Well, Christmas is past, that is unless you count returning some things that don't fit or getting Christmas cards back from people that move quite often. 

 I received a present from a grandson Kevin and his girlfriend that some folks would consider quite unusual. Just before we got a frost that would have probably finished them off, they went into the garden and picked quite a few green tomatoes of the tiny kind. There are cherry and grape, which are my favorites. As a rule these are the ones that I call volunteers because if you've had them in the garden once they will reseed themselves. They put them in layers with sheets of newspapers in between. Mixed with green lettuce and radishes and some of my baby carrots which, by the way seem unaffected by the winter weather we've had so far, we have a green salad. 

 I failed to mention you have to wait for those little tomatoes to color up some. As you remove a sheet of paper, the light on the exposed layer seems to hasten their ripening.

 Something caught my eye in last Friday's Sun-Bulletin. It mentioned a Seinfeld episode in which someone comes up with a wacky holiday in which they put up a bare aluminum pole instead of a tree. A Milwaukee based company thought it was a good idea. They did it mainly as a lark but made $15 million last year from selling handrail brackets and elbows. 

 You know people that don't have to use things to help keep their balance don't realize how really vital such things are to folks that can't. I went to a wedding out at Lake Tahoe one time and there was a beautiful shower for our use but not a thing to hang on to and no plastic chair, so I had to wash in the old fashioned way. 

 I ran into a much more serious dilemma in London. There was no shower, just a tub that was almost form fitting. It was so narrow that when I laid down in it, I found that I couldn't turn over. I gradually worked my way forward until I could get my hands out enough to get hold of something and crawled out. 

 I think my most embarrassing time was when I first visited my sister Luty's home in Minneapolis. They had bought an old house and fixed it up to suit themselves. Nicolas, my niece's husband who is a French muralist, had a studio built. When it came to the bathroom, they had found a deep round tub. There was a shower but I would have had to be in the tub to use it. I climbed in and took a shower but then found that I couldn't climb out. I finally hollered to Nicolas who fortunately happened to be at home and he came and helped me out. Since then, Luty told me to use her shower, which is wide enough that she can run her wheelchair right in and then get into the plastic one. 

 She sounds good on the phone but I'm not sure how much she is able to get around. I have plans to go see her on the second of January then come back to Owego to celebrate my 101st birthday on the 27th. 

 Well, we've finally gotten enough snow to make it seem more like winter. I hope that Fritz will soon be able to have his leg operated on for I know it must be uncomfortable to say the least.