Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella

 Do you know that old carol?  We learned it at school.  It's about bringing lighted torches, to see the stable and visit with the baby in the manger.  Here's an elf all ready to make his way there.

And reading is gripping this Tonstant Weader (Dorothy Parker, in case you're not familiar), with yet another Maisie Dobbs, on Kindle via my library app

She's in Gibraltar at the time of the Spanish Civil war, intrigue, murder, spying, her own grief to deal with, a very exciting and moving read.  Guernica features.  In fact I had to stop there this morning, overcome by that.  The huge Picasso masterwork based on that atrocity was almost too much to deal with. I saw it in Washington, I believe. I think it's now housed in the UN building.

I knew Spanish people, refugees from Franco's Spain, outlawed by his regime, when I was a kid in England. Along with all the Poles, Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, and later Hungarians.  The Spaniards were from Barcelona, an outpost of anti Franco resistance.  They couldn't return until he died.

 Of atrocities, the surprise attack by Italian and German bombers on Guernica, the deliberate slaughter and complete destruction of a small unprotected Spanish  town with women and children out in the marketplace, clearly visible to the bombers, in a supposedly neutral country, ranks as one of the many unforgivable. After I recover, I'll continue reading.

And here's the second part of the Shanghai Girls novel, thank you Ellen, for mentioning it, or I might not have realized there was another part.  This is gripping enough that when I started reading yesterday morning, I put my breakfast toast into the toaster oven, and completely forgot it, so there was a nice piece of buttered charcoal for breakfast.

Here, Joy, the daughter in the Shanghai Girls book, goes to China in a quixotic mission to find her real father, having suddenly found out the person she thought was her mother is her aunt, and the person she thought was her father was no relation, though he cared for her as his own.  And Pearl, one of the Shanghai Girls, her aunt, not her mother, goes in search of her, risking the dangers of red China and the chances of never being able to return.  Neither of them has any idea what China has become, since the American newspapers were anti Communist  propaganda more than news at that time.

Then, in better news, today was the day of the Great Pickup of The Holiday Box Lunch at the town hall.  And it turned out to be very good indeed, well organized, freezing cold Recreation Dept staff out there in the parking lot, checking, running, picking lunches, delivering to drivers, all very cheerful despite the bitter cold and threat of snow.

I've already emailed a huge thank you to all of them.  The police department has undertaken to deliver meals to any seniors who can't get in to pick up, sometime this afternoon. The meals were handed over hot, and only needed a bit of reheating once I got home.  I had thought about doing another errand before I went home but changed my mind, which is good, because the weather changed dramatically.

Veggie lasagna, from a good local caterer, enough for two meals for the likes of me,   As you see, tomorrow's lunch on the left, today's on the right.

And a chocolate chip cookie!  My tax dollars well spent today, anyway. Very happy senior here.

 And as I was almost home, the snow, forecast for today, was just starting.  Home before it got underway.

This afternoon is about being under a warm blankie, reading Maisie and maybe Joy, too.

Holiday plans, plants at home

 I really don't do senior activities, too many old fogies...however, I got an email from the township recreation department about a free of charge box lunch for seniors for the holidays, a drive by event in early December. Which, since it's around Thanksgiving, my birthday and Christmas, in that series, seemed like a really nice thing to accept.

So I went to the township website, and tried quite a while to find the event, did so, then had to open an account in order to sign up. Oookay, fine.  Then found that in order to receive texts you had to, get this, tell them who your carrier is.  From a dropdown menu.  On which my carrier is not listed. So I had to forgo texting.

Moving along, filled out several screens of information, including creating password, etc., and was rejected since there is already an account with that email.  I don't have an account with the township, so who knows what that means. Anyway, if I could substitute another email address, I could open my account. Okay.  Except that there's no way to do that. You can't delete and replace. You can't edit. So after quite a while, wondering if this was actually worth doing, I sent an email to the rec. department asking if it had to be this hard.

I heartlessly played the age card, and the birthday card, and the widow card, and the alone since March card, and asked them for help.

then, first thing this morning, an email from the admin, saying, oh sorry, I can sign you up directly, just tell me this and this. She even offered to get the lunch delivered if I were homebound! Which I declined, thanking her profusely, and said I could get there.  Then this:

The squeaky wheel rules.  But there are no answers on why they want all the info, or why the website is so clunky.  Handsome Son, who's a software person when he's not a grocery store person, said, ah, typical of a low budget supplier.  Which, given that its the township, which probably had to accept the lowest bid, may be the whole thing. I wonder how they get participants in their senior programs, though, given that I'm a lot more computer literate than many of my agemates and I couldn't make it work. 

Meanwhile, back at the conservatory (!) the potato plant is growing tall, but not looking all that healthy.  Probably not enough light

And the Vicks' plant, which I looked up to see if it is in fact a coleus, which it isn't, I also found is supposed to have a cascading growth pattern. Which explains why it was lying about on top of the groundcover when it was growing outside.  So I gave it a hanging place and it does indeed cascade nicely, above the other plants on the shelves.

So that's us today.  Beautiful day for walking, low 70s, nice wind, cheerful other people out walking, met a beautiful brindled dog, very muscular and handsome, probably a Staffie. His owner was so happy when I admired the dog.  Dog owners of course, totally agree that theirs is the most handsome dog anyway, and you're just confirming their opinion.