SandyU’s Neighborhood

Dining room - still needs trim and chair rail.

Powder room (1/2 bath) 

The kitchen is still too much of a mess to get a decent picture.  They came and installed the granite countertop yesterday and part of it broke when they were cutting out the spot for the cooktop.  Probably won't be back to replace it until after New Year's but the rest of it is stunning!

 

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We spent yesterday with my parents who live about 3 hours drive north of Sydney -  in Tea Gardens/Hawks Nest. This will be my last visit with them this trip. It is always really, really tough saying goodbye to them as the thought is always in the back of my mind that this might be the last time I see them.

  Their little town is  sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean 

and the Myall River, Great Lakes system:.  We were only on the beach for a short time before I could feel my too fair skin starting to burn. The water was clear and so inviting, and there was no seaweed here; just tiny shells washing ashore:

The river is also lovely and clear....

 

The pelican was hoping we had some fish for him - he was disappointed.

 

it was full of seaweed: 

Jace's bedroom - still needs trim, doors, and light fixture.

Cody's room - still needs trim, light fixture, chair rail, numbers on the yard lines, and doors.

Toy room - needs doors and trim

Den and stairs - needs trim and stair railing.  Ray's dad has welded us a wrought iron stair railing but we have to get it from WY.

Today the laundry room floor will be installed.  Ray finished the hardwood in the kitchen, dining room, and powder room, and the granite countertops are being installed today.  So close!

 

Guest bedroom - all it needs is the trim around the window arch and the heat vents to be done!

Lily's room - needs closet door and rods as well as trim around window arch.

Master bedroom - just needs heat vents and closet organizer

 

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I'm not sure I want my food to announce it's going to make my jiggly bits dance but this was a wonderful dinner on a hot evening:;

And how could I resist wine with a label like this?   It was actually pretty good and I've bought another bottle...  :

Bah Humbug:

1. The Steelers football season is basically over for this year.  They have to give another team a turn ;)  We have so many injured players that it's just pretty hopeless.
2. It causes me great stress to just be mailing my Christmas cards.  I know that's probably odd but I like to have them out at the beginning of Dec.  Dumb computer crash!

Merry Christmas:

1. A friend and I made a shopping trip today to buy Christmas presents for a family whose having a rough December.  It's a single mom of 5 and she crushed her wrist in a 4-wheeling accident so is unable to work.  I have to say it finally got me in the holiday spirit!
2. Our entire house is carpeted!  Well, except for the theater which we don't plan to finish for a year or two.  By the end of Monday, the rest of the flooring will be finished as well as the kitchen counter.  We have 2 working toilets, too!  (I'll post some more pictures soon).
3. We've made plans to go back to Jamestown January 1-3 to move the rest of our furniture.  Could still use some prayers for that house to sell.  Anytime now would be just perfect!!
4. We'll be moving in after we get our things.  There will still be little stuff to do but we can do that while living there.  I finally feel like I can get excited!!
5. My grandma, aunt & uncle, brother & girlfriend, parents, and cousin's family will all be here for Christmas.  I love a big Christmas!  Ray is thrilled to not have to pack up every single present and travel this year.

People will say Axial Tilt [Saturn/Mithras/Jesus/Santa] is the Reason for the Season.

One thing is certain, and eternal; in the northern hemisphere, these are dark days with little sunlight. Celebrating the waning of the year by lighting strings of lights and candles, decorating with shiny objects, spending time with people close to you, and eating special rich foods is something to cherish, a way to foster good will and create lovely memories. It's a way to launch ourselves into the cold days of winter with the satisfying sense that our lives follow the cyclical pattern of the sun, moon, and rotation of our earth.

Adding personal components of religion and mythology can be satisfying for many people. I admit that when some of those people insist that those components are the one true way to do things, I am put off and put out. The most we may owe them is a perpetuation of some of the pagan decorating traditions that might have otherwise been forgotten if not for their co-opting by the Catholic Church. But the seasons are important to me personally. It's impossible to imagine living my life without taking joy in the astronomical phenomena that produce the seasons of varying warmth and light in their turn. I take comfort in the pattern, and would still do so if I lived somewhere that never got cold in winter, or if I lived in the southern hemisphere and watched the pattern played out in reverse. 

This is not the time to discuss biblical stories of creation, how the bible was put together by a fickle emperor and then later massaged into different forms by different religious leaders who used it for political agenda, or how those stories are parallels to stories told thousands of years earlier by fearful people who needed ways to explain astronomical, meteorological and geological conditions they did not yet understand, to explain the wonders and terrors of life and death, and to band together against groups with more powerful leaders than theirs. 

This is not the time for that because a lasting truth is that people like to believe in stuff bigger than they are, they like it to be mysteriously powerful, and they like to put a familiar human face on it. They like the notion of strength from vulnerability, and the little guy championing over the big guy. They like an eternal father figure, in some cases an eternal mother figure, and the symbolism of those figures is far more important to most people than concrete explanations for how the world actually works. Unexplainably wondrous and mysterious works by someone who's looking out for us are way more palatable to a lot of people than the still being uncovered scientific wonders of neutrons and amino acids. 

And people like to have parties. Coming up with an excuse for a party is harder for some people than others. For many of us, the opportunity to look forward to something shiny and fun is enough. Throw in the luxury of giving people gifts wrapped in pretty paper, and it's a big winner. No wonder Christmas is a continuing hit. For most people, the only slightly off-kilter aspect of it is the name, invented by people who could not appreciate a celebration unless it was attended (or better yet, replaced) by the solemnity of religious ritual. 

I enjoy thinking (heretically to many,) that we really are all celebrating the exact same thing, just with different faces on the various rituals we perform each year. 

If you believe a God with human characteristics set the Earth on its axial tilt, and later caused a young girl to give birth to his corporeal son as a reminder that no matter how much anyone's life sucks, he's still out there in ultimate control, and that all this is the true or only "reason for the season," I hope you have a really great one this year, and this song's for you.

If you just really dig having end of year fun, or like to groove on seasonal changes as I do, this song's for you.

Huge storm last night.  This was after a day where it hit 40 Celsius here in western Sydney.  A day where I went to the city to meet my Economist son for lunch and in my "wisdom" decided to ride the Monorail from Darling Harbour parking over to city centre (Pitt Street). 

 

There was a notice at the "station"  warning that due to extreme heat the a/c in the little cars would not be efficient.    Well,  I got a $9.50 all day ride (cheaper than a return) and got on it anyway.  Holy Moly - it must have been over 50 degrees Celsius in the little tube!!!.   "I can do this;  I can do this"  -  I repeated to myself  - surely it won't take that long....... 

There are more stations now than I remember and it seemed to take a very, very long time though it's probably only 15 minutes - but 15 minutes in that kind of heat and stuffiness is no fun.  I considered getting out two short of where I wanted to go  but that defeated the entire purpose of taking the monorail in the first place as the walk would've been longer but surely it could not have been hotter.

I had images of a news story "woman collapses in heat of monorail"   or worse - the monorail breaking down and everyone expiring before we could be rescued.     

Last night there was a tremendous storm with  lightning so intense I saw us all being fried in our little tin huts.

A one stage there was a large crash as a branch fell and first thing this morning I checked that now not-so-new rental car to make sure it didn't have a bough across its bonnet.
 

So today it is raining and there is a bus strike so it should be fun on the roads - but at least it is cooler. 

 This is Rose Bay, Sydney - I have a friend who lives in this idyllic location:

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I have 67 kg (148lbs) of photos to get back to DC which somewhat exceeds my United baggage allowance even if I leave all my clothes behind.   I've had these stored in my son's garage but now that he has a wife she will be moving in with her own "stuff".  It's time for me to get these so that I can scan/preserve them.

So ...  research was required.  First I tried Australia Post which is how I got my worldly possessions to America nearly 10 years ago. The lady told me in 3 minutes that it would cost an exorbitant.1,228.30.$$$$   - though she didn't actually use the word "exorbitant" - she had a tone that suggested I was getting such a bargain that I should race home pack them up and get back in time to catch the last post of the day.

I had actually saved up and budgeted an amount of $1,000 for this exercise but I was not really expecting to have to use it all.

I had seen an advertisement for Fed Ex International Economy so I rang Lawrence in India and had a nice conversation where he used my name a lot as well as "that's a good question Emjay, I can tell you the answer"... After 10 or 15 minutes Lawrence decided that Economy service was not going to work for me and that actually the 25kg flat rate boxes sent at Priority service would be cheaper (apparently the economy service just means it takes longer to get there!). 
 

So ...  today they will start their journey to the manservant's office and the cost of getting them there in about 3 days will be less than $800..    (FYI: Oz Post could send them by sea for about $650 but I've seen those statistics on how many containers go overboard every year...).   

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The landscape got a little greener as we headed towards the Hunter Valley...

This little church was in the middle of nowhere ( I love the "outhouse"):

A few of the very small towns have these fancy big signs:

This place thinks it is in the Mediterranean - these are all olive trees:

And, now, we interrupt our pleasant country drive to bring some ugly open cut mining....
I remember a couple of years ago you could not see this from the road...