Pretty day today. Blue sky with fast moving clouds. Never seen the clouds move so fast. Laid my head back on the swing chains, let the sun warm my face, and just watched the clouds race by as their shapes distorted from one design to another. Ate breakfast and lunch on the porch in the swing. Back in the porch pondering groove.

Saw lots of birds. Will refrain from calling them by name since that disturbs my niece. She worries about my sanity but if you look at the song birds long enough you can eventually tell some of the birds apart.

Boss lady sent me a Christmas prize today. A box of goodies with a stuffed raccoon inside. She has a raccoon story, too. Placed the raccoon on my bed, named him Rocky, and threatened Penelope to not even sniff him.

Don’t know if its Grandpaw the raccoon or fatty the squirrel or a bored bird but something dug up a whole pot of pansies on my deck. The pot sat in a wrought iron rooster. Every bit of that dirt in the pot is in a pile on the deck. My poor pansies, guess I let them die by not covering them up during our arctic spell. Pansies love cold but guess they don’t appreciate an arctic blast. They were so beautiful. I cut them all off to the ground level, fed them well, and I’m waiting a week to see if I can see any growth.

Lost a friend today. One of the best bosses I ever worked with. Never saw him without a smile on his face. He was gregarious and loved at Russell. Occasionally called Chief “Scoop.” When Chief and I married we couldn’t work together so I was sent to the Russell Print Shop to work till Boss Lady had me grandfathered back in the Russell Record office. Still had my Russell Record work and did the Print Shop typesetting also. His wife worked in the personnel department at Russell and we were friends. Loved to go visit them. Once we took our children to visit them and picked gallons of blueberries from their bushes to make jelly.

I was grateful to know he died surrounded by his children and wife. I texted her today to tell her how sorry I was to learn of his death. She texted back, “It’s hard to let go of loved ones.” Yes it is!

I’m ran into her at Wally World soon after Chief died. I started crying when I saw her. She loved our little family. She hugged me and said, “Lane, you’re going to be all right.” I just let her hug me thinking I’d never be all right. Tonight I’m shedding tears for her. She’s just on her first day of widowhood, missing a husband I know she loved.

And I know she’ll be all right, too. She’ll miss him everyday of the rest of her life but her faith will sustain her and carry her through each day. Just as mine does me.