Trees Coming & Going

I heard a chainsaw this morning and saw a tree trimmer up in a bucket trimming one of the big trees next to the office building behind me.  Then I saw that the apple tree directly behind the house was quivering and branches were falling.  *sigh*  When I got home from a little yarn jaunt to Two Rivers with a couple friends both apple trees were gone.  Gone.  Where are the birds going to sit when they line up to wait their turns at the feeders?  When I put them back up, that is.

On my way home from the Park & Ride where I met my friends, I saw a tree farm tree lot (not a store) so I went around the block and asked for an ugly, cheap tree.  He had one huge, ugly tree that he wanted $35 for.  I offered $25 and we met in the middle.  He lashed it to the top of my car and warned me not to try to get it into the backyard by myself.  Well.  We all know how stubborn I can be so when I got home I unlashed it, and rolled it off onto the ground.  It's big.  And heavy.  I tried to drag it but didn't get far so I got a tarp, rolled the tree onto the tarp and that I could slide, so I got it around back but it was too heavy for me to stand it up easily.  I'll try again tomorrow before seeing if I can find some muscle man (or another muscle woman) and get it upright and tied to a post so it doesn't blow over.


I didn't intend to buy much at Intertwined, the yarn shop in Two Rivers, but she found me a mostly white with black flecks yarn to try knitting that Christmas gift with, then I saw that one of my favorite sock yarns comes in smaller, less expensive balls (so I got two), there was some interesting cotton yarn on the clearance table, a set of size US 3 Double Point Needles, and 5 yds. of black wool (I think) gabardine for $20.  I couldn't leave the fabric behind; it's too beautiful and will make a nice, dressier jumper dress.

I told DD that I'd find some snow pants and boots at Goodwill for her little guy so that when they're here for Christmas we can play out in the snow.  I found the snow pants last week ($6) and the boots this week ($7) but right next to the boots was this pair of red Converse-looking low tops for half-price($3).  I had to buy them.  Come on, how cute are they?  Totally.

30 November--Barbara Malcolm, Spies Don't Retire. 

Selling to their children had saved them from having to totally empty the house too.  The house they bought in Bonaire was fully furnished so they only had to ship the few personal things they would need to make the blank slate of the house a home.  They offered their furnishings to the boys and their wives and were gratified when most of it went to them.  A one-day jumble sale on the lawn took care of most of the rest and the sad remains Sonia packed up to give to the Salvation Army who did such a wonderful job in their town; they even sent a truck and two burly men to fetch it at no charge.

The move to Bonaire was a seamless as they could make it.  Sonia shed a few tears when they bid their family and friends goodbye, but everyone swore that they would keep in close touch via email; and they were off on the next adventure of their lives, alone together again after twenty-nine years of career for him and child-rearing for Sonia.  It had been four idyllic months since they had unlocked their house for the first time as residents.  George had made friends among the expatriate men, friends he could be free with, men who had no ulterior motives, no desire to pry crown secrets from his lips for the possibility of being pumped for intelligence he could pass on from theirs.  It took a while for him to get used to the lack of devious undercurrent that retirement gave him but he had come to appreciate the lack of burden weighting down his shoulders throughout his working life that he became aware of only after it was removed.

Now this envelope had come and from the hand of an old friend.  He had often wondered how much Max really knew about what he did.  Max himself held a high security clearance and had ended his naval career as commander of the biggest and newest of Her Majesty’s fleet of subs.  Surely that knowledge had been the author of the sorrowful look on Max’s face when he had handed over the envelope and the instinct that led him to wait to deliver it until they were alone.

We're supposed to get sleet and snow tonight, maybe 4-8" of snow before the store has passed.  I sincerely hope that the weather people are wrong and the snow misses us.  Also I hope it misses the whole middle of the state because people that I love have to drive home from Thanksgiving and I worry.  Right now it's raining and blowing.  *sigh*
--Barbara