I know there are deer in Michigan, I know there are deer where we live. I almost watched two frolic in the road on my way to church this morning. I’ve come close to hitting several this season, however, none have jumped in front of my sweetie for him to bring home to us. We have another shot in a few weeks, muzzleloading season. Maybe we’ll have meat for the winter.

The headline for a disturbing story:
Wal-Mart Worker Dies When Shoppers Break Down Doors

I have two words: handmade gifts.

Even more disturbing is the thoughts from an online knit/crochet community I frequent. The responses range in variety from outlaw sales to sue Wal-Mart. My question, what happened to personal responsibility. No one made those people line up outside the store, no one forced them to push others. If one doesn’t agree with the policies of a mega-chain, it’s simple, don’t shop there and tell all your friends why you won’t shop there, but don’t make more laws. Hold PEOPLE accountable for their actions. In hindsight, I’m sure Wal-Mart should have provided more security measures, however, I would venture to guess that the individual saddled with that responsibility would have been trampled as well. Three years ago a mom caused a stampede and injured several people in the Grand Rapids, MI area. I was in NY visiting family, but I remember hearing about it. It was a Wal-Mart I had visited and hated the set up for the entrance. The entrance was modified after the catastrophe. In looking for news stories about it, it was difficult to find news sources, mostly blogs linking to sites that have become nonexistent, so I chose to pdf the articles I found for preservation.

• Herald Tribune Nov. 2008 (pdf if link no longer works)
• CNN Transcript (pdf if link no longer works)

2008

• NY Times Article (pdf)

foxnews pdf of story

As a child, I always seemed to have an advent calendar to help me wait until Christmas arrived. It was usually a cardboard stand up thing with windows to open. As an adult, I have been looking for a reusable calendar that centered around the true meaning of Christmas. Two years ago I finally found a wonderful counted cross-stitch kit and purchased it with a 40% off coupon. I started it last winter after I finished Granny’s rather late and overdue cross-stitched Christmas present. I made a significant amount of progress on it, but haven’t touched it since February. The scene on the calendar is that of the Nativity/Creche. The rest of the calendar is gridded out with a space for each day counting toward December 25. There are ornaments to stitch ranging in designs from shepherds to stars to angels and baby Jesus in the manger. I redesigned the Nativity scene a bit because I do not believe the wise men arrived until Jesus was a toddler, so I took them out of the scene, but will leave them in as ornaments I think. I know they started traveling when they saw the same star the shepherds saw. Because I don’t have a fun way to countdown yet, I’ve gone in search of online Advent calendars. I make no warranty about content because I am unable to open any until December 1. As I remember to investigate, I’ll mark the appropriateness.

• Woodlands Junior School - UK based
• Boowa & Kwala
• The St. Margaret Mary Advent Calendar begins Nov. 30
• Knitting Advent Calendar
• Doxaweb
• Presentation Helper also has a PowerPoint version to print and cut out
• Episocpal Diocese of Washington 2007
• North Pole UK - day one was a puzzle
• Busted Halo
• Yule in Iceland
• Yahoo Directory of Advent Calendars
• Thrifty Fun’s list of advent calendars

While many recent events in the USA cause me great concern, I still have plenty of things for which I am thankful. I have wonderful a family, I have friends, my husband has a good job, I can afford to have three kitties and a doggie who help to pass the time, I have life and much more. I hope you have taken time some time this year to reflect on the people in your life for whom you are thankful.

I am committed to writing every day until next week, but I really should have scheduled some posts ahead last week. I have chronic pain in my dominant elbow and causes an ending amount of distraction. I’d rather not be typing, but I’m stubborn.

I asked for alternative suggestions from one of the doctors I see because I am not seeing consistent relief. I’ve tried physical therapy, icing/heating, pain killers (they work, but at what cost), cortisone shots but nothing solves the problem. We manage to mask the symptoms until I don’t want to keep up with the regiment. The cortisone shot barely lasted a week and it would have been several more weeks before I could have another one. The alternative suggested to me was prolotherapy. A horribly brief summary: scar tissue too prevalent so inject a safe irritant so that my body will work on that area to break down and reconstruct it in a more beneficial manner. It sounds weird, but I have personal references from those who swear by it. I’ll try anything once, well, not anything, but some things. I haven’t investigated the above link as much I as would like, but I wanted to find a source that was not a doctor’s office promoting the cure.

I had an appointment this afternoon in Traverse City with a doctor willing to evaluate my elbow. The result of the evaluation required three injection sites in my elbow. Now I’m not a big fan of needles, but I swear the needle was at least a foot long. I admit it, it was more like two inches long, but the syringe held a lot of solution and I really wanted to not be there. There was a bit of discomfort but the pain was temporarily alleviated. The muscle in my forearm seems to be a bit stiff and a bit of pain is returning, but I was told to expect pain while the process is working. Time will tell, though I will not turn this blog into my personal medical history.

After the appointment, Jason and I detoured to a few shops and found a wonderful wok. We’ve been on the lookout for one and found a nice used one for a great price. I’ll let you know tomorrow how it works.

I’ve been enjoying Little Women as a part of a podcast I’ve been listening to recently. Some of the chapters are read by LibriVox volunteers and some are read by listeners of the podcast. I used to own a copy of this book, I still may. It was part of a collector’s set with other books in the series and a few of something else. I know, not real descriptive but it’s all I’ve got. I tried to read the book when it was given to me, but I’m afraid that at the age of nine it didn’t seem all that interesting.

Because I went back to chapter one, I’m only through chapter eight or so. While I’m listened to Amy throw a tantrum because she can’t have her way and then her retaliation, I have to admit that I was thinking horrible thoughts much like Jo was probably thinking. When Amy retaliated, I wasn’t a bit surprised. Jo then threw a colossal tantrum in retribution. Amy destroyed Jo’s book of stories she had been working on for two years. Jo decided to punish Amy by not forgiving her, not speaking to her and making family live extremely uncomfortable for everyone. I felt saddened for the family harmony that was broken as a result of the girls not getting along. When Jo had a heart-to-heart with Mother I found it rather refreshing that Mother was honest about her own struggles with anger and that that could talk about it. I’m still figuring out how to respond appropriately to a variety of situations without resorting to anger as the best possible reaction.

You may recall that I signed up to proofread scanned pages from Project Gutenburg last week. I believe I have received most if not all of the feedback for the pages I read last week. I am encouraged that it was presented in a friendly manner, lots of helpful advice and invitations to continue to participate. I’m not sure quite sure why I received from of the corrections, but there are methods for comparing my changes to the changes the second level proofreaders made. It’s difficult for me to take criticism, but I am learning so I will not quit. I will visit the site later today or possible Monday to better understand the proper methods of correcting scans.

One of the online communities I visit frequent has a book club forum or two. I haven’t participated in a book discussion yet because I’m not always proactive about finding the book. This time I found the book and requested it from the library hoping it would be in by mid-December in time for the discussion. It came in two weeks ago and I finally picked it up from the library this week. I meant to read a chapter or two a day, in between Christmas knitting. Well, there aren’t defined chapters and it was a quick read. I am planning on reading it again as I have the book until Dec. 9 but so far I’m rather impressed.

The subtitle is A fable about following your dream and is written by Paulo Coelho, translated by Alan R. Clarke. It is a quick read under 200 pages with large print on smallish pages. The illustrations on the copy I borrowed are absolutely wonderful. The entire story is told in a series of overlapping pictures. The meanings of which are a mystery until the book is completed. Without getting into the author’s head as to deeper meanings, we follow a shepherd boy named Santiago as he makes life altering choices. He is in the dark about some choices and has unique guidance for others. Santiago is promised a great treasure if he goes to Egypt, which seems like a far-fetched idea. While he attempts to reach Egypt he learns life lessons that many of us fail to learn until we have a great many more years under our belts. In life, should a person follow a dream, a passion, a heart’s desire even if the obstacles seems insurmountable? Should a person take the first easy path that crosses the difficult one? What about the third easiest path that crosses the increasingly difficult one? Should a person listen to counsel from strangers, friends, family?

In my opinion, I have never written a book report that would cause another person to pick up the book and read it. I hesitate to tell too much and ruin the adventure to the point where I don’t tell enough. Let this little paragraph serve as an invitation to read a book that may not change your life, but will certainly entertain you and possibly steal a piece of your heart.