Wednesday, December 08, 2004
SEVENTEEN DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS....
When I read Becky’s post this morning on Christmas cards it made me realize how much I have learned about this “box” that I sit and look at every morning…. and throughout the day. Last year I leaned heavily on Becky to figure out the margins I would need to print off a greeting on some Christmas stationary. While she labored over the problem I sat and watched the process unfold. She had a new computer and we bought her old one….it took her a while to de-program herself back to the now…outdated PC.
Sunday, Rocky’s daughter came to visit and have dinner with us. Her two daughters, Kendra and Sara and Kendra’s boyfriend came with her. It was a belated birthday (Rocky’s and Sara’s) and Thanksgiving dinner. It became a visit without Eddie, Holly’s husband as he was called to St. Louis where his mother is in serious condition. Since Eddie and Rocky wouldn’t be putting doors on the new cupboard to go in the kitchen, we ended up in the ‘computer room.’ Holly is very knowledgeable about computers so I asked her to help me set up margins for the annual Christmas letter…same paper as last year. (Lots left over….and you know I save things…right?) So she went to the files, pulled up last year’s and showed me how to do it the easy way. I counted lines and only used the same amount as last years……….now….that WAS easy, wasn’t it?
OK. So I know you are thinking….that I didn’t really learn that for myself. Oh, but I did!!! I remembered how to do it two days later!! Now for you young folks I realize that isn’t much of an accomplishment. To that I will only say….. “just wait.” Another 40-years down the road it will look like a BIG accomplishment. Us Seniors hang on to everything we can to feel we are still “with it” and small stuff gets to be bigger as the years go by. One of my favorite quotes is from a song that Orson Wells sung once….one line was…. “I know what it is to be young….but you don’t know what it is to be old”……. Yes, my young friends, the day will come sooner than you think where “new anything” will be a challenge. Unless you are my uncle Tom. He was always on top of the new electronics that were out and at 88 or 89-years he is sharp as a whip……..my hero of older aged folks.
I did, however, erase the incorrect address labels in the file and make new ones. As I did so it hit me how many of my friends or family members are no longer on my list. I have three address books that go back to 1970.…as I mused through them it was amazing how many names had become extinct. Each name crossed off was a person I loved and spent a lot of time with….now there was a line through their name. I sat remembering each person as if to make them “real” once more….even if only in my mind. What good times they represented and how grateful I am that they still live so vividly in my heart. We don’t have to be older to lose loved ones….I think of many of the Service families who won’t be seeing their loved one this Christmas….and for some…never again.
I am one who has fallen to a printed generic letter in my cards. I never thought I’d see the day because I came from a long line of correspondents. My mom and her three sisters corresponded with one another their whole life through. Their letters were like journals because, after marriage, they were apart most of the time. I have always enjoyed mail in the mailbox and handwritten letters…..but after all the many years of writing letters and over 17-years of writing applications for driver’s licenses, my “write hand” is shot. I now rely on this electronic keyboard to do most of my writing.
As I go through my card list and write a personal line or two the strains of “White Christmas” will float through my mind….Bing Crosby will be singing it, of course, and I will be young and beautiful…the star of the movie…… and the snow will begin to fall…big cottony flakes …and………..
Sorry…….I’ve got to go write my cards.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
Sunday, Rocky’s daughter came to visit and have dinner with us. Her two daughters, Kendra and Sara and Kendra’s boyfriend came with her. It was a belated birthday (Rocky’s and Sara’s) and Thanksgiving dinner. It became a visit without Eddie, Holly’s husband as he was called to St. Louis where his mother is in serious condition. Since Eddie and Rocky wouldn’t be putting doors on the new cupboard to go in the kitchen, we ended up in the ‘computer room.’ Holly is very knowledgeable about computers so I asked her to help me set up margins for the annual Christmas letter…same paper as last year. (Lots left over….and you know I save things…right?) So she went to the files, pulled up last year’s and showed me how to do it the easy way. I counted lines and only used the same amount as last years……….now….that WAS easy, wasn’t it?
OK. So I know you are thinking….that I didn’t really learn that for myself. Oh, but I did!!! I remembered how to do it two days later!! Now for you young folks I realize that isn’t much of an accomplishment. To that I will only say….. “just wait.” Another 40-years down the road it will look like a BIG accomplishment. Us Seniors hang on to everything we can to feel we are still “with it” and small stuff gets to be bigger as the years go by. One of my favorite quotes is from a song that Orson Wells sung once….one line was…. “I know what it is to be young….but you don’t know what it is to be old”……. Yes, my young friends, the day will come sooner than you think where “new anything” will be a challenge. Unless you are my uncle Tom. He was always on top of the new electronics that were out and at 88 or 89-years he is sharp as a whip……..my hero of older aged folks.
I did, however, erase the incorrect address labels in the file and make new ones. As I did so it hit me how many of my friends or family members are no longer on my list. I have three address books that go back to 1970.…as I mused through them it was amazing how many names had become extinct. Each name crossed off was a person I loved and spent a lot of time with….now there was a line through their name. I sat remembering each person as if to make them “real” once more….even if only in my mind. What good times they represented and how grateful I am that they still live so vividly in my heart. We don’t have to be older to lose loved ones….I think of many of the Service families who won’t be seeing their loved one this Christmas….and for some…never again.
I am one who has fallen to a printed generic letter in my cards. I never thought I’d see the day because I came from a long line of correspondents. My mom and her three sisters corresponded with one another their whole life through. Their letters were like journals because, after marriage, they were apart most of the time. I have always enjoyed mail in the mailbox and handwritten letters…..but after all the many years of writing letters and over 17-years of writing applications for driver’s licenses, my “write hand” is shot. I now rely on this electronic keyboard to do most of my writing.
As I go through my card list and write a personal line or two the strains of “White Christmas” will float through my mind….Bing Crosby will be singing it, of course, and I will be young and beautiful…the star of the movie…… and the snow will begin to fall…big cottony flakes …and………..
Sorry…….I’ve got to go write my cards.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
