A Whole Street of Houses, Stirred With A Spoon

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“ And by this time they were come up to the great iron gates in front of the house; and Tom stared through them at the rhododendrons and azaleas, which were all in flower; and then at the house itself, and wondered how many chimneys there were in it, and how long ago it was built, and what was the man’s name that built it, and whether he got much money for his job? These last were very difficult questions to answer. For Harthover had been built at ninety different times, and in nineteen different styles, and looked as if somebody had built a whole street of houses of every imaginable shape, and then stirred them together with a spoon.” —The Water-Babies, by Charles Kingsley. Ch.1 (1863)

Clarity

It's been such an exciting start to 2020 that I'm looking forward to a re-start in February.

  • On Christmas Day, I came down with a cold.
  • On Christmas Day, as our kids and grandkids were leaving at 9:00 p.m., our hallway toilet decided to get into the giving spirit. Spent Christmas night cleaning up the mess. 
  • Day after Christmas, I (with a cold) had to drive across town (40 minutes, one-way), rent a machine, drive back home, ream the plumbing (three times, for good luck), drive the machine back across town, drive back home, reset the toilet, got cleaned up, had dinner, crashed.
  • Rested all-day December 27. Whew!
  • December 30, put car in the shop due to 3 recalls. Toyota paid for it. Such a good car. Been lots-o-miles in it. Found out still needs some repair work. Won't be able to do those repairs for a while, so driving with prayers tossed and fingers crossed. 
  • January 1, 2020. Toilet got into the festive mood again and this time, disabled the kitchen. Out of funds for a bit, so we're washing in tubs. 
  • January 5-6 neighbors decided they wanted to throw a big, loud drug-fueled party. Richland County Sheriff was not happy about not being invited, so they showed up anyway. The partiers did not share. After the Deputies left, the partiers tried to have a nice bonfire in the back yard with their stash, which brought Sheriff back again, only this time the deputies paraded up and down the street for an hour, flooding the house with searchlights and blue flashing lights. No arrests were made, but the show was fantastic. All. night. long. Now it's quite over there . . . strange.
So, as I'm still getting over a cold, preparing for a new semester with half the house not working and the car is . . . well, making it . . . I am starting my third year reading this book (which anyone might get for a very low price on Amazon--and probably should).

The theme for January is "Clarity." And I appreciate that. I receive that. Just so happens that one of my favorite groups has a piece pertaining thereunto. 




I didn't get any revision done on my dissertation chapter and my next course starts next week. If nothing prevents me, I'll be posting more soon.

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