December 30, 1971

WIthout a doubt, the best decision of my life was to marry Sharleen. Tomorrow we celebrate the 40th anniversary of that event and I cherish our years together.

The Christmas season

Since moving to our new home I have been trying to attract birds to our tube feeder. Until recently success has been elusive, despite multiple changes to birdseed and feeder location.

My last effort included moving the feeder to a front yard berm between two small trees and replacing nutra safflower with shelled sunflower seeds. That did the trick. American Goldfinches are beginning to arrive in increasing numbers.

But like most other people I want more. I want cardinals, finches, chickadees and juncos to join the goldfinches. This is the Christmas season though and I should be grateful for what I have.

At long last

Much too much time has elapsed since my last post.

We closed on our townhouse November 18 and that has driven everything since. The movers came on Monday, November 21, to move the big stuff, including bedroom sets, enabling us to spend nights here.

The next important task was cleaning our old house in anticipation of the buyers’  “walk through” scheduled for Saturday, November 27 and closing the next day.

With that job done we left the old house for the last time after goodbyes to the neighbors. The walk through and closing went well allowing us to focus our attention on the new place.

We continue to unpack and, until new furniture for the master bedroom, great room, dining room and office arrives, live downstairs. That has not been a big inconvenience. What was an inconvenience was not having a washer and dryer until last Saturday. Until they arrived and were set up, we called on family to help and they obliged.

We are very much enjoying living here. Mornings are beautiful with a wooded area across the road. We have yet to see the deer that call that wooded area home but the turkeys have been visible as have a flock of cardinals who stand out perched in a tree full of berries with snow as a background.

Despite a new house, we have much more to look forward to with Christmas and our 40^th wedding anniversary approaching rapidly and I rejoice in our many blessings.