I guess it‘s fitting that things are coming together in a tidy package since it is the time of year for tidy packages. This will be the column that goes to press on the day before Christmas, so I’ll use this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. There, that was quick and easy and saved me big money on postage. Now when Marianne asks if I’ve taken care of my Christmas card obligations, I can honestly say, “Yes, dear, for the most part.”

It seems that while almost all of the cards we get are addressed to both of us, they are really meant for Marianne. However, I did get one that was meant for me from a ‘secret writer’ with a return address of 711 4th Street here in Scotland. I figured I could track down the sender with no trouble. I mean, who sends a secret message with their return address on the envelope for all the world to see? It turns out that 711 4th Street is the address of the school, and the card was from one of the students. I guess sending out cards must be part of a class project that is meant to cheer up old Service Veterans this time of year. If that is the case, I must report that it worked. In fact, it worked so well that I am already looking forward to Valentine’s Day.

This is the week that I go on a road trip with Turk Peterka to the American Legion meeting in Wagner. We usually take advantage of their hospitality a couple of times a year, and it is always well worth the short drive from Scotland to Wagner on the third Thursday of the month. Turk said he would do the driving and I readily agreed. I don’t like to drive at night. Turk is a couple of years older than I am, but gets around way better than me, and I think I know why. I’m sure I would be in much better condition if, like Turk, I had to get up and take a little dog out for a walk every day. Don’t get me wrong, I like dogs, but I like cats a little more. I guess it’s because they are what we call ‘easy keepers’. Nobody walks a cat that I know of.

Marianne asked me if I knew what a mustache cup was, and if I had ever seen one. The answer to both questions was ‘no’. It seems that one of the ladies that Marianne plays bridge with has one (a mustache cup, not a mustache) and she is displaying it to the boys and girls at the Youth Center along with some other old or antique items. Apparently this cup has a bar through the middle that is designed to keep your facial hair out of the coffee or tea or whatever liquid you are drinking. I’m sure it hearkens back to the days when a mustache was called a ‘cookie duster’.

We get our TV programs courtesy of the Direct TV company. We have more time for TV in the winter, but we still get way too many programs. I called them up and asked to downgrade our packages for something a little cheaper. They did right over the phone, and then, as part of the service, they gave me all of the movie channels free for 90 days. I never knew there were so many movies in all of the world. Think about it. Those movie packages show movies 24/7 and cover about 50 channels. I had a friend who said, “Well, they can’t all be daisies,” referring to something else, but it also applies to all of those movies. I happened to catch the showing of the Alan Ladd film, ‘Shane’, one of the greatest westerns of all time, but I also saw a terribly bad film called ‘The Johnson County Cattle Wars’. As the man said, ‘They can’t all be daisies’.

It seems like we went forever without the temp reaching 32 degrees. Now we’ve seen readings in the forties along with quite a bit of sunshine. The snow is receding and the harvest is slowly getting done. We usually get a cold blast right around New Years Day, and I think that just might be true this year. We hope to have some pretty nice weather till then.