A Very Happy Pyromaniac....

   Okay you know how I have told everyone how I have a hard time typing because of the cold in the office.  Guess what ... we now have heat in the house.

   This pass Thursday 3 very big and very nice guys came over and in less than 2 hours we had this....

Okay we already had the dog.

   A brand new (to us) wood stove.  We could have picked it up and installed it ourselves, but I think it would have taken a lot longer than 2 hours.  I also don't think the chimney hole in the roof would look as good as this...

Bud cut that by hand isn't he good.

   Now there is a really, really, happy pyromaniac in the house ...

Okay the flash washed me out. I swear I'm not a ghost.  I think...

  I had to take this last picture for history...

Our first of many fires.

  Our first night with the wood stove burning the temperature outside was 24 degrees Fahrenheit, but the temperature in the bedroom didn't get below 50 degrees.

  That was great for us.  I am sure the house will heat up a lot more when we finally get the walls, and ceiling in. 

   I would like to thank Clayton, Bud and Chris of American Chimney Cleaning in Houston Texas for the outstanding job they did and for helping us out with the best price.  If any of you need removal, installation or just cleaning and repair for a fireplace or stove, give them a call.  I'm not sure how far out of Houston they go so you guys outside of Texas and the United States might be out of luck.

  Oh and remember this tree (check out what happened here)...

   It had just better watch out, we have a chainsaw and a wood stove and know how to use them.





Oh wow.  I can now shop for a whole
new set of things for the house....

Reconnect this year ...

  This time of year I always seem to get melancholy.  Maybe it is because the hustle and bustle of the Holidays are over.  Maybe it is because a new year has started and we tend to stop and take stock of what we got out of the previous year and what we want out of the new year.   What ever the reason, I think a lot more about friends and family that are no longer around and wish I could talk to them.

    As we get older, we tend to realize how important our friends and family are to us.  Unfortunately a lot of the time we remember them, when it is too late.

   This year why not pull out your old address book and take the time to call an old friend to talk, or visit that Aunt or Cousin you haven't seen in a while.  If you reconnect with one person every month, that's 12 people ... once a week ... that's 52.  Why not spend a few minutes and connect with your pass .

   I am notorious about thinking of people and never getting around to contacting them.  My ESP just doesn't seem to work, or if it does it only works one way and I don't get a reply.

   If you are one of my many friends or family, I haven't forgotten about you, I just seem to have forgotten how to pick up the phone and dial. 


This song reminds me that you never know when it will be too late...


(Hankie alert ... this is a tear jerker, get out the tissue now...)   

Happy New Year ...

   I would like to take a moment out and wish everyone a Happy New Year.

My New Years wishes for you...

May all your muses not run out of inspiration.
May you always know the best words to say.
May your computer never crash.
May spell check correct every word and your punctuation.
May your cameras take the pictures as you see them in your mind.
May always be ahead of schedule.
May you have food and shelter through out the year.
May all those you hold near and dear remain that way.
May all conflicts, be deflected before they start.

In other words...

May your new year bring you all the success and love you can imagine and more...

Now let the Time Square ball drop and the fireworks begin...

Image via Wikipedia

Any one seen Dick Clark???

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Image via Wikipedia

And may this not be you the morning after...

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I believe...

   Today is Christmas Eve here in Texas, and I would like to take the time to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.  As a gift to you I would like to present you with a reprint of the September 21, 1897 editorial of Francis Pharcellus Church of the New York Sun.  It is the response to a letter written by an 8 year old girl named Virginia.  I am sure you have all heard the editorial or at least part of it, but on this day it seems appropriate to print the whole editorial in honor of the season.  Like Mr. Church I still believe, do you?

   I now would like to present you with...

"Yes, Virginia There is a Santa Clause."

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.

Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.

Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'

Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O'HANLON.

115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Francis Pharcellus Church of the New York Sun

Image via Wikipedia

Francis P. Church

  

         Merry Christmas to everyone everywhere. 

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You...

   I have been late getting this post up.  I am so sorry but my camera batteries died and I couldn't get the pictures out of the camera.  I tried pleading, begging, bribing, and threats.  Nothing happened.  It just sat there with its lens closed and ignored me.  And I thought a cat was the best at ignoring you.
   Finally I got the camera to hold a charge long enough to get the pictures.   So I can now post a big THANK YOU to Canadian Blogger Girl.

   Now without further ado I present all the way from Canada ...

  I got it.  I got the present I won from Canadian Blogger Girl in her first ever giveaway.  Look, Look here it is...

Ain't it purtty!!!

   I wanted to rip right into it at the post office, but I left the camera at home and I had to show you the pretty package.
  
   Then I ripped it open and look what I found...

No NO Thank YOU...

   She is so sweet she even sent me a handwritten note.  The girl has good penmanship as well as being a good blogger.

   So I started carefully unwrapping ... for once I followed directions.  She must have written using a Mommy tone.

Hey I got the Key to Canada.  Cool.

  Wait there is more ....  It is a never ending box of goodies....

    Okay I checked all the tissue over once, twice, three times, and I think I found everything.  Wait let me look again to be sure....

 

                                 WOW!!! What a haul.


    Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.

   I am speechless (almost...and Jack would like to thank you for that).

   Now while you all go check out the wonderful, magnificent Canadian Blogger Girl on her home blog here, I am going to pour myself a cup of coffee, surround myself with my loot and sign "Oh, Canada"  at the top of my lungs.

   What are you still doing here?  Believe me you really don't want to be here when I sing.

   What still here, well don't say I didn't warn you....

   " OH CANADA... OUR HOME AND NATIVE LAND..."

  Hey if your going to stay around you might as well join in...