Saturday, December 25, 2004
Late start to the day.
I slept restlessly. My final awakening was at 1100 this morning. I considered awakening Mom but needed coffee.
At noon Mom awoke of her own accord. I heard her and we went through our wake-up routine in silence except for my directions to her. Not that I was in a bad mood, just internalized, insular. She didn't react.
By 1400 we were done with breakfast and I was done with my usual morning chores. I decided to empty the compost bucket into the bin out back and turn the pile. As I walked through our back yard I noticed, in the middle of it, a spot about two feet in diameter that is spongy moist. I suppose it's a broken underground pipe. I'm not sure whether it's connected to our house. Considering the layout of the properties around here and the fact that the last quarter of our backyard is the beginning of forest land, I can't imagine from where a water pipe in our backyard would come and/or to where it would be going. I guess I'll call the City of Prescott on Monday and find out if it's ours or theirs or if the water is coming from some other source. It's just inside the edge of our backyard winter shade. It could be collected moisture from very slow melting snow, considering that it's been so cold lately.
We've lately been hosting a lot of deer in both the front and back of our yard so I collected lots of excellent deer dung for the compost bin.
Mom watched as much as she could stand of The Greatest Story Every Told. About an hour ago she announced, "I like the other one better."
"Can you tell me which one?" I was thinking maybe we have a copy of it.
She thought for a minute.
I tried to help her out. "Is it the one we got recently? The one that focuses on his death?" I was referring to The Passion of the Christ. If you're an aficionado of Jesus and Judeo-Christian Bible movies as my mother is, this one is at least as interesting as any of the rest.
"No, no. That's the dark one, isn't it? No, it's the one where Jesus dreams while he's on the cross."
"Oh, yeah. I like that one, too. The Last Temptation of Christ."
"Do we have it? After I take a nap, I'd like to watch it."
"No. But I'll see if anyone is showing it on TV and I'll put it on my list of videos to buy. I can't imagine how I missed picking that one up."
"Good. It's a good one."
She's napping now. No one is showing The Last Temptation of Christ today. I'm monitoring the wash and am going to read the collection of essays published in NYT today; one of them is about the breakup of families in China. I'm assuming it's different than the one I read a few days ago, since the essays are from sources other than NYT.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is on at 1800 our time, tonight. I've never seen it so I'm planning on watching it regardless of what else happens. I'm a hopeless Capra and "Capraesque" fanatic. I'm assuming Mom will enjoy it, too.
It doesn't look good for the tomato pie although I might change my mind later. If we don't have it today I'll probably make it tomorrow. We need to use the tomatoes. We've got some good left-overs. Lunch is going to be late so maybe we'll have a hearty lunch and cheesecake for dinner. The maple/raspberry sauce I'm planning for the cheesecake is easy and quick.
Nothing has been mentioned about today being Christmas. That's fine with me and it seems to be fine with my mother. If it wasn't, I'd hear about it.
Later.
At noon Mom awoke of her own accord. I heard her and we went through our wake-up routine in silence except for my directions to her. Not that I was in a bad mood, just internalized, insular. She didn't react.
By 1400 we were done with breakfast and I was done with my usual morning chores. I decided to empty the compost bucket into the bin out back and turn the pile. As I walked through our back yard I noticed, in the middle of it, a spot about two feet in diameter that is spongy moist. I suppose it's a broken underground pipe. I'm not sure whether it's connected to our house. Considering the layout of the properties around here and the fact that the last quarter of our backyard is the beginning of forest land, I can't imagine from where a water pipe in our backyard would come and/or to where it would be going. I guess I'll call the City of Prescott on Monday and find out if it's ours or theirs or if the water is coming from some other source. It's just inside the edge of our backyard winter shade. It could be collected moisture from very slow melting snow, considering that it's been so cold lately.
We've lately been hosting a lot of deer in both the front and back of our yard so I collected lots of excellent deer dung for the compost bin.
Mom watched as much as she could stand of The Greatest Story Every Told. About an hour ago she announced, "I like the other one better."
"Can you tell me which one?" I was thinking maybe we have a copy of it.
She thought for a minute.
I tried to help her out. "Is it the one we got recently? The one that focuses on his death?" I was referring to The Passion of the Christ. If you're an aficionado of Jesus and Judeo-Christian Bible movies as my mother is, this one is at least as interesting as any of the rest.
"No, no. That's the dark one, isn't it? No, it's the one where Jesus dreams while he's on the cross."
"Oh, yeah. I like that one, too. The Last Temptation of Christ."
"Do we have it? After I take a nap, I'd like to watch it."
"No. But I'll see if anyone is showing it on TV and I'll put it on my list of videos to buy. I can't imagine how I missed picking that one up."
"Good. It's a good one."
She's napping now. No one is showing The Last Temptation of Christ today. I'm monitoring the wash and am going to read the collection of essays published in NYT today; one of them is about the breakup of families in China. I'm assuming it's different than the one I read a few days ago, since the essays are from sources other than NYT.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is on at 1800 our time, tonight. I've never seen it so I'm planning on watching it regardless of what else happens. I'm a hopeless Capra and "Capraesque" fanatic. I'm assuming Mom will enjoy it, too.
It doesn't look good for the tomato pie although I might change my mind later. If we don't have it today I'll probably make it tomorrow. We need to use the tomatoes. We've got some good left-overs. Lunch is going to be late so maybe we'll have a hearty lunch and cheesecake for dinner. The maple/raspberry sauce I'm planning for the cheesecake is easy and quick.
Nothing has been mentioned about today being Christmas. That's fine with me and it seems to be fine with my mother. If it wasn't, I'd hear about it.
Later.
