Tuesday, 24 December 2019

Hilary 2018



to Hilary


Merry Christmas I hope jasmine does not tire you out.

Some of our traditional purchases this time of the year, were a terry's chocolate orange for the stocking, a walnut whip and a box of after eight mints. Believe it or not I can not find a walnut whip anywhere. Christmas will be forever lacking.
I will have to stick to traditional ghost stories. Pamela always insisted that  on Christmas eve, we sat round and told ghost stories, until late. She was a really scary mother in law.

love
Dad



Tue, Jan 2, 2018, 2:50 AM

to me



Happy New year

I hope this year will be a great year for you.  

It has started at below zero in Texas.   They call it the Arctic Freeze coming down from up north.  It is a little bit of a shock to the system for it to be so cold.  I keep having to kick the ice on the waters for the animals.  Obviously for me I have not had to do that since the farm.

Our Christmas was quiet, little Jazzy is getting more of an awareness of what is going on so she had a great time. I took the week off work and it was a great week playing with Jazzy.  Sadly most of us have a cold due to this cold snap in the weather but it was still a great week off work.  Tomorrow will be a bit of a shock having to actually get up and feed the horses in the dark and sub zero temperatures.

We also had to fix a pipe in the ground today, not sure if the freeze caused the shift.  Last year when  we had the solar panels installed the workers cut threw the water pipe.  Sadly when they fixed it they did a terrible job.  Seeing we fixed it today I can see that they didn’t really glue in the pipe!  So the pipe had shifted and was leaking.  

I hope you have had a good start to the new year.

Take care



Tue, Jan 2, 2018, 6:38 AM
to Hilary

Hils
thanks for the new year greeting
I went to bed early, ME flare up. The pain has been intense since Christmas, disturbing sleep which causes more pain and so on. It all started with Christmas travelling. Kathy's family are feuding at present so we have to travel to all the siblings and watch what we say. Diplomacy is difficult for me, always has been. Shirley use to kick my legs me under the table when we were visiting. When a guest asked “honestly what do you thing of?” I tell them. New dresses and hairdos were a nightmare. I told her she looked like a bag of sprouts in a dress, and she took umbrage. In the end I just said it looks different, that was equally bad for some reason! Kathy thinks I am totally tactless but I keep telling her I am much better now, Shirley had to deal with worse forthright speech.
We too have had a cold snap, All the water frozen and carrying buckets everywhere. Splits on the hands are annoying. I have workers hands at the best of times . At the moment they are saving a fortune on sandpaper, The cold opens chasms under the nail and in the joints. I have tried all manner of creams but find udder cream the best.
I often think of the Christmases we had. Blue Peter, the TV show, showed how to make a present house, when Chris was 5. Ever since then I made one every year for the presents. After Shirley left, most of the presents were second hand, washed, repainted, and wrapped. I do not think you noticed.
The first Christmas after Shirley left was going to be special! Shirley wanted to see you in the evening for a few hours. She was in a caravan at the time. I bought a turkey, a big one. I set the oven to come on at 5 to ensure it was cooked properly for 12. You and Joanne woke at 6:30, with “He's been,” shouted at the top of your voices. “I told you to stay in your rooms until I had taken the dogs out.
Down stairs in the kitchen, the floor was covered in dog vomit. Vomit up the kitchen units, on the benches, and in the dogs bed. The oven had come on, on time, and warmed the bird. Unfortunately the door wasn't closed properly. The aroma of cooking turkey was too much for Tammy and the dogs opened the oven door and helped themselves. Both Candy and Tammy were sick. I threw them out into the garden and started to clear up the mess. The phone went, it was Shirley. She changed her mind and wanted to see you first thing so she could go out , and drown her sorrows later. She was expecting some resistance but was told to come as quickly as possible. The present opening could wait. I got you up and dressed quickly and she collected you. She wondered what that awful smell was!
I cleaned the house, so it smelt like a hospital by the time you returned. I also caught and killed a rooster, plucked it and put it in the oven. We had an evening meal. My parents came. They were grumpy because they had planned to come at lunch time. They were moaning about Shirley, throughout,and we had strong words. The atmosphere was not good. All through the meal, my mother kept commenting about the dark colour of the meat. I told her it was a free range very active bird. Dark meat was coming back in fashion from Organic farmers, it was good for you, so eat it up.
Joanne found some feathers and thought I killed Bertie wooster, but it was one of his sons. Joanne wanted to be a vegetarian after that.
Other Christmases were less traumatic. I even had money to buy new stuff, although I shopped at charity shops and wore second hand, still do. When I met Pauline we still had Christmas dinners but now she visited with Sam and Jonathan. Sam complained that when we married he only had one Christmas dinner. In Nelson road he had 14. I wish he stayed in Nelson road.
Christmas with the Martel family was certainly different, instead of the dog vomit to clean up, I had to clean up Sam's vomit. That greedy little shit was unable to stop eating, consequently every birthday and Christmas he would be sick in his bed. Pauline cuddled Sam while I worked on the vomit. The last birthday I told Sam We would not have a buffet style birthday because he just stood by the table eating until sick
have a good new year and try to lay down wonderful memories of the festive period. The memories are for you to keep. Children never remember. As a parent you will start to realise all your thoughts are towards your children you seldom think of parents,. In turn your children only think of their siblings and there own children.

Love
Dad





Wed, Dec 19, 2018, 3:16 AM
to me


Hi

I hope you are well for Christmas and that you have a relaxing time.
Here is Jazzy with Santa at the Winter Wonderland in Austin. She is
starting to enjoy the different holidays.  Halloween she was terrified
of the decorations for 2 weeks now she still talks about the ghost.
So she is enjoying the tree and the Santa stories currently, and I'm
sure she will be very excited with presents Christmas morning.

Hope you enjoy the holidays,

Hilary





Wed, Dec 19, 2018, 6:04 AM
to Hilary



Thanks for the photo
I know what you mean about being scared of ghosts. Christopher went through a stage of being afraid of ghosts. It doesn't help when even schools talk about it and it forms part of a religion. I tried to counter it with scientific logic. The conversation went like this
do you believe humans can be ghosts?
Yes
If the human was a cowboy will they ride a horse as a ghost?
Yes
therefore horses can be ghosts?
Yes
A herd of cows?
yes
what about dogs
yes
then there must be cat ghosts?
yes
hamsters
yes
Mice
yes
therefore you must have beetle and insect ghosts
I suppose so
we kill millions of insects every day and thousands of cows,sheep and poultry everyday for food. and the world is not over run with trillions of ghosts. Therefore ghost do not exist, OK?
OK 
Now go back to bed. turn the light out and go to sleep.
an hour later, massive screams, and Chris sobbing his heart out, because he was being chased by a murderous beefburger ghost.
Be careful with your explanations

love 
Dad 


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