Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting

I can’t believe it’s 2020.

Time flies. May all your troubles last only as long as your New Year’s resolutions.

If this is 2020, that means it’s been an entire year since I gave up trying to become a better person than I’d been in 2018.

Driving by Bruce’s drive

I have a wonderful neighbor, named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: Every year, something incredible comes along. It’s called Christmas. I want it to stay, but it’s like hanging onto smoke. My wife made delicious biscuits, an acini de pepe salad with mandarin oranges and maraschino cherries (no eye of newt), and Swedish pancakes served with lingonberry preserves on Christmas Eve. There aren’t any better things to pile into a piehole. I’d acquired a small jar of asparagus pickles. I’m fond of pickles — dill, okra and asparagus are particular favorites. My wife took the asparagus pickles along with her cherished watermelon pickles to a Christmas party I was unable to attend. I worried that the people there would snarf down the asparagus pickles as if there were no tomorrow. That wasn’t the case. Each pickle returned just as tall as it had been when it left our abode. Not a single one was eaten. I wasn’t unhappy about that.

I can’t sing. I can barely clap, but I can listen to powerful good music like Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan singing, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”/”We Three Kings” as we opened gifts. A gift should warm twice, once when given and again when received.

I took possession of a few pairs of socks. They were new, which means that now some of my socks match. I garnered tasty cashew and almonds. I scored a lovely book. The world lives in the written word. Between family things and work, I read a couple of books at Christmas time. One was about the Harriman Alaska Expedition and the other about the Navajo. I started reading a book by Malcolm Gladwell. I must appreciate his writing as it will be the sixth book of his I’ve read. I enjoyed reading the recent issue of The New Yorker. I started reading that magazine when I was 17, thanks to the encouragement of a high school librarian named Mrs. King. I don’t believe I ever thanked her properly.

Shame on me.

My wife and I gathered donated edibles for the local food shelf from the Kiwanis Holiday Lights at Sibley Park in Mankato. We picked up 1,113 pounds of nonperishable foods that more than filled my car. My stuffed vehicle resembled an overly optimistic food truck. Laina Rajala came to our aid. She not only helped loading and unloading the foodstuffs, she transported the overflow from Mankato to the food shelf. Every gift should warm twice. Laina’s gift certainly warmed us both.

Thoughts while eating Swedish pancakes

Never say that a day is the worst day of your life. It will give the next day a challenge.

I’m leaving my body to science, but I’m keeping the oil and mineral rights.

Any music with its volume turned off is easy listening.

Nature notes

The temperature was supposed to drop. I think it was likely due to the cold. A little winter snarkiness there. Sorry. The night’s activities are often inscribed in the snow, but the snow had melted or hardened, making clues difficult to find. I picked up trash from the road ditch. Like a crow, I pick up shiny things from the ground. Blue jays had a collective cow as I walked. Jays are known to eat eggs and nestlings of other birds, but in a study of blue jay diets, only 1% of jays showed evidence of having eaten eggs or baby birds. The diets of the jays studied were composed of mostly insects and nuts. The oldest known wild blue jay was at least 26 years, 11 months old.

On the subject of studies, researchers discovered that opossums have impressive memories when it comes to food. Opossums were found to be better at remembering food locations than were cats, dogs, pigs, and rats. Any mammal can get rabies, but the chance of finding rabies in an opossum is extremely slim.

A white-tailed buck’s antlers begin growing in April and are fully grown by mid-August. Depending upon the source of the information, his antlers grow 1/4 inch to an inch per day.

A red fox has a white tip to its tail and a gray fox has a black tip to its tail.

Meeting adjourned

Measure your words, but be free with compliments. Happy New Year!