Two More Weeks

Wow, where did that last week go?

Eleven-year-old daughter was here again this weekend; Southern Man gets her back a little before Christmas. But no six-hour drive; her mom dropped her off as she came through town on her way to the Big Twelve Championship down south and picked her up on the way back through. We didn't do much - watched movies and played games and generally lazed around on Saturday, then she went to Southern Grandmother's for their annual visit to the community performance of The Nutcracker. All major Christmas shopping was completed online. Surprisingly, all three kids wanted specific gifts, not money. Teen son's wish was expensive enough that Southern Man had to put together a consortium of grandparents to swing it. Since all three got exactly what they asked for, they should be pretty happy come Christmas Eve.

One more week of classes - not much lecturing, though, mostly reviews and midterms. As usual, Southern Man has two weeks worth of material left, but his mind is more on the upcoming vacation than on cramming every last bit of knowledge into what remains of the term. Hopefully the weather will permit some progress to be made on projects out at The Land this break. One more good day of work and the new workshop should have electricity, meaning lights and power and heat for working in the cold and after dark. And there is nothing quite like grilling over a campfire on a crisp cold evening. Hopefully there will be lots of that over the next month.

The Hyundai has been languishing at the repair shop for a week now, waiting for estimates. Hopefully it will be back in service soon. Southern Man still struggles with his anger over that theft - in particular, the loss of everything in the car - but is working to get over that and move on. It is just stuff, after all. Lord, let me be mindful of that which is important and not dwell on things that matter little. Amen.