herbiehancock

This time of year the lyrics from a song by John Denver often go through my head.  It is his song titled, "Winter."  This is how the lyrics go in case you've never heard them. It's cold and it's getting colder   it's gray and white and winter all around.   And oh, I must be getting older   and all this snow is try'n' to get me down   There's a fire in the corner slowly dying   sometimes I just don't feel like goin' on   And yet I know it's more than worth the waiting   for another chance to see the summer sun   Come on shine on me   "Grey and white and winter all around," those are the words that always stick in my head.  They stick in my head because that is exactly what it looks like this time of year. You can listen to the song below if you'd like to hear it. I know I'm supposed to be patient and wait for "another chance to see the summer sun," but today I didn't feel like waiting.  (No, I didn't f...

For many, this is the season of gifts, both the giving and the receiving.  I was thinking today of the Christmases of my childhood and of the gifts we gave and received back then.  It's interesting to me the things that stayed with me, the things I most remember when I look back at those times. We used to give my Dad the worst gifts--at least, they seemed pretty awful to me, but they were things he wanted and asked for.  One gift he requested every single Christmas was a can of heavy duty mechanic's hand soap.  I thought the name of it was D&L hand cleaner or hand soap, or something of that nature.  I tried to find a picture of it, but was unsuccessful, so maybe I'm remembering it wrong, or maybe they don't make it anymore. It came in a round blue and white can with a plastic lid.  The soap in it looked like lard and seemed to be of that same sort of consistency.  My Dad had two antique cars, a 1927 Chevy and a 1931 Chevy that he bought and worked ...

One thing I really like about the town I live in is how the people here carry on traditions and pass them on from year to year. One tradition that this town holds dear is a parade around the courthouse square on the Friday evening after Thanksgiving Thursday.  This parade heralds the arrival of Santa Claus to our town for the Christmas season.  As Santa rides around the square in his horse-drawn wagon ( Yes, I know it is supposed to be a reindeer-pulled sleigh--work with me here people! ), the switch is flipped to turn on the Christmas lights around the square.  The lights are strung from the very top of the courthouse down to points all around the square so that when you look up you will see a canopy of lights in a sort of pinwheel above you.  It is really quite beautiful. The library where I work has a tradition of its own for this parade.  As our entry in the parade, we have people costumed as children's book characters walking alongside our library van. ...

   Yesterday afternoon, I had the opportunity to drive to Bowling Green, Ohio to attend a presentation at the library there by a lady named Nancy Pearl.  There may be one or two of my readers who have been around long enough and who read both of my blogs that remember me doing a post before about Nancy Pearl .  She is a librarian and writer.  She wrote the book, Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason , among others.  She also has her own action figure or doll, if you prefer, which brings her finger to her mouth in the classic "Shhhh!" pose when you push a little button.  The action figure is a bit of whimsy that amuses me.     The real life Nancy Pearl, in person, was quite amusing too.  She gave a very interesting and entertaining speech which included many anecdotes about how her local library was a major influence on her as a child when growing up, what it was like for her to later become a librarian, an...

On July 27, 1985, I wore this dress, and this fellow watched me walk down the aisle. Tomorrow is our 25th wedding anniversary. Like most couples who have been married for a long time,  we have had our share of both good and bad days . We have two sons who have filled our lives with much joy. I'm working all day on our anniversary tomorrow, and my husband is out of town until the day after that, so we celebrated our anniversary with a mini-vacation over the 4th of July weekend when we both had three days off.   For our Silver anniversary we went to Silver Lake, Michigan.  The weather was beautiful as was the view.  On the other side of the lake were large sand dunes.  They don't look very big in this photo, but they looked quite big when we were climbing up and down them.  We watched the fireworks while we were there from the balcony of our hotel room.  They shot the fireworks off from the dunes out above the lake. This is my husband sitting on one of t...

On Sunday we went to a graduation party for two of my nephews.  One just graduated from college and the other from high school.  We bought one of those disposable cameras because I wanted to get some pictures while we were there, and I thought I'd share them with you.  Please forgive the poor quality of the photos. Here are the two graduates.  The taller one is the college graduate. These are my brother's kids.  We took pictures of the nieces too.  This is the younger one. This is the older one next to my husband. One other nephew was there, but we didn't manage to catch him on the camera. I did want you to see this though.  This is a painting that my nephew, the artist, did of Lincoln.  He's the shorter boy in the first picture above that graduated from high school this year.  I've written on this blog about some of his art before.  You may remember his painting of a ship on the ocean or of the giant eye that I wrote about in the past...

  My husband and sons (in cahoots with young son's girlfriend who works part time at her aunt's local flower shop) surprised me with this lovely bouquet of roses for Valentine's Day yesterday.   I baked brownies and cut them into heart shapes for all my fellows (and for my youngest fellow's girl too) for dessert for a special early Valentine's dinner we had last night.  We celebrated a little early because my older son was home just for the weekend and must go back to his college dorm today. I am grateful to be loved and to have others to love . Happy Valentine's Day!

My brother and his family came up to see us yesterday from their home in Dayton, Ohio.  We got together for a belated Christmas celebration.  It was nice to see them all.  Although it was very cold and still is today, the roads were clear and no new snow was coming down, so they had no troubles with the drive here. We picked up my mom from the nursing home and all went out to eat at a local restaurant.  We sat and ate and talked there for quite a while. My brother and my sister-in-law After we left the restaurant, we took my mom back to the care center, and then went back to the house to visit some more.  My older son had been given the movie " Up " on DVD for Christmas, so we thought it seemed like a good time to all watch it together.   If you haven't seen it, I recommend it to you.  It is both moving and amusing.  Parts of it are so touching that tears will spring to your eyes and other parts are laugh out loud funny.  It is also app...

  The photo above is from a post I did last year .  We have snow on the square for Christmas this year, but I haven't had a chance to take a new picture.  The decorations are pretty much the same though.  The traditions of Christmas in a small town that remain the same every year are part of what make it so wonderful. *   *   *   *   *   My sons have both been off from school this week and will be off again next week.  My husband, who works in the education field, is off from work too.  I, on the other hand, have had to work.  In fact I worked extra hours this week and will be working even more extra hours next week filling in for others who will be gone.  I didn't get any Christmas cookies baked this year, but I am glad that I still have my job.  There are so many who do not. I am off today and tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to a little family time.  We will be going out to visit with my mother a little late...