SPELLING BEE

BY BEA WESTERBERG

New numbers to write – 2022

I would like to think that I started the year 2022 off in the right way by having a breakfast- lunch combination meal with a wonderful lemon dessert first and then followed by the prime rib and baby roasted potatoes next. (Don’t worry, I ended the meal with a nice slice of Texas fruit cake). The ingredients of the meal were provided by Margaret and June from an outstanding New Years Eve get together that included appetizers, prime rib dinner with all the fixings, wine, great conversation all along and ended with a champagne toast a bit before the real midnight in our time. It was midnight someplace in the world so I think it counted.

I am guessing that Mother Nature just wanted to show her 2022 power and give us a 10 below start to the new year. Our gentle bones had not had to deal with that in this current winter season so it was a wake up call. I would like to say “okay Mother Nature, we know you can do this but let’s go back to single pair of mitten time rather than the two pair mitten season”. I manage to lose or maybe the word “misplace” would sound better, a lot of mittens and gloves in cold weather time. They may be with all the other things I can’t find in the “safe places” around my house.

A number of friends have answered the call to warmer weather and headed south. I don’t know if I ever could decide what I would want to pack to take along to keep me busy. Maybe one can find enough things to do and enjoy with things available at the warmer weather places. Then I tell myself that the Siberian husky, Sitka Thor Bear in the Mist, would not like the warm weather especially since he has taken months to work up the fur coat that he presently has. As much as he enjoys life at the Rio Gran Boarding place, I would not want to be away from him for that long of a time period. Pumpkin the cat might be easier to relocate for a month or two but he would have to find all new places to have naps.

Oh, wait a minute. Maybe going south would have been a good idea when me and a few of my neighbors had a phone and internet outage due to a sanding truck taking down the pole at the end of my driveway on a Monday morning and not getting it restored for most of us by Thursday evening, the 30th. There was a very large amount of dialog between our area people and the phone company. At one time they even insisted that they had fixed it and the ticket was closed. The “ticket” was often mentioned in the discussions and January 3rd was supposed to be the earliest they could possibly come out and put in a new pole and get all the wires back up and connected. I decided that maybe it was my turn to put in my 2 cents worth and called the company Thursday morning. After many minutes of horrible hold music (that I hope never to hear again) and messages assuring me that they were the best business on earth, they said that January 3 was the best they could do. In a few different ways I expressed that was not acceptable on any level. I did not yell at them but at times I was sure they were going to hang up on me. After more horrible music minutes and holds they said they would have it fixed by 5 pm that day. I was sure I was going to have to ask what color was their world because although a new pole arrived, nothing was happening by 1:30 p.m.

I was thinking I would have to do a repeat of the morning call but things started to happen and the busy beaver subcontractors really went to work. Once the pole and wires were up the person to reconnect everything had to come and he had most of the work done by 5 p.m. My neighbor said his computers were in for repair so he did not need the internet until Monday so the cold repair person got to go home without putting in a long night. That is my end of 2021 story – Welcome 2022, please be better!