It’s the 20th day of the 2021 Virtual Advent Tour, hosted by my friend Sprite at Sprite Writes. For my day of the Tour, I’m going to talk about Christmas ornaments. Every year, when my kids and I start to decorate the tree, I remind them not to worry about breaking any ornaments. I want them to be careful, of course, but not anxious. Sometimes ornaments do get broken, and that’s OK. I wouldn’t let them handle an ornament that I couldn’t stand to lose. Plus, I figure that losing an ornament gives me an excuse to buy a new one, and I do like to buy an ornament every year to remind me of something we did or somewhere we went.
We didn’t do much traveling in 2021, though. We spent most of our time at home, so I didn’t have many opportunities for buying a new ornament. Luckily, I spotted the perfect ornament while Christmas shopping last week.
New Ornament for 2021 “House in a Bubble”
Over the last couple of years, I have felt at times as if my house were in a bubble, where I and my family were safe and protected from the scary things happening in the world. The ornament represents my gratitude, as well as my hope for the future, and my wish for everyone this year: may you all be safe, and be well, and have a very Merry Christmas.
Most days I don’t even want to try to write, because I don’t think I have anything to say. I take a quick peek inside my head to see if there are any obvious thoughts rattling around, and there’s hardly ever anything in there. The blankness is terrifying. But the truth is (and I really ought to be able to remember it by now) that if I face the blankness and start writing, the thoughts will come. They’re always in there, just hiding, waiting to be lured out.
Covid continues to change the way I talk and write. First I learned a ton of new words and phrases. Then I started using old ones differently. And now I’ve noticed that Covid has ruined certain expressions for me. There are several that I don’t care to use anymore, such as “I’m so sick of…” and “It wouldn’t kill them to….”
Speaking of Covid, I wish we all knew more about Omicron. Covid cases are skyrocketing in Rhode Island, but my family and I don’t know how concerned we should be about it. We’re all vaxxed and mostly boosted, so if the vaccine is working well against Omicron, and if it’s really milder than Delta, then we don’t need to worry. But we don’t know. I am tempted to keep the kids home from school next week, simply to limit our exposure to the virus before we join my parents for Christmas. Given the circumstances, I don’t think that’s too crazy of an idea. Covid isn’t the only thing going around, and I’d hate for any of us to get sick next week, because any illness would spoil the holiday with worry. I will think on the idea more as the weekend progresses.
On Monday I had parent-teacher conferences with my kids’ teachers. It was nice to hear Livia described as “an amazing mathematician” and Marshall described as “conscientious” and “on the ball.” These were in-person meetings, and everyone was wearing masks. It was strange to meet people without actually seeing their faces. I wouldn’t recognize them if I met them again. Two of them fiddled with their masks the entire time, and I felt sorry for them. If they couldn’t get through ten minutes without noticeable discomfort, then having to wear a mask all day must be sheer Hell for them. The Pandemic affects us all every day, just not all in the same ways.
On Tuesday I got my Covid booster and my flu shot. They made me achy and tired. Both arms are still sore, but otherwise I’m feeling mostly back to normal.
On Wednesday I was happy that I didn’t have to go anywhere. My early Christmas present arrived. It was a lyre. Not that I needed a lyre, but it was just so cute. I bought it using a combination of Christmas money from my in-laws and points from my credit card, so in a way it was free. It may or may not be tunable. The Amazon marketplace is awash in these inexpensive instruments and the primary complaint about them is that they do not hold a tuning. I’m not sure I care that much. If it’s playable, then I’ll pick it up and play it once in a while. If not, it will make a great wall decoration.
Today is Thursday. I stayed up way too late last night, and I barely managed to haul myself out of bed before it was time to get Marshall on the bus. Only coffee is keeping me conscious. Outside there is a pretty coating of snow on the ground. Inside it is chilly, so I have the space heater running full blast. The disadvantage of making my office so toasty is that the rest of the house feels unbearably cold by comparison. This is going to be a long day, I think.
Photo album (but TBH probably won’t happen this year)
Take pictures for the photo cards
Design, order, and pick up the photo cards
Mail the photo cards
Put up and decorate Christmas tree
Order ornaments for my niece and my cousin’s new baby
Send baby gifts to my cousin
Send wedding gifts to two recently married couples
Write a Christmas-themed blog post
Trip to see Christmas lights
Christmas shopping
Wrapping (ugh)
Plus: appointments for parent-teacher conferences, vaccines, mammogram, and dental cleaning (note to self: never again make mammogram or dental cleaning appointments for December, because this month is hard enough without those added unpleasantries)
Today we got an e-mail to inform us that someone on Livia’s bus tested positive for Covid. She doesn’t have to quarantine, but we’re supposed to monitor her for symptoms. It was only a matter of time before this happened, which is why we got her vaccinated. I’d be happier if she were at least two weeks out from her second shot, but I figure she must have built up at least some immunity by now. Meanwhile, I have a sore throat and gummy eyes, and I wonder if I picked up something while I was out and about without a mask last week and weekend. That would be just my luck. I’m scheduled to get my Covid booster and flu shot next week, and wouldn’t it be terrible if I had to miss my appointment because I had Covid or the flu?
I bought way too many books for Christmas. Livia said she wanted a ton of books, and I guess I took her literally. Then, to keep things fair, I had to buy a lot of books for Marshall, too. Three more books arrived today. I also got an e-mail from the local bookstore to tell me that my order is in and needs to be picked up. How much do you want to bet that I’ll buy more books while I’m there? It seems likely, because book shopping is so much fun. Too much fun, maybe.
J.C. Penney canceled two items that I ordered online. I wasn’t surprised or upset about it, given the Pandemic and all. However, I was surprised and pleased when they sent me a $10 reward to make up for the inconvenience.
“I don’t want to alarm you,” my husband said as he walked into my office. “But…”
If his plan was not to alarm me, it backfired. I immediately felt alarmed. And the situation was somewhat alarming, at least on the surface.
Alarming!
These bugs were all over the front of the house, hanging out on the foundation wall, massing on the siding, and clinging to the window screens. But my state of alarm was short-lived, because I was pretty sure that they were harmless. A quick Internet search confirmed that they were leaf-footed bugs and, based on their general appearance, most likely western conifer seed bugs. Gathering on houses in the fall is normal behavior for them, and we should probably be thankful that there weren’t more.
Usually when a local plant or critter has a geographical adjective in their name, it’s “northern” or “eastern,” so what are these westerners, native to the Pacific Coast, doing here in New England? They are expanding their range, according to Wikipedia, and they’re doing a good job of it. In the U.S. they’re considered to be minor tree pests, except where pine trees are grown for commercial purposes. The bugs in our yard probably feed on the cones of the Eastern white pine, which grows abundantly in this area. But, these suckers can be found all over the globe now, including places where they are considered to be both invasive and harmful.
We didn’t need another tree pest, that’s for sure, but I’m relieved that these bugs are not kissing bugs. Their resemblance to kissing bugs was what had had my husband concerned. That’s a common reaction. Years ago, when we first started finding these bugs in the house occasionally, I looked them up because I was similarly concerned. At the time, I thought that they were assassin bugs (related to kissing bugs) but definitely not kissing bugs, because kissing bugs didn’t live this far north.
That’s not quite as safe of an assumption now, as I discovered when I researched the subject again this week. Kissing bugs, too, have expanded their range. They have been found in more than half of the 50 U.S. states. But they are not found in Rhode Island, at least not yet.
The resemblance of western conifer seed bugs to kissing bugs and also to assassin bugs has led to some confusion over whether or not they bite. Kissing bugs do, and they can give you Chagas disease. Assassin bugs do, and the bites are said to be painful. Western conifer seed bugs do not, and they don’t carry diseases. The worst they can do is make a stink (literally) and try to bite you, which won’t hurt much because their mouths really aren’t designed for biting. They don’t infest homes per se, but they do like to overwinter inside houses. So, the reason that they were all over the house is that they were looking for places to hide out for the winter. Understandable. We like to be inside for the winter, too.
Every year brings its own special buggapalooza. Last year was springtails. This year it’s western conifer seedbugs. There’s a lesson in this, one we’ve had to keep learning again and again–you want to live in the woods, you have to live with the bugs. The best you can hope for is that the bugs will be harmless, or at least relatively harmless, as this bug seems to be. I’ll take it over the spotted lanternfly any day.
Whether it’s my chaotic surroundings making me feel distracted, or my mental distraction causing my chaotic surroundings, the best thing to do is organize my surroundings. It certainly can’t hurt. So that’s what I’m working on today. I just completed the simplest, most obvious task, which was to organize the random notes from my desk pad and put them in the places where they belong.
The next simplest task would seem to be bagging up the clothes in the donation pile. I can definitely manage that. I will go take care of it now.
Beautiful Leaf One day in October I was standing on our Bridge to Nowhere when I noticed some beautiful purplish-red leaves on the ground. I wasn’t sure what type of tree they had come from. Obviously it was not maple, oak, or birch.
I searched the ground for more of the leaves. I found some at the base of a very large tree.
Or was it two trees? When large trunks are joined together like this, I’m never sure if it’s one tree with multiple trunks or individual trees that have grown together.
One tree or two, I was pretty sure I’d found the source of the leaves, so I looked up, and whoa! The trunks were so tall that I couldn’t even see the leaves. Note the distinctive pattern of the bark.
Zooming in with my camera, I was able to verify that the leaves were the right shape.
It wasn’t hard to figure out what kind of tree this was. The pattern on the bark and the leaf shape pointed to ash, and the fall leaf color suggested white ash specifically. The identity of this tree actually cleared up a mystery from earlier in the year. I’d found some interesting seeds on the ground. They were somewhat like maple seeds, but single rather than in pairs. They were, I now know, ash seeds. Ash seeds are called samaras (not to be confused with samsara or samosas, though those are both interesting, too).
Once I knew how to identify the ash tree, I found another one. So now I know that we have at least two on our property, but probably not many more. The majority of trees here are the more common maples, oaks, and pines. According to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, ash trees make up only one-to-two percent of the state’s trees.
That’s a good thing, I suppose. Ash trees have a terrible and unstoppable enemy: the emerald ash borer. I recommend not thinking or reading too much about that. Avoid all Wikipedia articles on the subject of ashes. Take a walk in the woods instead. Enjoy the trees that are growing outside right now. They are all beautiful, each in its own way.
Most people seem thrilled about the upcoming holidays, and I’m happy for them. But I find both Thanksgiving and Christmas to be stressful, and I am not looking forward to either. I wish we could stay on Halloween for the remainder of the year. Costumes and candy are the way to go.
Speaking of the holidays, we got ourselves let off the hook for Thanksgiving dinner. Whew! My Thanksgiving hostess prep flew out the window when Covid happened. And, even though theoretically we had a lot more time to prepare for this year’s holiday, we still do not have all the stuff we need, we don’t have our recipes worked out, and our house is in chaos because of the work my husband has been doing. I don’t even want to think about the stress that would have ensued if his family had decided that we needed to do Thanksgiving here.
The puzzle idea that I mentioned a while back has made it to the next stage of approval. Now my coworkers are looking at it to decide if the idea has merit. So far all of the comments have been positive. I know that these people are not just trying to be kind, because they’re not known for pulling punches (TBH, some of them are kind of mean, though I won’t say which). Plus I have a second idea on the table, and they do not love that one. That’s fine and not unexpected. That is to say, things are going as I had thought they would, and my ego has not had to suffer a bruising. There’s still time for them to destroy me, though, so I’ll keep the box of Kleenex nearby, just in case. (I tell the kids that if you’re going to be creative you have to learn to deal with the haters. That is true, of course, but it doesn’t mean that there won’t be any crying.)
I had too many library books, so I returned a few to the library unread. They were all books that I might like to revisit someday. They were…
Under the Harrow by Mark Dunn: Dunn wrote Ella Minnow Pea, which I enjoyed. I think I would also enjoy this story about the society formed when orphans are abandoned in a sheltered village with only books–encyclopedias, an atlas, the King James Bible, and the works of Charles Dickens–to guide them. But, the tone didn’t match my mood and, at a hefty 550 pages, it was just too much for me right now.
Dark Quartet by Lynne Reid Banks. I’ve enjoyed other works by LRB, and the subject (the Bronte family) was intriguing. But, before tackling this book, I think I’d like to reacquaint myself with the Brontes’ work. I read Jane Eyre such a long time ago that it’s not even listed on my blog, and Wuthering Heights was even longer ago, back in high school.
Louise Gluck: Poems 1962-2012: I read a few random poems from this tome, and I liked them. But, as I’ve mentioned before, large books of poetry are intimidating. This is the kind of book that’s good to own if you’re familiar with a poet and want to have the complete collection. If you’re trying to get to know them, though, this kind of collection is simply too much of a good thing. I should get something smaller to start with.
Currently I am reading Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want by Nicholas Epley and The Dark Shore by A.A. Attanasio. The Epley book is an easy read that is, essentially, about how little we are able to see past the bridges of our own noses. The Attanasio book is an interesting challenge. Attanasio is a sci-fi author who never met an adjective he didn’t like. He packed them into The Dark Shore so densely and in such odd ways that when I try to read normally the story is nearly incomprehensible. But if I just let it wash over me with the assumption that I will understand it in the end, it conjures up rich mental images. So I’m not sure yet if it’s a great book or a horrible one. It might be both.
