Journal of a Sabbatical

December 24, 1999

tree trimming time

Today's Reading: Winter from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau edited by H.G.O. Blake

It's time for the driving marathon. Nancy is up in New Hampshire with her parents at her sister's place at a family gathering that's partly for the holidays and partly 'cause her brother-in-law had a stroke a couple of weeks ago and is home recuperating. So I'm trying to fit in wrapping the presents, doing more laundry (don't ask), folding, stuffing and mailing newsletters, and fetching Nancy from New Hampshire for the drive down to Newton for tree trimming at La Madre's house. Then I have to take Nancy home to feed Emily and give her her thyroid medicine, as Nancy's been in N.H. since yesterday. So we'll spend the night at her place and come back to La Madre's in the morning. First order of business is to fill the gas tank I guess.

The main topic of conversation is the three feet of snow in Bosnia. BiB has e-mailed us photos taken by his colleagues. Yup. That's a lot of snow and it's still snowing. When the news media talk about the harsh Balkan winters I don't think I ever really quite grok it. Way worse than the worst winters here. It's still snowing in Bosnia but there's no snow in Kosovo. No weather here to speak of, so it's good we have Balkan weather to talk about. BiB forwards the Bosnian weather reports all winter - I guess to give us something to talk about.

La Madre says BiB is in Kosovo and may not be able to get to Bosnia tomorrow because of the snow. Tim says BiB is in Bosnia per e-mail. So exactly which Balkan country is he really in? And why is BiB e-mailing Tim & Thomas and not me? Since when does Thomas have e-mail? Wasn't he just bitching about how Tim had brought a computer into the house?

Thomas has a web cam? I must have heard that wrong. But no, he has a video camera hooked up to the computer now. Apparently someone gave one to Tim. Now he's trying to figure out how to capture and e-mail the pictures. Will wonders never cease?

Where's the "Dutch lady" ornament? Thomas must have hidden it so he could be the one to put it up, but now he's forgotten where he hid it. Who took the tree down last year? Why are all the hooks missing from the ornaments? Thomas says he didn't take it down. I put new hooks on ornaments. What is wrong with that Julie Andrews Christmas tape? She's usually intelligible. This sounds like she's singing in Croatian inside a barrel with tape over her mouth. The next tape sounds like funeral music. OK, so does anybody here actually like the Mantovani tape? Next year I'm bringing the music.

Turns out the tree fell down last year and the ornaments all fell off. That's why nobody remembers taking it down. Doesn't totally explain the absence of hooks or the missing Dutch lady though.

I just realized as I write this that nobody told the story about breaking St. Joseph's head off while playing football in the living room. What has become of family tradition? Somebody always has to tell this story on Christmas Eve. So, for the record: once we played football in the living room; an errant pass hit the St. Joseph figurine from the nativity set that Ma's friend Father Navien gave her; the head broke clean off at the neck; we got in trouble for playing football indoors. The end.