Wednesday, December 11, 2013

MERRY HOLIDAYS AND IT’S A CHORE


Every year since I retired and TLW (The Little Woman) decided to go to work, I have been left with certain ‘chores’ so to speak. One of those chores is to write Christmas cards and holiday greetings for the season.

Every year I take out my personal phone book and start at ‘A’ and end at ‘Z’. This is a logical progression and I am proud that I was able to figure this all out!

I also need to rely on TLW’s phone book, which is a problem. No, actually it is two problems: she files names alphabetically by first name and she never finishes addresses, leaving me without zip codes. Couple this with her handwriting and you suddenly have a crisis. I have to bookmark all the addresses I can’t read and go to the local pharmacist to read them for me.

This year I went through the list of names and realized that we have lost a lot of people through the year and it feels funny not writing them cards for the season. They would elicit old memories and that would cause me to stop and think about them. Yes folks, when I write cards I get to think about the person or family and it kind of reviews my life for me.

Every year I vow that I would make a complete separate list on my computer, combining all my names with TLW’s names after translation and work from that. About half way through my writing of the cards, I notice something. Two pieces of regular 8.5” x 11” paper folded in half and stapled together! What I had vowed to do I did indeed do, but forgot I did it! There in Times Roman 12 point sat all my names and addresses, with zip codes ready for my use! I am what you call a schmuck! Yes, a schmuck for forgetting that I had the list that would have saved me hours!


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