This morning, I had to open the store for the first time solo, meaning I had to do the books for the first time. It went okay but it was so cold when I got to work. 25 degrees. There were some volunteers in the parking lot selling Christmas trees for a charity organization. The wind was biting cold, blowing in from the east. Every time the shop door opened, the wind rushed in taking command over the heaters working diligently to keep the place warm.

The volunteers kept coming in to get warm and unthaw. You could tell that even with their good intentions, it was a miserable morning to be outside.

Around noon, one of the gals came in and asked me if I wanted a free christmas tree. I told her, that I would love one, but I have to many kittens to make a Christmas tree much of a priority! She wanted to leave one for the shop- but the one gal here is allergic to just about everything, so count that out. I ended up taking a nice, 6′ tree off their hands.

Brought the tree in the house tonight and instead of putting it on a tree stand, we have immersed it in a bucket of water (with a brick to weigh down the bucket) and to stabilize it further, we used strong decorative Christmas cord to attach the top of the tree to the ceiling. You have heard of a Singing Christmas Tree- we have a Swinging Christmas tree! Mike wants me to decorate it- fat chance of that! I will just savor the look and the smell of this beautiful tree and feel blessed that it was a gift from the heart.

Later on- I received a disturbing phone call from my ex-husband. He has had a heart attack with complications. These complications are pretty dire. He is in a hospital in Northern California and he is so weak, I could barely hear him speak. It is hard to make the transformation of how I remember him- 6’5″ tall, burly beard, strong, booming voice- to this man who can barely speak above a whisper. He has no movement in his right arm and some sort of abcess that they had to lance and put a drain into. He also had to have his toe amputated- for just like Mike, Don is also diabetic. I can’t do anything for him except listen to him and pray for him. I do hope he will be okay. He asked me to contact a mutual old friend, but they have changed their number so I couldn’t even do that-