elegante Mother’s rooms for the holidays. They could only stay overnight one night before they had to return home. Unfortunately, around noon, EM started complaining of pain. She has an inguinal hernia that has been bothering her off and on for the past few months. The doc has advised waiting this out as long as possible, rather than doing surgery now.
We helped EM to walk a bit. We had her try sitting on a firmer chair. I gave her some over the counter pain meds. We helped her to bed, thinking that she would be more comfortable stretched out. She slept, soundly for three hours, and when she woke, was still in pain. When we decided that we would drive her to the ER, we couldn’t get her on her feet.
We’re getting to know the paramedics here. I know some of those faces, even if I haven’t learned their names yet. They did a nice job of getting EM to the hospital, where they did a CT scan. There’s nothing serious going on that requires being admitted to a hospital. We are supposed to maintain her on prescription pain killers for the time being, in the hope that the pain will ease without surgery.
I don’t know about you, but waiting at the hospital for test results wears me out. We were only away from home about five hours across the dinner hour. We were lucky she got to the test fairly quickly, and the results were available within 30 minutes, but by the time we all got home, and had something to eat. I was dead on my feet. To make matters worse, all the standing the past five days has been very hard on my feet and ankles. I needed to spend this afternoon with my legs elevated.
We have added a second caregiver to our entourage. I need more time in the office, so EM needs to have someone care for her. We have one care giver who is with us four days a week. We had arranged for a young woman to be here two more days a week, and EM seems to like her. We’ve asked her to come tomorrow, so that I can finish getting the house cleared and back to normal.
I hope the medication does the trick. It’s really tough to see your parent in pain. She’s gone off to bed for the night, and I’ll check in on her before we close down the house for the night.
I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. My thanks for your cards and notes.

I bought gas for $1.729 today! I seriously doubted that we would ever see gas that cost less than two dollars, but we’ve made it. Of that, seventy cents a gallon goes to taxes.
My U.K. friends tell me that we have it easy, but a country this size can’t function without inexpensive gas. Cop Car reminded me that had the gas prices remain elevated, it would have given us more incentive to develop new sources of energy, and she has a good point. It’s too bad that we are so short-sighted that we can’t work at developing inexpensive fuel despite having inexpensive gas.

Ya know, I really should be in bed. I should have gone to bed an hour ago, but I was laying in wait for my stepson to come home. I had three little chores for him.
First, I was moving pictures onto the zip drive for Mother’s digital picture frame when I managed to make one of them my desktop picture, three times. I love my niece, and this picture is a keeper, but it’s not a good backdrop for the icons. He showed me how to right click, choose properties and go to desktop to make changes! Now, if only I can remember that lesson when I do this mysterious goof again.
Next I asked him to figure out why some pictures just wouldn’t transfer to the zip drive. He spent about 45 minutes working at it, before he admitted defeat. I’ll try the new zip drive in the picture frame to see if those pictures will display. I’d like to have all the pictures on one drive, if I could, but I can live with it if we have to swap them periodically.
His last chore was to carry a couple of things downstairs for me. He was two for three, and I can’t complain, given the time and effort he put in on my behalf.
We’re getting close to Thanksgiving. I was ironing linens today. I still have a few to do, but the lion’s share are finished. I’ve counted glasses and silverware, and just about decided what will be used for centerpieces. My oldest sis is bringing some garland, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few other things in her bottomless bags. I’m sure the tables will be lovely.
Early tomorrow morning, I’ll work on clearing my office desk. After Elegante Mother’s salon appointment, and a trip to the grocery to pick up the turkey, I’ll clear out the guest bedroom, and then organize my sewing table and bedroom. At that point we will be ready to begin cooking.
I’m going to make a pot of pasta e fagiole for dinner. Dear Husband will put together two large pans of lasagna, and I’ll bake dozens of rolls. We need to wash romaine for Caesar salad. I’d put together the broccoli casserole tomorrow night, but I think the turkey is going to take most of the room in refrigerator.
Soooooooo…maybe I need to hit the hay so I’ll be ready to face a busy day. I hope you’re all ready for the holiday. If I don’t make it back to the computer before Thursday, we wish you a happy Thanksgiving, filled with loved ones and joy.

As Thanksgiving nears, my time is at a premium, and it seems that blogging is the first pleasure to get cut. It’s nigh on bed time, but I thought I would post just a few more tidbits before hitting the hay.
The house I mourned is now gone. They didn’t burn it to the ground, they tore it apart with bulldozers. I drove past last week to see the chimney on the east side of the house standing free, and about a quarter of the west side of the house waiting for the axe. Wednesday night as we drove bye there was just a chimney, and Thursday even the chimney was gone. As you all guessed, the land is being combined with other plots to make a 50 acre development. In this economy, I don’t see how they got the funding. I don’t know yet how it’s going to be developed. I just know that a wonderful house is gone so that someone can line their pockets.
On a happier note… on Wednesday night we bought the first gas for less than $2.00!!! I didn’t think we were going to see it, when prices stalled out at $2.13 or so, but there was a quick slide downhill this week. We bought half a tank at $1.989, and as I gloated a station nearer to us dropped their prices to $1.949! I heard someone from Marathon on the radio this morning state that we have about $.70 in taxes per gallon on our gas in the Chicago area, as opposed to $.55/per gallon downstate. I’d be really happy to see the price drop some more after this past year.
Yesterday I spent the day keeping busy to keep my mind off the fact that I was preparing for a colonoscopy this morning. Actually the day was not a hardship, other than the absolutely rank salty solution you have to drink. This time I was to add 1.5 fluid ounces of “Stuff” to four ounces of water and drink it. I had to chug it, and then gulp water to cut the terrible taste. It sure works. You want to be home for the evening!
The test, when it finally got underway, went well, and the doc gave me a clean bill of health. We arrived at the surgery center at the appointed time, and were told that I was not on their schedule. Then, they said, “Well, Dr. XXX thought he had a test scheduled…but he JUST LEFT!” I was going to go ballistic, but they said they would call his office (when it opened in 15 minutes) and have them page him. It all worked out. Doc returned and was very calm, which calmed me. Dear Husband was my designated driver. He held my wedding rings and waited for me, then drove me home. I went back to bed and slept until 2:30. Thank God they didn’t have to postpone the test!!!
And the last tidbit for the day..Ed got to visit with the vet. He started favoring a paw on Wednesday. Or, perhaps he had been favoring it, and we just noticed it. I called and got an appointment with our favorite vet and she saw him Thursday afternoon. It turns out that since he has not been going outside, his claws are not getting worn down as they used to. A claw on his left front foot had curled around and was pressing on the pad. He’s all trimmed now, and digging on the furniture. I think he’s going to get a scratching post for Christmas, maybe even a little early! lol
I hope you are all enjoying November. Those of you who are hosting guests for Thanksgiving, I hope you are organized and ready. Those of you who are guests, HELP WITH THE DISHES! *G* Stay safe!