PICTURE THIS

This is a drive way leading from a quiet farm house set back about one hundred yard from a country road. The drive way isn't paved, its just packed dirt with woods on both sides and it circles around the house and comes back out on the main road about a hundred feet down from where it enters the property.  There's a mail box marking one end of the drive way and a fence marking the end of the property at the other side. In the autumn it was bright with yellow and red leaves poking through the green pines. You know there must be wildlife living in the woods on both sides of the drive but you don't see or hear much of anything with the exception of Dumb Ass the turkey who struts her way around the property as if she owns it, which I guess she must pretty much think she does.

Well, today was a different story. PICTURE THIS.  Yesterday it SNOWED !  It seems that yesterday afternoon found the town of Gladstone, MI experiencing their second snowfall and the first actual accumulation of snow. It apparently started in the afternoon and continued through the night and by morning this lovely little driveway was coated with about 5 inches of snow. I can only imagine how beautiful that must have been. To see the snow on all the trees and covering the fields in that blanket of white. I do miss that ! I remember  that moment when you first woke up on a snowy morning when the world was still quiet and the snow was still un marked. It was like a magic spell had been cast and all the world had stopped for that moment. And then the snow plow would come down the street or something else would break the spell and the world would come crashing back in.

But it seems that in Michigan nothing is done is such a mundane manor as having a wonderful snow falls spoiled by snow plows. Rather, PICTURE THIS . . .  here is this driveway, covered in this wonderful new fallen snow, looking like something out of the world of Anna and Elsa in Frozen when what to our wondering eyes should appear but . . . (no, not a sleigh full of reindeer) BUT . . .
TWENTY-ONE TURKEYS strutting down the driveway.  ( I Swear to you this is what Dwayne told me he had walking down his driveway this morning!) Wild turkeys, 21 of them all strutting big as life down his drive way from off the road heading toward his house and across the yard heading out past his barn towards the woods in the back. I asked if our silly old scrawny Dumb Ass turkey was with them but he said that these turkeys were very big and that she was no where near the size of any of them. They were all just milling around scrounging for food in the snow and then next thing they were gone.

I wonder if Santa is using turkey to fly his sleigh this year ?

THANKS FOR GIVING

There's a cute commercial on TV these days reminding us of the joy of giving.  A good thought for all the year one would think. But since it gets you to pondering the gift of giving we might as well start looking down the list at all the "B-List" items that we don't normally include when we consider giving gifts.   Let's take some time to consider some of the lesser gifts we can give or have been given.

1.  The Yearly Plague that each year is so generously bestowed upon me by my grand children during the month of November.  At first this may seem to be any thing BUT a blessing but once given closer observation it is indeed quite the gift. Each year these darlings bring home vast and powerful germs from day care and spray and smear them across my body with precision that only a highly trained agent can accomplish. These germs take a solid grip in my sinus cavities, nasal passages and lungs and proceed to multiply at an astounding rate until the host body is brought to its knees. (literally) Yet again I need remind you this REALLY IS A BLESSING. (I'm still getting to that part!)  Although I am now so sick it is necessary to go to a doctor it is ALSO necessary to cancel ALL other appointments, dates, projects and crap that I had scheduled for the next TWO weeks because I am too sick to do anything.  The doctor give me medicine, I go home and shut the door and now have tow full weeks to write Christmas cards and wrap presents !!!!!!!  It is FANTASTIC !!!!!!!

2.  The Gift of Silence.  Something that some of us might consider when tempted to respond to emails or blogs or postings on facebook that don't always agree with our political views. Just because someone sends it or posts it or says it doesn't mean you need to respond to it. Just hit the delete button and move on.