Last week I was talking about getting the Christmas decorations finished, our holiday celebrations, and going “back” to 1775 for a candlelight Christmas event at a restoration village. When we went back this past Thursday we found out that there were 1500 people through the village last Saturday night and 2200 people last Sunday night - and Sunday night they turned people away for lack of parking. Makes one feel popular - even if the people are coming for the overall event - not us specifically. As a result for the second weekend they made arrangements for off site parking and school buses to go back and forth.
Thursday and Saturday this week there were so many people waiting to come into the restoration that they let them come in early - event is suppose to start at 5 pm and they have an opening parade at 5:15, so we don’t get many people before then. Both nights people were coming in at 4:30 pm (and they can not just wander in, they have to be let in). Unfortunately since no one had informed us of this -or even the possibility of this - we were not ready for the public yet when they started to walk in. Talk about looking disorganized! We made our apologies and asked people to come back later. I ended up starting to give the tour at the door as people wandered in as the fellows normally there were not in place yet, and when they were ready, I followed the crowd in to where I needed to be. On Saturday night I needed a last minute trip to what was called in 1775 “the necessary”, even though I had stopped in the ladies room in the visitor’s center before we walked out to the house. I went to the one out in the restoration and noticed other buildings having the same problem - one small house was letting people in, other larger ones (take longer to get setup for the evening) had a person out on the porch - door to the building closed - talking to the people who were waiting. I made note of same and told husband about it in case we have the same problem in the future. We had a huge crowd already in our house and I again had to follow the crowd into the kitchen - while removing my modern winter jacket and trying to scrunch it down small enough that it would not be noticed.. Husband had asked our unit commander to man (“woman”?) the kitchen until I was there and he was doing a good job when I arrived - but was glad to go back to music and singing and talking about “guy” things. We don’t have counts yet for those nights, but I am guessing they were crowded than the week before. They, again, canceled the event for Friday night as, again, there was a huge rain storm.
With the event behind us we realized that we had no plans for New Year’s. Husband decided that we (I) would attempt to make chicken pie from partial things - premade pie shells, chicken purchased cooked and cut in small piece, canned cream of chicken soup for the sauce for New Year’s Eve dinner. Worked relatively well and did not get either of us sick.
New Year’s Day I finally had a chance to work on setting up my teddy village for winter. It is mostly done at this point - I need to fix some mini-Christmas lights whose strand is out and I need to get some button batteries for some of the lights in the village. We went out in the evening for dinner at the Asian buffet we go to on weekends.
Not a big exciting holiday, but as I have posted many times - every day is the start of a new year.
Today was my embroidery chapter meeting. Last night husband - whose arm and shoulder were finally doing well - fell coming down the stairs to wash his hair in the kitchen sink. (Due to a bad cold he did not want to take a shower as the house is drafty.) He scrapped some skin off one leg - a problem as he is Diabetic and also he cannot use normal band aid type bandages on his legs - but I bandaged it up for him. His knee and arm hurts and he keeps worrying that he broke something - they look okay to me - not bruised, not swollen, no bone looks or feels out of place.) So after the meeting I came home and did not have a day out alone - in exchange, as he asked me to do this - he had to join me in my normal errands for this day each month as I don’t want to let the empty soda bottles pile up.
While I was waiting for him to get ready to go out I made some phone calls - I had a bill from medical lab as they must not have had my new medical insurance - I called and the hold wait ran too long. I filled in the info on the form and will mail it to them tomorrow. I then called the company from who I had ordered new checks for our reenactment unit - they spelled the name of the organization wrong and they will send out us new checks - glad I ordered them long before we need the new checks. (Once again, I had to do something twice - what is going on with everyone right now?) I also called our heating oil company. This company gets odder and odder. Last year or the year before our company joined another company and the other company is in charge (I may have mentioned chasing them down to try to get them to do the pre-season cleaning of the furnace, which they did not do last year either - and they cannot come until the end of February when the season is well along and heading for the end in a month or so.) Our original company would leave a receipt when they delivered oil and then send us an invoice. This second company would leave an invoice for us to pay as the receipt. Well, just before Christmas a large oil company in this area delivered oil to us - not either of the ones that we have dealt with. They left an “invoice” that did not say how much we owed them and said that a final invoice would be coming. So I called them today to find out when the invoice would be here. Total confusion - “Didn’t they leave an invoice?” I explained and pointed out that I don’t know who the company who delivered is (I was talking to the second company that we have had). “Well, I guess than they should have mailed an invoice to you.” I held my tongue and did not get sarcastic and reply “You think so?” They are sending me an invoice. If I had any question about changing companies next year - this resolved it.
Hopefully we will have a couple of quiet days to catch up. Husband is again thinking of a trip on Friday to Lancaster, PA - but I know how well his plans for same in the recent past have worked out (not at all). Though if we go with the RV he can buy some food items not available here and maybe he will enjoy dinner a bit more than he does.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
The start of a new year is good time to take stock of where one is and what one wants to do. I make no resolutions as they are never kept (except my last one to never make a resolution again). If you want to change things think about what you want to change and how to do so. It is better to think in this manner, I find, than to make grand resolutions and then find that they cannot or are not kept one feels bad. If it was just one or two specific things - one might actually get them done and if not, it is just a hope to get something done and one does not feel as much as a failure than not keeping a “resolution”. Resolutions are large things - work on small things and the large things will fall into place on their own.
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