Monday Meanderings - 12.26.2016

We are basking in the glow of Christmas here in ATX. Perhaps sweating in the glow would be more accurate; nothing like 80 degree temperatures and warm southerly winds on Christmas day. Ho, ho, hot!

Merry Christmas to me. Got a robocall Christmas Eve morning that "my credit card may have been compromised - please call at once." In this day and time, calls like that are naturally suspect as scams themselves, and since the small bank that issued this card was closed, I first Googled the 800 number the "Fraud Center" wanted me to call. I found comments that said both "absolutely a scam" and "this is legitimate." What to do? The message had enough legitimate information about me and the card that I decided to call back (after blocking my Caller ID).

Bottom line is the person I spoke to asked about several charges that I did not make, identified some I did and without asking me for my SSN or the security code on the back of the card or any other sensitive information suggested that I block the card and take it up with the bank on Monday. Did that, and then called the number on the back of the card for "lost or stolen" and they told me that the card had just been blocked, so it was a legitimate notification. The good news is that Visa declined all the bogus attempted charges, so we don't have to go through all the reimbursement red tape.

We get daily email updates from our neighbors through the "Nextdoor" app, and there have been numerous recent posts about coyote sightings. We live a few blocks from Walnut Creek Greenbelt, and we have heard coyotes howling over at the Pioneer Farm for all the years we have lived here. But a recent middle-of-the-day sighting of an adult coyote "Just strolling down the street" was a bit closer. How close, you ask?

At our Christmas Eve candlelight service, the minister had gathered all the children on stage to sing, and then to hear him read a children's story of the first Noel. He was encouraging participation from the kids, and when he got to the part about the angels appearing to the frightened shepherds, he asked the kiddos to show him their "afraid" face - whereupon one little urchin clapped his hands to his face and shouted, "OH MY GOD! IT'S AN ANGEL!" Well, he asked.

Happy New Year from our house to yours.

Away in a manger

The crèche is a common and popular Christmas symbol. Literally "manger" in old French, we recognize the representation of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus in large and small formats - ranging from the "living" Nativity scenes - complete with humans and animals - to the small table-top decoration.

Many Nativity scenes are heirlooms, delicate porcelain figures passed from generation to generation; some are more mundane, such as the Playschool figures that lived in the kid's toy box for a time. Or this durable needle-point crèche that Barb made when our children were babies. It is the oldest piece in our almost accidental collection.

In the Christmas Market in Old Town Square in Prague in 1995, we found the Nativity scene that became the seminal set in our collection. Fashioned from corn husks and bits of twigs and straw, this  crèche has been on display almost every Christmas since.

In 2008, we looked into a shop window in Lima, Peru and saw these figures in a familiar setting. In addition to the native dress of the indigenous Peruvian, the stable menagerie includes llamas. The clay figures survived the trip home and are among our favorites.

By this point, we became intentional about adding to our crèche collection, and searched an open-air market in Roatan, Honduras to find this primitive little figurine.

On St. Martin, in the Eastern Caribbean, we found an unusual representation of the family, nestled in an egg in Fabergé fashion.

Every Christmas, our church hosts an Art Fair and invites sellers of items that provide an outlet (and income) for craftsmen and artists around the world. This rustic set, made in Kenya, is self-contained, closing up into a rustic little wooden box. No animals, and Mary is well-hidden within the folds of her corn-husk mantle.

In Skagway, Alaska we found a simple scene crafted by native Alaskan artists. Barb says the animal to the right is a sheep. I like to think that it's a bear, in keeping with the locale.

At the Art Fair again, this year we added one of the larger sets in our collection. Carved from Olive wood by Rwandan artisans, these figures average 6" in height. Again, native dress and custom prevails, and the menagerie features animals found in East Africa.

Mary and Joseph

I considered not including this set. It is an inexpensive molded plastic Nativity that Barb picked up to use in her ESL classes. But there may be more humanity expressed in this set than in any of the others. First the group shot.

Now take a close-up look at the expressions on some of the figures:

 

Mary: "Joseph, there's something I need to tell you."

Joseph: "I'm a father!"

Wise Man: "A baby. Didn't see that coming."

 Whatever represents the coming of the Good News to you and your family, may it bring peace and great joy this season.

Monday Meanderings - 12.19.2016

Brrr! It's cold outside! We only experience one or two really cold spells each winter and we are in the midst of one now. I admit it is pretty lame to complain about our mid-twenties temperatures when I look at all the minus numbers across the nation, but hey! There's a reason we live in the south.

Saturday was the annual Cousins Christmas get-together in the Metroplex. We go up for the day, visit with relatives that we see all too infrequently and eat a lot of tasty food. Hard to beat that.

This trip annually reminds us that 1) IH-35 is under construction. It has been for all the years we have traveled it, and there is no expectation that that will ever change. And 2) Fort Worth Traffic is as bad as Austin traffic, and that's saying a lot!

In addition to the normal activities of our church community, we host a number of neighborhood and community gatherings in our building, and often I end up running sound for these events. Last week I was at the sound desk for a Christmas program put on by a neighborhood Spanish language immersion kindergarten. The director sort of reminded me of the TV personality Sofia Vergara - very latina, very fast-talking, hair-on-fire leadership style. It was a hoot. It is very seldom I have a program director ask me if I could turn up the music. Why, yes. I can. Would you like the concrete floor to shake?

Monday Meanderings - 12.12.2016

We "winterized" this past week. In between a long stretch of rain and a cold front we had about 4 hours of pleasant sunshine, so Barb gave all the outside plants their winter haircuts and brought them indoors, and I put covers on the outdoor faucets. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Of course, it seldom does here in ATX. More often it just ices over, but nobody writes songs about that.

Interesting conversation with Marty, one of the managers at the Chuy's we frequent. He was somewhat in awe of the amount of take-out business they do at that location. We regularly see the food delivery services, such as Eat Out In, lined up to pick up orders, but had not given it much thought. Marty said that they do "thousands of dollars in take-out" on a regular baasis.

This is different than catering, which they do not do. Either folks use the delivery service, or pick it up themselves. Marty said that they made up appetizers and entrees for a wedding recently, with service for 120 people. Huh. Who knew?

In a place like Austin, you often encounter historical markers and plaques on houses and buildings. Here's one we saw the other day:

A follow-up to last weeks post - "If I ever shave my beard"

I posted last week about these 3 items that belonged to my father, and to his father before him.

And I heard from my cousin Ann, daughter of my father's sister, Marie, who provided some fascinating first-hand knowledge about these items, and the man who used them.

She recalled that "He had two other items - a mug and a leather strop to sharpen the razor. He made a soapy lather in the mug and gave the razor several swipes on the strop and shaved - usually ending up with a few nicks & bloody spots - which he covered with bits of paper until the bleeding stopped."

 "His attire when shaving was his overalls, no shirt & his BVD undershirt showing.  I can still see him since he always shaved in the living room where a coal fired heating stove kept a pan of water warm for rinsing the razor.  Grannie was a bit fussy so that is probably why he was clean shaven. I can see why she was attracted to him for he was quite handsome."

What a wonderful memory. And it reminded me of the importance of preserving memories such as this. I have often stated that the genealogical record concerns itself primarily with events; birth, marriage, death, burial, etc., but every good genealogy software program has provision for notes concerning each event, and they can be woven into a narrative, and the narrative is as important as the facts. Perhaps more so.

Thanks, Ann for sharing. Oh, and thank you for pointing out that Bedford County is in Tennessee, not in Kentucky, where I had misplaced it.

Monday Meanderings - 12.5.2016

I would like to introduce you to "Lon Nohm," our resident pecan-gatherer, newspaper wrangler and lawn care worker.

I was leaving the house the other day, but before I could get the car started, I heard some noise behind me. I got out to see what was going on and found our Vietnamese friend had darted in just as I raised the garage door, snagged the yard broom, and was busy sweeping the driveway! For sure I'm going to start leaving the lawn mower out where she can get at it. And I'm going to look twice before backing out of the garage these days.

You gotta love this town.
Two recent surveys proclaim Austin's newest accolades; first, it is the 8th most popular city in the world to get a tattoo, and second, the locals are banding together to attempt to break the Guinness World Record for Spooning. I have nothing more to say about either of these items.