An Old Photo

 My one surviving uncle, by marriage, on my father's side just celebrated his 100th birthday.

The photo below was from June 1946 when John married my Dad's youngest sister, Ada Reba, youngest of 9 children. 

My paternal grandparents are on the left, Omar, age 61 and Ada, 60. I don't know the ages of Uncle John's parents, but they look older than my grandparents. Her dress may indicate she was Old Order Mennonite, but I don't know for sure.

My grandmother was dead before this couple celebrated 10 years of marriage.  I remember my mother crying when she got the phone call that Grandma had died.  It was a very long distance call from Lancaster, PA to Dumaguete, Philippine Islands in 1954.  I was just 3 years old.  I have no recollection of this grandmother as we left the US to travel overseas when I was going on 2.

I haven't seen my Uncle John since 2013 when my mother died.  I send him a Christmas card every year and did send a 100th birthday card in January.

Hope

 

The amaryllis I got for Christmas is sending up two stalks with buds.  There may be another in the middle too.

In other news the Arctic cold front hit us hard here yesterday and into today.  We stayed in all day Friday as wind chill factors were low.  The high for the day was in the early hours of the morning and the temperature just kept dropping.  By dinner it was minus something and by 9:30 it was -17º.  I think it may have gotten to -21º overnight.

What was tough was losing power!  We had an inkling that it may happen early in the evening so I put my flashlight in my robe pocket and kept iPhone close by as we watched Midsomer Murders. Right at the end of the episode as we found out who did it the power went off. 

I called our utility company right away to report it.  We grabbed some extra quilts to add to the bed and headed upstairs not knowing what the night would bring.

From upstairs I heard footsteps on our gravel driveway and then a knocking at the door.  Our son in law had bundled up to come check on us.  They were out of power too but had a heat source: their woodstove. Our woodstove is still a work in progress if you recall. We told him we were okay for the night but knew we could come there in the morning if still no power aka no heat.

It was hard to fall asleep, not because I was cold but because of the wind, the extra creaks from the cold, and underlying worries.  Eventually we both did.  

At 3 am or so I was awaken by I don't know what and realized the clock was lit.  Hurrah the power was on.  Dan went down to the basement to turn on the water heater again and looked at the furnace thermostat.  It read 48º! Needless to say the furnace ran for the rest of the night to bring the house back up to 68º

It was -17º when we got up and as I write now it's 0º.  The sun is streaming in through the south facing windows and the house is comfortable again. 

That woodstove is really going to be a godsend if this happens again as we know it will.

How did you fare in the winter chill?

Do You Remember This Comedienne?

 Phyllis Diller:

As your beauty fades, so will his eyesight. - Phyllis Diller    Housework can't kill you, but why take a chance?  - Phyllis Diller       Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing. -Phyllis Diller       The reason women don't play football is because 11 of them would never wear the same outfit in public. - Phyllis Diller       Best way to get rid of kitchen odors:  Eat out. -Phyllis Diller       A bachelor is a guy who never made the same mistake once. - Phyllis Diller       I want my children to have all the things I couldn't afford.  Then I want to move in with them. -Phyllis Diller       Most children threaten at times to run away from home.  This is the only thing that keeps some parents going. -Phyllis Diller       Any time three New Yorkers Get into a cab without an argument, a bank has just been robbed. -Phyllis Diller       We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve years telling them to sit down and shut up. -Phyllis Diller       Burt Reynolds once asked me out. I was in his room. Phyllis Diller       What I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day. - Phyllis Diller    The only time I ever enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally got gin in the steam iron. -Phyllis Diller     Old age is when the liver spots show through your gloves. -Phyllis Diller    My photographs don't do me justice -they look just like me. -Phyllis Diller    Tranquilizers work only if you follow the advice on the bottle - keep away from children. -Phyllis Diller    I asked the waiter, 'Is this milk fresh?' He said, 'Lady, three hours ago it was grass.' -Phyllis Diller       The reason the golf pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. -Phyllis Diller    You know you're old if they have discontinued your blood type. Phyllis Diller Thanks again to my source: my friend Marilyn!

The barn and house in winter

 

No regrets that we painted our barn green and the house yellow.

And for first time viewers, no the barn is not attached to the house despite what it looks like above.