A WINTER'S TALE

Remember Murphy's Law? "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

I wonder if Murphy's Law can be blamed for events that happen decades apart? Or even, {gasp} repealed?

Back in the day, when I had a birthday party every year (about 40 years ago), my great friend of now over 50 years welcomed us to her house--made quiche, poured the wine, and I think we even had a cake. Or maybe it was pie--whatever. We tried to schedule the event on the weekend before my birthday. Had an ice storm. Rescheduled it to the weekend after. Went okay that year. The following year, the ice storm being expected before the big day, we slated the party for the weekend after. Yup, you guessed it--ice storm.

We're not talking a tenth of an inch here--these were your wholesale, pull out all the stops kind of ice storms. (I do hope Jan enjoyed the quiche and wine when no guests showed up.)

So what does Murphy have to do with all this? Thank you for asking--I'll tell you.

This past weekend, on Saturday, we had a Zoom birthday party, courtesy of COVID. I had guests from my college days, family, and church folks. They couldn't do much about helping with the carrot cake (which was delicious, by the way), but they were available for visiting and sharing their lives with each other. (The gallery thing that Zoom does is fantastic!)

Was there an ice storm? No, there wasn't. Will there be one this weekend? Probably not.

So we have here the repeal of Murphy's crazy Law--if something can go right, it will--eventually. Maybe 30 or 40 years later, but it'll finally make it.

We discovered singing together wasn't a good idea--research showed that the kind of homegrown Zoom meeting we planned was likely to produce feedback from all parties and echoing and I don't know what-all. My daughter found a Happy Birthday song on the 'web that we played for everyone to hear--a chorus singing to the tune of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus." We ended with that!

Now THAT was a celebration!

-----

Thus I am now well and truly feted and can say with great relief, I've had a lovely birthday party. The cake was delicious (some of it's in the freezer--carrot cake is heavy, rich, and known to put on a pound per slice--I think that's what I heard). I have a bevy of greeting cards from various family and friends that I can read over and over; some of them even said nice things about me! And best of all, I have great memories. Not to mention a recording of the Zoomed party.

-----

The ice storm, so-called, finally came Monday night and on into Tuesday. If you can call a tenth of an inch of ice a storm. I stayed inside both days, went out again on my own yesterday, and though the air was cold, the sun shone and roads and walks were clear. Never thought it'd be fun to visit the Coumadin Clinic and then buy a few groceries.

Now that all the excitement has moved on to somebody else's house, I'm back to some of my neglected tasks:

--sorting a box or two or three of papers and books that managed to hide themselves in the garage for several months (some of them for years)

--finishing a sofa throw so I can curl up and watch videos in the cold winter months

--sewing lap quilts and some slightly larger quilts for other folks; once I get a stack ready, I'll contact a couple of people who said they know who might take them

--reading. Yes, I admit it--I've neglected my reading. The 50 Books in a Year project is going well, but I'm nearly bogged down in book 2 of Connie Willis's World War II time-travel epic; this one is 691 pages (previous volume was only 491 pages). But I'm determined to finish it. In the meantime, when I can't handle any more bombings and air raid shelters, I have a couple of fairly tame murder mysteries by Colin Dexter (who created Inspector Morse).

-----

And now that February is nearly upon us, it's the traditional time to think about gardens, and planting things, and getting the landscaping company out to do clean-up and see if we need new mulch. Thinking time. Dreaming time.

Birthdays in my family abound--two more in January, two in February (plus a friend), two more in March, then one each in April, couple in May, June, couple in July, one in August. Plus friends. Then we begin again in the fall. We do our best to keep the greeting card companies in business. (This is another type of economic stimulus.)

Winter may slow us down, keep us inside more times than not, but life sure doesn't grind to a halt. Hope you find plenty to do while you're waiting for warmer days.

Until then, blessings to all!