I can breathe. I’m not coughing up a lung every two seconds. My ribs no longer ache.

However, I’m not yet fully recovered. But it’s happening.

My Thanksgiving was very nice despite the nasty weather. The weather was bad with a capital B, as in Blizzard. My mom was worried about driving the half hour or so to my house. Actually, her biggest concern was she wouldn’t be able to get out of her driveway. So Steve, Maxine, Justin and I braved the roads and went to Grayling to get Mom. Steve drove and I only drew in my breath once on the way there.

My husband is a very good driver. He’s taking professional training on evasive driving. Plus he has the years of racecar driving experience. So I rarely worry. But it also gives him more confidence than I have, and so sometimes I gasp a bit. So far, he’s never earned my gasps.

Mom stayed at our house Thursday night and on Friday she helped me get out my Christmas decorations.

I have lots of Christmas decorations. More than 10 of those Rubbermaid storage boxes. As I was unpacking, Mom asked where I wanted things. At one point she actually said, "Are you going to use ALL of this?"

This question, keep in mind, came from a woman who has WAY more decorations than I do. When they are all out and on display, I once counted more than 500 various Santas in just one room. Most years, she has to take down her regular what nots to put up her Christmas what nots.

But Mom’s just not very motivated lately. She hardly has any of her regular what nots up, let alone energy to put up her Christmas ones.

This weekend we should be getting our Christmas tree. It will be a real tree. That’s not just because I really do prefer the real tree (except for the part of cleaning up the needles out of my Berber carpet). It’s also because I live in Missaukee County, home of Lake City, which is one of five cities in the U.S. that claims to be the Christmas Tree Capital of the world. Of course, Lake City is the champ despite the other claims.

I also would be disowned if I were to get a fake tree. My FIL, and at one time my husband, worked in the Christmas tree biz. My husband has a scar on his left wrist where he cut it with a machette-type knife while trimming trees as a teen. Forget flipping burgers, in the Lake City area trimming trees is the number one job for teen boys. Which really, is a much better job than spray-painting the trees green.

My father-in-law makes Christmas tree balers, shakers and elevators. These are not just any Christmas tree balers. They are Howey Christmas tree balers. Still don’t know what I’m talking about? Watch a short movie showing how a baler works.

Basically, when a tree is cut, the growers first put it in a shaker, which shakes the tree several times to get all the dead needles out of it. If the tree is going to be transported, they can put it through a baler, which has a large cone on one side, and it wraps the tree up with a net to make it easy to ship. Then an elevator helps carry the netted trees into the truck for shipping.

Howey is a well-known name in the Christmas tree biz. Around these parts, you’re likely to run into a real-life Howey as often as you do a baler. So for most of the year, my father-in-law works in a business dedicated to Christmas, and specifically the Christmas tree. So needless to say, you won’t find a fake tree in our house. We’ve even been known to grow our own. 

Oh, and my living room is finally done! This has been a redecorating project that I first planned to do last January when I took down the Christmas decorations. I then repaired the walls using drywall patches, thinking I’d be painting them soon. However, my husband nixed the idea of me painting in the winter because  of the smell. Then we were really busy all summer. So I’ve lived for more than a year with a pretty ugly living room.

But now, after my week of vacation, (actually the last two days), my walls are finally painted (Ponytail, a color you can find at Lowe’s). The paint I used doesn’t have much of a smell, which was definitely a selling point for me. Once the walls were done, the rest of the living room went together quickly. I have decorations on the wall again. We even have a fireplace.

Now, I’ve been wondering how to decorate my living room for a very long time. But I think I finally did it. I like it. It’s comfy and still looks good. Yeah me!

STILL! And back to work. On Monday night after everyone harped on me long enough, I finally went to see a doctor. The results?

I have pneumonia. They gave me an antibiotic that I took all in one setting and then remains in my system for 10 days. Yesterday (Tuesday) I felt worse than I did on Monday. The doctor promised I would be on the road to recovery by Thursday. Of course, this is a short week for the newspaper and i was on vacation, so I’ve been working. Today is my production day.

Steve bought a new-to-him truck. It’s a Ford F150 super cab (with the four doors). Plus the front has a bench seat so all 6 of us fit in it. He really liked his Jeep, but the soft top meant a chilly ride for him back and forth to work. We’re going to sell either our old truck or the Jeep. Steve hasn’t decided yet.

One up side about being sick…

When people call, they don’t ask for my mother. So I finally don’t sound like an 8-year-old.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Toodles.

Thanks for playing!

I’m on vacation this week right? It’s a good thing or I might have gone insane.

Sunday morning Steve and I woke up at 7 a.m. to discover we had no power in the house. Severe wind storms caused a lot of problems, and apparently we weren’t alone. Consumers Energy reported more than 160,000 customers were without power on Sunday.

All day Sunday we waited for the power to be restored. I couldn’t do laundry or vacuum or any cleaning. The kids couldn’t take their baths. I could make dinner because we have a gas stove. And we have a generator so we used it to power the TV. Priorities, you know.

By Monday, I was tired of the no electricity stuff. But we still didn’t have power. We had the kids stay Monday night at the in-laws house. They didn’t have school Tuesday (opening day of firearm deer season) and Steve and I slept in a cold house. When I woke up Tuesday morning at 5:30 (using Steve’s cell phone for an alarm clock), the house was 55 degrees.

I called Monday night and Consumers automated voice thingy told me their records showed my power had been restored. News to me. I had to wait and wait and wait on line before I was able to confirm with a living breathing person that no, we still didn’t have power. I was nice. Just cold.

I had reported a wire down along the side of M-55 on Monday I think it was. It was still down on Tuesday. Crews were busy elsewhere, and I suspect they work on the sections that will restore the most power. By Monday, the news said only 15,000 people were without power including us. We started using the generator for things like running our furnace and our refrigerator. November is not the time to lose power in northern michigan. It’s cold out there.

Tuesday night we finally had power restored just in time for a second windstorm. Now 4500 people are still without power. We still have ours, thankfully. This morning I was finally able to take a shower. My first since Saturday. (Eeewww!)

As a result of the crazy weather (it’s snowing now!) I have a cold with a nasty cough, and if it weren’t for DayQuil I’d have all those other symptoms too. My voice sounds very funny too.

But we have power and I’m on vacation. So I will enjoy it. And I hope to start working on painting my living room tomorrow when the kids are at school. I might get done in time to go back to work on Monday.

I love electric power. I really, really missed it. Those poor Consumers Energy guys had to work opening day and out in the very cold air. Let’s all be thankful for them.