Last night we decorated my Christmas tree. Yes, I’m not religious at all but I do like the traditions of Christmas and having a tree is one of those traditions. My partner made ham, mac and cheese, and yams for dinner. We had some nice wines and then put the hundreds of ornaments on the tree. I think it looks very nice. It looks very similar every year but still nice.
In The News
As most of you probably know, Nelson Mandela died today at the age of 95. I knew it was coming. He’d been sick for a long time. I heard just yesterday on the news that he wasn’t doing well. Many young people probably don’t know who he is or what he did for South Africa. I am old enough to remember apartheid. I remember in the late 80s when musical groups refused to do concerts in South Africa because of apartheid. I remember when he was let out of prison and then when he was elected President of the country. He was arrested in 1962 and was in jail until 1990. He was an amazing man who might be compared to Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s a sad day in South Africa and across the world.
In other news, the flying squirrel is back at the bird feeder. I know that news isn’t as shocking or saddening as Nelson Mandela dying but I haven’t seen this little guy in a long time. I wondered what happened to him. He showed up earlier this week and then again tonight. I just had to snap a picture of him. Of course the flash scared him away. But he’ll be back.
Christmas Tree
Today I went to my partner’s house and joined his parents in helping him decorate his Christmas tree. It’s a free cut tree that is probably the biggest one he’s every had in his condo. We spent a few hours putting hundreds of ornaments on the tree. He always says he doesn’t have enough ornaments. I assure you, he has plenty. Here are the before and after photos. I think we all did a pretty good job decorating it this year.
Thanksgiving
Yesterday we had our annual Thanksgiving dinner. My mom and my partner’s parents joined us as they usually do. We’ve been doing this for several years now. We enjoy spending time with our parents and catching up and enjoying a delicious meal and some wonderful wines. This is my favorite time of year.
10 Year Blogiversary
Ten years ago today I started blogging. I started my blog on Blogger and under a different name. That blog lasted 7 years until I had to take it down because some asshole reported it to my work place. In 2010 I started blogging under this name and plan to keep it that way into the future. Over the years I’ve posted about 4000 entries and received about 1000 comments.
I checked out the internet archive to see if there were any screen captures of my original site but I could only find this one from 2004, about three months after I started the blog. I noticed on the screen capture that I started a website in 1997. I remember that one. It was on AOL. There is no evidence of that one anywhere.
Many of the bloggers I made friends with years ago are no longer blogging. Homer is still blogging. He’s one of the originals. There are a few others but I’ve lost touch with them.
My blog now is mostly for recording things that happen in my life and for posting pictures that I have taken. It’s become more of a record for me then anything else. I like to look back and see what a posted on certain dates in time. I started restoring the archive back to the beginning but I let that go a while ago. I hope to get back to it at some point. It would be good to have the complete 10 years in one place. Maybe sometime in the future.