Life of Wry

That is all.

Our tree.

Peter (tree hugger, pictured) is keeping it from falling, while Jim (tree wrangler, unpictured) is on his back on the floor awkwardly guiding the trunk into the stand and adjusting the fittings.

Pro tip: Net your tree.  Makes it a lot easier to handle when hauling it from lot to car to porch to living room to stand. So tidy.

Plus it’s fun, once it’s in and set, to clip the netting and have the tree unfurl. (The first thing that came to mind when we did this was my full-figured grandmother and her girdle and, well, it was something. Those 60s.)

So, here is our tree, unbound.  It’s half decorated because I ran out of steam.  (Jim, on the other hand, who did most of what you see here, did not run out of steam at all. He was a champ. Thanks Jim.) But who knows… in an act of seasonal disobedience, I may just leave it as it is.  (I mean really, there are a lot of ornaments to unpack!  And I think it looks fine. As is.)

(Seasonal disobedience.  I’m liking that.)

Christmas tree cutting down day. Peter did most of the work (well…).

Our search for a good smelling tree may finally be over.  After too many years of subtle-at-best, mild-smelling Douglas Firs, it looks like a Monterey Pine may be the way to go.  We’ll see when we bring it in tomorrow. It’s lying on the back porch right now and smells FANTASTIC.  

So, we went to Silveyville Tree Farm for the very first time, a whole 15 minutes away, having heard about it for years.  Cutting trees at a farm feels a little mass-production-esque…not quite as romantic as setting off into the mountains with an axe.  On the other hand, it’s nice, I suppose, to let the forest be.  Farms seem a nice way to go all around.

This one’s quite an operation: sleigh rides (sorta), some kind of weird tractor train ride, a fire to sit around, hot cider, free popcorn, and all kinds of stuff designed for kids that we steered clear of.

But the cutting, hauling, shaking (yeah.. shaking, that was new to me) and netting of the tree–the whole tree process–was well-oiled.  They do move a lot of trees.  They grow a lot of tree varieties and they offer lots of options for what you do with your tree. And there are a lot of people.  I thought it was kind of early to get a tree, but about a million others thought this was a good day, too.  The Silveyville people handled that well. Like pros.

For a bunch of years we’d gone to another much smaller farm just up the road, can’t remember the name, over by the Stevenson’s Creek bridge.  A bit more rag tag.  And then for the last three years, maybe, we’d gone to the nursery at Davis Lumber.  Easy and fast.

This was a lot more of an outing but I think Peter liked running through the farm picking, and especially cutting, the tree.  No problems here with child labor.  (Newt Gingrich would be proud.)

Anyway, much more Christmas stuff to come.  Tons that I’m not happy about (though I’m working at losing the grinchy-ness).  But I can definitely live with a big giant tree in my living room for a few weeks making the house smell like we’re deep in a Sierra forest.

That part is pure heaven.

Tired of fall pictures yet? Me neither.  It’s been a nice season.

Though, I have to admit, this was taken two weeks ago.  The winds of the past week have blown just about every leaf off of every tree and soon I’ll start posting more wintry pictures.  But it’s not feeling wintry just yet.  Some days lately have even gotten into the high 60s. Definitely loving these gorgeous, thermometer-friendly, pre-winter days.

You know how when there are a lot of leaves that have fallen onto the sidewalk and they remain there though a couple of rains, getting stuck to the sidewalk in the paste made by dirt and water, but then a huge wind comes along and dries them out and finally blows them away, leaving a stencil-like image of leaf outlines?

Funny day to be twenty feet above the ground, one foot stabilizing your tippy, tall ladder while washing windows — 50 mph winds, swirls and eddies of leaves and dust. Don’t think I’d want my windows open, but that’s me. Can’t beat this color. though.

And it’s still blowing madly out there, as of midnight.

I hope everyone lives in a town with a Central Park.  Ours is particularly lovely these days.

This picture was actually taken yesterday. Battering winds today knocked the remaining leaves off most of our trees. (Bonus: Not only did the wind strip the trees in our yard, the winds then swept all the leaves away, leaving a super clean driveway and patio.)

It’s still violent out there as I write this.. at midnight. Anxious to see what things look like when the sun comes up.

*just realized fall down is redundant.

Pretty goofy, huh? (Not the pink plaid flannel PJs, though those are pretty goofy, too.)

Please pardon the unlady-like pose.

Much ado about achilles tendons, I must say.  For the record, I LOVE these things. I’m kind of weird that way; I love the differentness of walking around on these sloped-bottom, soft-as-marshmallows-on-the-inside boots. It’s quite fun tromping around the house. No more difficult than climbing stairs in ski boots. It’s challenging to walk straight, to get up and down in a chair, to cross my legs daintily while watching Mad Men.  Noisy, too. But I love wearing them.

Going to try sleeping in them tonight.  That should go well.

Why is this guy in so much pain?

Because he’s having trouble with these:

All part of a generalized condition called tendonitis:

Which is what I’ve been dealing with for the last couple of years.  And actually, the duration classifies it as something more on the order of  tendinopathy, which I’ve written about before, so I won’t go into it.  Except to say I’m staring a new thing (as soon as my appliances arrive).

Excited, because this tendon injury stuff is no picnic (note expression on Mr. Wincy Guy’s face).

What, you’ve already seen this picture?  I know. It’s just that this is also my day today.  Exactly like yesterday.  Same spot, same chair, same pillow, same computer, same fire, same stuff on the table to my right (Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, Games magazine, Blackberry, holiday list, pencil, cuppa tea).

It’s still grey and cold outside.  And nothing’s pressing.

I get up from time to time to 1) make more tea, 2) eat a piece of See’s candy, 3) scoop a spoonful of dressing, 4) have a parmesan cracker with olive tapenade, 5) repeat.

Did manage a walk this morning and a spontaneous breakfast with friends.  So there’s that.

Ok. Back to it.