November 21, 2022. Madison, Mississippi. Christmas Decorations.

My house is decorated for Christmas.  The outside lights have been installed and look beautiful and festive.  My wreath is hanging on the front door, Made by Patty who loves in Vermont.  I have been ordering wreaths from Patty for over 30 years.  The boughs are fresh, gathered from the woods behind her house.  The final touch are two poinsettias, given to me by Eleanor and Jim when they visited last week.  As I will be gone before Christmas, I have left my decorations in the boxes, to be used another year.  My house now looks like Christmas.

Several years ago, Christina decided to put up their Christmas decorations prior to Thanksgiving.  The family wee going to busy every weekend prior to Christmas, so she decided to decorate at a time that gave them time to put everything up, including the tree.  Christina and the girls discovered that they all enjoy the extra time to enjoy the Christmas look.  So ever since that time, Christina and the girls decorate prior to Thanksgiving.  Christina finds that the lack of a busy schedule is pleasant.  No rush is always a good thing.  Their outside lights have also been installed, but she never turns them on until Thanksgiving day.

This year, Christina and the girls will join Kate in Greenville for Christmas.  This year the tree was not decorated.  No sense decorating a tree if there will be no gifts underneath the tree.  So the Dickie family are set for Christmas.  Clever Christina gets laughed at for decorating so early but she just laughs.  The early decoration works for her.

November 20, 2022. Madison, Mississippi. Winter.

My Wonderful Wendy drive to Indiana to spend time with her daughter Katey and the new baby while Bock, the daddy attended a conference.  The weather was perfect during the drive south.  And she was expecting to drive home to Ontario, leaving on Saturday.  But then winter set in so she waited for the roads became better.  Tomorrow she will head north and she hopes that the interstate highways will all be clear.  Indiana got only a small amount of snow.

At Dave and Irene's home in Ancaster, winter has arrived in full force.   They have had lots of snow so the whole area would be pretty.  There is nothing better to see than the first snow of the season.  And it has been cold too.  So winter really has arrived in the north.

Here in Mississippi, the temperatures have been low too.    Daytime temperatures have been in the low 50s while at night the temperatures have been 30.  People here comment that the winter has arrived in Mississippi.  But it does not seem like winter to me.  If you could see the people  you would think it really was winter.  Lots of scarves and coats seen by everyone.  I must say I enjoy the Mississippi winter.  But I love to remember the snow!!

November 19, 2022. Madison, Mississippi. Mississippi Friends.

I do not have many friends in Mississippi.  But the ones I have are stellar.  

Friday, Greta Barbour and John brought lunch at 12:30.  They picked up food at the Alladin, a Meditarean restaurant in the Fondren area of Jackso, very close to their home.  I enjoyed their visit thoroughly but what I enjoyed most was the conversation.  I was staring seeing my friend.  For the first two weeks I had appointments with doctors.  Then I got too sick to visit with anyone so I cancelled all the engagements I had set up for lunches and coffee.  But after resting, this week I arranged for friends to visit.  And so we had lunch at my house.

I had not seen Greta Barbour and John since I left in Mid May so we had a lot of things to discuss.  I needed to be kept up to date with the lives of their children.  And John's father has been fighting cancer and is getting worn down by the chemo.  John makes a winter garden at their home and he is busily harvesting different types of squash.  Our conversation was wide ranging.  They both their full meal but I was more interested in them than their food.

I ate after they left at 2:30 and I ate a second meal today.  I still have more food for tomorrow too.  I am grateful for my friends in Mississippi.

November 18, 2022. Madison, Mississippi. Doctors.

 Portia, my new and excellent helper, commented  to me that she was looking forward  to my appointment with my Oncologist on Wednesday.  I laughed and asked her what she expects will happen when we meet with Dr. Sheehan.  Portia said that she expected the doctor will find out what was the matter.  She clearly has an elevated opinion about doctors.  I urged her to lower her expectations.  And suggested that the good doctor will have no clue why I was feeling so miserable.

So we met with Dr. Sheehan who had no clue as to what was the matter with me.  But she ordered a Ct scan  that day and she wanted more blood  to obtain different tests  So Portia and I went out to lunch then returned for the scan.  So I had twice taken blood and now the nurses needed to insert the dye into my veins, which they struggled to accomplish.  After thirty minutes of beating on my arms I decided that at some point in the neat future,  I was going to stop gelling all those high tech tests.

Turns out that the scan showed a pneumonia so the doctor prescribed an antibiotic which my neighbor picked up that afternoon.  So I was wrong and Portia was right.  Now I just need to get better.

November 17, , 2022. Madison, Mississippi. Sunday Night Football.

 I enjoy watching Sunday Night Football although I do not watch much football all day.  I stopped watching football several years ago when the NFL handled the ontroversity with the taking the knee for the anthem.  And there were too many flags.  So I quit watching football.

But I like the song.  It was the first time I ever hears Carrie Underwood.  She looks great.  And she had a wonderful voice so I would look up the game just to see the beginning.  Sometimes I also watched the game.

The second reason I like Sunday Night Football is one of the announcer.  Christ Collingsworth is by far the best commentator on any channel.  And you could only listen to him on Sunday evening.    I always learn something from Chris but his comments are never complicated.  Neat trick.

So I always turn on Sunday Night Football even though I do not often watch for long.  But I enjoy.

November 16, 2022. Madison, Mississippi. Mississippi x Two.

Another aspect I enjoy about living in Mississippi is the time zone.  All my favorite programs come on at 7:00 here.  In Nova Scotia, I am on Atlantic time  which means try favorites begin at 9 and end at 11, which means I am too late going upstairs.  So I just skip evening television.  Here In Mississippi in the Central Time Zone I love it.

The second thing I enjoy in Mississippi is the gospel music on the television.   I live in the south, in the Bible Belt so am able to watch good gospel music all week.  Just an hour here and a half an hour there keeps me happy.  I was brought up on gospel music but in Nova Scotia I was never able to see any on TV. But not here.  Great fun for me.

November 15, 2022. Madison, Mississippi. An Excursion.

Two weeks ago, Christ and I had planned  on an  excursion to Natchez.  And we were taking lunch at the Magnolia Grill.  But I was sick so had to cancel.  We rescheduled for two weeks.  So today was the day.  When yesterday came along, I knew I could not manage a drive to Natchez so I suggested that we drive on the Natchez Trace along the Reservoir.  So that was the plan.

I am still not really up to snuff so I almost cancelled.  But Portia urged me to go  as I have been in the house for three weeks.  So I went.  I am still coughing a lot, especially when talking.  But we had a good day.  No rain but overcast so perfect for a drive in the country.  There were almost no cars on the Trace.  Then after another 15 minutes on the Trace, we turned east, then south and enjoyed highway 25 as we wended our way back to Jackson.

We decided I was up for lunch so we went to a Thai restaurant in Madison.  We left at 10:30 and returned home at 1:30.  And I did well.   Then I slept for 2 hours.