Magpie Tales, #44 - A Sudden End - December 12, 2010

Magpie Tales, #44 - A Sudden End - December 12, 2010

We drove through miles of falling snow,

Then saw the house so filled with light,

Its windows shone with Christmas glow,

A welcoming beacon in the night.

"There's grandma's house", I whispered,

Gently shaking Jason next to me,

He woke up in an instant,

And gave a shriek of joyous glee.

Before we reached the bottom step,

My mother waited, with smiling face,

Jason raced up snowy stairs,

And dove into her warm embrace.

After breakfast, we climbed the stairs,

To the attic, in hopes we'd find,

Treasures a ten-year-old would think,

Were of the most wondrous kind.

Jason thrilled to Grandpa's trunk,

With army uniforms and such,

And the wooden city that he'd carved,

Seemed to please him very much.

After exploring for awhile,

Jason spotted something overhead,

There, hanging sadly on the wall,

Was my father's trusty sled.

We took it down, with utmost care,

And deemed it fit for a hillside run,

Jason could barely contain himself,

He knew he was in for a day of fun.

And fun he had sledding on that hill,

Even climbing back till he reached the top,

He kept it up, at a dizzying pace,

Until his Grandma made him stop.

He paused for lunch, hot chicken soup,

An enforced rest, then he was out the door!

No matter what his Grandma said,

He wasn't tired, he wanted more!!

As the sunset colors filled the sky,

We laid down the law, time to stop,

Jason came, took off his things,

And sat on the couch with a surly plop.

I went outside, in the brisk cold air,

And saw the sled, calling out to me,

I felt the pull of the snowy hill,

And wanted the feel of flying free.

I pulled the sled to a starting place,

Gave a running jump and fell on top,

With total humiliation, of course,

All I really did was drop.

Benearth me, in a splintered pile,

Lay my father's sled, like pick up sticks,

My ample frame had done it in,

Leaving not enough to even fix.

I made a furtive drive to town,

My face as red as it could be,

The toy store still had sleds in stock,

For my father's sled was history.

Carmen Henesy

Copyright (c) Carmen Henesy

December 12, 2010

I am participating in Willow's Magpie Tales - check it out to see the other wonderful posts!

Saturday Thoughts, 5-22-10

I am so excited to finally have "Life's Journey" done.  It is already available at the createspace store ( https://www.createspace.com/3439758  )  and I'm told that it will be on Amazon by the first of June.  Now I can focus on some other tasks that have been woefully neglected, what with Alex's wedding and finalizing my book.  At the top of my list are goals to go through the vast amount of papers that I've accumulated over the past ten years ( I finally bought a shredder ) and get rid of those that I don't need and to clear out closets and to clean out the garage.  There is no question that a move to smaller quarters is imminent, perhaps in the next few months, and this is long overdue. 

To say that I am a pack rat, a term bestowed on me by my son, Jeremy, is true.  I have boxes of forensic articles that I hesitate to put in the garbage can.  In reality, I don't think I will return to actively work in nursing but a part of me hates to part with this wealth of resource material "just

in case."  It is my connection to a life that meant - and still does - so much to me.  As I take down each notebook, memories of the conference attended, assail me and I recall the late nights, sitting up till the wee small hours, sipping a glass of wine, involved in heated debate with colleagues, over the merits of one digital camera over the other and other similiar topics.  Folders with grade school drawings by each of my sons tug at my heart strings.  Yet, when I ask if they would like to keep any of these things, they look at me scornfully, with no sentiment whatsoever and say to me, "Mom, toss it!"

I've gone through hundreds of envelopes of photographs, from the past twenty years, and easily disposed of half of them.  Anything blurry gets dumped as do meaningless faces from all my cruises, tablemates I don't even remember, double prints that I always meant to send to people, now I don't even remember who the people are!  I still have more that I need to clear out.  My trash cans are getting filled with my life...or so it feels.

I've tossed textbooks from my nursing school days, over 45 years ago.  I kept one medical surgical nursing book, just for the the heck of it, even though the procedures in it are so obsolete.  The treatments we did back then are not even correct anymore.  Some, we've learned, actually did harm, rather than good, to patients!

I hung up all the paraphanalia that was on my treadmill so now there is no excuse not to get started and to try to lose some weight.  I want to fit into some of my nice clothes.  Then I can get rid of some of the clothes in my closet.  I have, at least, four different sizes.

Here's a photo of me, as I exercised today.