The word perihelion stems from the Greek words “peri” (meaning “near”) and “helios” (meaning “the Greek god of the sun”).
http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2013/01/happy-perihelion-and-why-winter-is-shorter-than-summer/
Saturday, Dec 29 Stayed home today and it snowed much of the day. John did his normal stuff, but added taking some bird seed for the quail out to the back of our property and putting on the side of the hill where the deer are not likely to find it, but we can see it from our back patio window. They usually bed down under the trees or walk by a path on their way around above the creek. He stomped and packed down their path, so the deer might walk by and not find the bird seed. I think I mentioned, but maybe not, that the seed he broadcast up the driveway yesterday was eaten by the deer. He is still searching for our old broken down birdhouse-shaped feeder, which must be behind the fence covered with snow. Good dinner tonight–Ham and the last of the baby Swiss cheese in an omelet with fried potatoes on the side. Been sharing my time between newsletter and music chores.
Sunday, Dec 30 Slow day, no trips away, nice! A little snow, but just cold and getting colder. The quail never found the seeds John put out yesterday. John fixed up all the cars with electrical assists (that have it). The Ford PU got a new battery tender put on to counter the slow drain. The ’09 Subaru got plugged into an engine warmer. My ’04 Subaru doesn’t have one, so John started it, drove it up the driveway, and back into the 3-cornered shed. Other than that it was normal chores outside and inside, and I tried to work on the newsletter, but all my time went to emails and to working up music for the group for tomorrow night. I finalized the number of people coming, and the menu sent out. We will have 15 and this list of entries (I’m hungry just reading it): calico beans & cinnamon rolls, ham, exotic bean casserole & applesauce, spaghetti, Apple Crisp and Wine, a dish of Mixed Nuts and a Chicken Salad, a green salad and deviled eggs, Acorn Squash / Feta casserole & sugar-free Carrot Cake. The temperature went to 19 and is going further (tomorrow night).
Monday, Dec 31 New Year’s Eve. Today was rather bland; just eating a little, cleaning off a few things, lots of emails, a couple phone calls, working with music to give out to the group tonight, and organizing music for later this week on Thursday. We decided to take only one car and turn up the radios loud in each end of the house hopefully to keep the dogs from hearing fireworks we knew would start after 9:00 p.m. We didn’t get home till 10:00 and all seemed well. Our ham was a huge hit, and everyone brought what they said, plus a few other things. Lots of good food and fellowship. 19 people were there for dinner, and 2 more came for the jam session. It was a great evening. We brought only a small amount of ham home, and Rascal was pleased to have some. It didn’t get as cold as they were predicting. We will see what happens by 5:00 am. It stayed up, never going below 24°. That’s very nice. The problem was our neighbors shooting off fireworks, loud ones, after 11:30, and on for more than an hour. One of our dogs was particularly upset and we finally had to close her in a crate to calm her down. So, bedtime was very late, and we were not happy.
Tuesday, Jan 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR! Nancy slept in longer than John, but we got to see a lot of deer eating the bird seed on the side hill that the quail never found. John checked out the weather GOES image and found interesting fog in the valleys of WA. We are out of bread for toast, and need to finally make time to make some today. John did it all by himself, except for digging out dirty (dusty) pans I helped washed. We have misplaced our bread pans, not having used them in over 10 years. He mixed up and made 4 loaves of bread, nearly 6 pounds. We have had one piece each while still warm with butter. I have worked on and off all day on the annual 2012 greetings and am making good progress. I only have 3 more links to finish, and they have been started. I expect it will get out on the web before Valentine’s Day! Tomorrow I have two events in town, so I hope I sleep well tonight. Foggy here, no rain or snow though.
Wednesday, Jan 2 This morning I awoke to the 5 wild Merriam turkeys eating on the far hill where John put the seeds for the quail. Then we had some of his bread. I called some people about our exercise class today, and then took off for the Food Bank music and class after. The pasta company restaurant that usually provides the pasta dish for the noon meal every Wednesday at the soup kitchen was still on vacation, so the volunteer staff prepared baked/fried chicken, veggies, garlic bread, salad, and opened a large cake for dessert. Went on to the last exercise class until our teacher returns Jan 23 from Germany. I have been leading the class in her absence, but it turns out because I am not a “certified” SAIL instructor (all-day class costing $175), I cannot do it because of a liability issue. If someone fell and got hurt or died, I (and the City) could be sued. I have no desire to become a certified instructor. I have just been filling in because I could and everyone appreciated my efforts. John made Brownies with chocolate chips and walnuts while I was away. We froze most of the brownies after dinner. I also brought him 5 blueberry donuts from the Sr. Center. They are now frozen too.
As I left this morning the five turkeys came and stayed most of the day eating the hill-side seeds. In today’s mail we got a birthday dinner free for him to use in Jan. at the Palace Cafe. He has a choice of Angus fried steak, chicken Fettuccine (after 4), or up to $10 off any other meal. Not bad. Tonight, John gave me a choice of 3 things for dinner, and I picked a cheese/ham/onion omelet with a piece of his homemade bread toast. I was not in the mood for shrimp or pizza.
Our friend (the chair of Geog for 12 years of my sojourn here) and from whom we buy hay, called to wish John a happy birthday (saw it in the local paper) and to invite us to dinner over a bottle of Merlot. Unfortunately, we already had plans to go to another birthday party. We took a raincheck. His birthday is coming in a couple weeks, so perhaps we can celebrate both then. (Turns out that will happen Jan 18th)
Thursday, Jan 3 Awoke to 4 of the wild turkeys eating black sunflower seeds on the back hill. Later, the 5th one (big guy) joined them. We still cannot tell if there is just one guy with his harem, or if there are two toms. They stayed much of the day. I left after 1:15 to be at a 2:00 Royal Vista session. Eight of us made it there, and while a small audience, they were appreciative. We all were served cookies at the end of music. After visiting a few of the folks, I drove by CWU to pick up my mail at Geography (including some pocket calendars from the CWU Credit Union) and to visit with the secretary (since 1997). Dinner tonight was tasty grilled cheese and ham sandwiches on English muffin bread.
Friday, Jan 4 John’s birthday is today. I got him a Red Velvet cake but he decided to freeze it for another day with more people. We are invited to a friend’s 90th, for a party at Rodeo City BBQ. Turkeys were back in the driveway this morning grabbing seeds meant for the quail. John has not yet put out any more seeds on the side hill from yesterday. I saw only one there early morning. We went to town in the car with the block heater so other than having to unplug it and turn it around, it was warm and cozy. It needed gasoline and we wanted to stop at a new German Baptist bakery in town — Daily Bread and Mercantile. It’s a neat little place with all sorts of pastry making supplies and also cheeses from Ohio and meats. We bought a blueberry Kolache, some lemon/poppy bread, and a raspberry cream cheese scone to take along tomorrow to our friends for the Raclette. We may stop and pick up a birthday cake our neighbor baked for John today. Tonight we were gone when she called. We both had a ton to eat tonight so will not need any breakfast. They served tri tip (sirloin steak) slices with BBQ sauce, corn muffin, with a choice of two of the following: baked potato, cottage cheese, beans, and sweet potato fries. We split our portions of the last four. Came home to several birthday wish phone calls and received several cards, yesterday and today. Tonight at the restaurant they put single candles in front of John and the honored guest, Paul, and the rest of us sang happy birthday to the two of them. Both have surpassed the life expectancy given for their birth years according to this table:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005148.html
John says this is both good news and bad news. It is like having a full glass but with more wine in the bottle. Oh, wait. Hmmm!
Saturday, Jan 5 We are leaving to be at White Heron by 11:00 a.m. This will be a Raclette for the families of the volunteer vine pruners last spring.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette#Dish
Hope week #1 of 2013 was great.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan