Ghosts Of Christmas Present

 I know, past comes first, but this seems to be an exceptionally difficult year for many people.  

40% of my family was not here for Christmas.  They were in Florida, celebrating the day with those whom I know refer to as "His In-Laws".  My son managed to get engaged this past month, and the long-planned trip to Florida was another opportunity to reconnect to the future in-laws who moved there this past summer.  And his fiance is enjoying the warmer weather, a bit.  

But I'm fortunate in that the missing piece of my heart will return home this week and we'll get to see them again.  There are thousands of families here and world-wide that can't say that about their loved ones.  Some because a more virulent disease, encouraged by the many idiots who choose not to vaccinate, continues to spread.  I cannot help but be awed by the tremendous stupidity exhibited by a broad range of people who damned well know better, and pretend to have legitimate reasons not to vaccinate.

I know there are some people who are legitimately allergic to the vaccine.  I have one new family member who experienced a difficult reaction that was painful after her first dose of the vaccine.  Her doctors are unsure if this is due to the vaccine or other changes in her routines around the same time.  Obviously, as the reaction was painful and prolonged, she is not looking forward to the next step which will be getting another dose - with no other changes in routine.  

We will wait to see what happens, and keep ready to respond if things go poorly.  But I am hopeful that this next dose will go much easier and she will find she is not allergic to this, but one of the other changes she experienced.  And that we can deal with.

But I still find myself grieving for those who, near me, experienced a loss and I could not in any way provide assistance or be there for them.  In the past two years, I lost one of my last aunts, my father's sister.  One of my very best friends lost his father.  A young lady whom my wife knows lost her new husband to this damned epidemic. And I lost others in lest permanent fashion, with several friends from previous jobs leaving them, and the area, and they're now gone.  

All over the place, I can look and see signs of loss.  But as my wife rather pointedly observed earlier this year (and I've yet to fully release the breath I'm holding because of it), this is the first major economic downturn in our lives that has not bitten us in the mid-low rear quadrant.  After all, we left college and our parental homes in 1989 when the economy was in the midst of a downturn.  Twelve years later we bought a house, but found we were fully qualified to do so on September 11th, 2001.  Yes, that day.  And then, ten years later, the economic downturn at the end of George W Bush's second term cost us our home, finally, after draining all of our savings and receiving assistance from friends and family, too.  

This time, both of us have continued to hold our jobs, and do well.  My wife has been promoted several times over, and continues to be recognized by her employer as a key contributor to their business.  I am thrilled to keep my job, and continue to work from home.  Both of us had serious health scares which required hospitalization over the past year, fortunately not for the pandemic's reason, but in my wife's case due to a genetic predisposition to a problem that is easily controlled, and for me, because I mis-diagnosed and was not able to treat an infection in my foot.  

My wife's problem is now well controlled.  Mine is still fully present in a way due to a hole in my foot in that little hollow between and behind my third and fourth toes.  Now, rather than a hollow, I have a crater which can still hide a marble.  Yes, it's that deep.  I'm back on an antibiotic, a little over halfway through a 10-day 3-dose-a-day course to help kill off that which is again causing a delay in healing.

But enough about me.  I'm still able and capable enough to fix a few problems around here, and do what needs to be done.  My son purchased a few yard decorations a few months ago, and they were deployed a few weeks ago, in the yard.  We had two light sets - one was a set of six candy cans, light plastic with clear white lights inside the red-tinted, white striped plastic.  My son pounded the stakes into the ground and set the plastic canes on them, and they did well until we got our 16" of snow a couple weeks ago.  They all fell over and were laying in the yard yesterday.  

The four giant Chrismas Light Bulbs - about a foot long, but shaped very much like the Christmas light bulbs I remember from my childhood, made out much better.  But yesterday, I pulled a couple of boards out of my lumber stock and built a light stand.  This was absolute, utter simplicity.  I used four 1x4 boards.  Two were left as they were when I pulled them from the woodpile.  One was cut almost in fourths - that is, 24" long - except for the fact that my contractor table saw is only 23 1/2" from the storage shelf next to it, so I cut each part as long as space allowed.  

The fourth board was cut in 13" lengths.  Seven of them.  That way each of the six lights had it's own spot, and they were equally spaced down the length of the eight foot stand.  That's right, kids.  Math.  I started by figuring out that each of the lighted candy canes was approximately 3/4" wide.  So I started with the 96" boards and subtracted 4 1/2" because that was the amount of space the candy canes, together, would need.  And I then divided the remaining 91 1/2" by seven - that is, one equal space between each one, plus a final block to insure the last candy cane had something to lean against.  And in doing that, I came to  a hair over 13".  So I cut 7 13" blocks from that fourth piece.  

I then attached each 13" piece to one of the boards with two screws, each was 3/4" of an inch apart.  I determined that by placing a scrap of the same 3/4" thick board next to the previous piece to insure it was attached both at the appropriate distance, and square.  Once I finished the entire length of the board and had six spots for the "canes" I grabbed the second whole board I had pulled out, clamped that on top of the entire assembly, and drilled 3 holes.  Those holes were slightly larger than 5/16" because I found I had some extra 5/16" nuts and bolts left over from a previous project, and I could bolt the loose side to the side with the spacers.  Then I disconnected the loose side, and grabbed the four 23 1/2" pieces.

I was careful to label the board with the spacer, and the "closer board" at one end before I took them apart, because there was no way the holes in them would line up without being put back together the same way.  I took the 23 1/2" pieces, and found the middle, 11 3/4" from either end.  And then I marked lines an inch and a half from that center line.  Then on one side, I added a mark 3/4" of an inch from the center.  That marked the spot where the two-thirds of my stand would be sitting when I attached it - because I did not want to put screws from the bottom of these feet into the board that was to be removed.  That would make it a somewhat more permanent attachment.  

So after attaching the feet to this board, I grabbed a half-inch socket and one of my ratchet handles, the parts, the three bolts and six nuts (because you almost always drop at least one), some washers, and a couple of saw horses and went out to the yard.  

I set the stand up on the saw horses, then set up the candy canes so the cord looped under the feet (and would be between the foot and the ground - as the total weight of these candy canes was maybe two pounds, and the collected weight of the stand was maybe ten pounds, I was not worried about the electrical cord being "crushed" under the feet), and once all that was done, I attached the top board with the bolts.  After that was done, I carefully inserted the candy canes into the sockets following the wires, made sure they were all roughly turned the same way, and set the whole thing on the ground.  Worked like a charm.