You can't plan everything right

Sheila Donnelly

Everyone seems to be dragging and not be quite with it now that the holidays are over.

The holidays are such a busy time eating, visiting with friends and relatives that I think we need another week to recover from all the festivities.

Not everything went well over the holidays for my daughter, Molly, who was home from college for Christmas vacation. The engine blew out on her car on the last day of her vacation. She had forgotten to put oil in the car, and driving down the road the oil light came on, and then suddenly no more power. She told us she had tried to put oil in, but the cap was stuck and she couldn't get it off. She then forgot all about putting oil in.

Fortunately, she was close to home when the car died on her, so we didn't have to drive far to pick her up. The car is now on its way to the junkyard.

She was in tears about the car and felt very stupid. Molly is learning about life and cars the hard way.

I went to a party on Saturday night that the host was dragging at. First we all went skating at an outdoor pond. There were eight children and seven adults in the party. The host had a very bad cold and was not his usual social self. I wondered why they hadn't canceled the party, but he said he was feeling better than he had a couple days before and he was going to be serving us salmon that he had caught on a trip to Alaska. We headed back to the host's house after an hour of skating. We were all looking forward to the salmon after being out in the cold. At the house, chips and salsa along with wine, beer and soda was served first. The host's wife had gone upstairs to remove one of the layers of clothes she had on from being outdoors.

Her husband, the dragging host, put his prize salmon in the oven to bake.

When the hostess came downstairs, she told the women to follow her into the kitchen, while the men sat in the living room. The eight children were running in every room of the house. The hostess started to prepare a salad of mixed greens, when we women noticed that the kitchen was filling with smoke. The salmon in the oven had a sauce of mayonnaise, mustard, and lemon on it and the sauce was dripping all over the bottom of the oven. I realized then that the host, her husband, must really be out of it. His wife was preoccupied, but she did notice the smoke, but chose not to make a big fuss over it. Smoke was pouring out of all sides of the oven. The host must have anticipated that there would be smoke from baking the salmon, as he had turned the oven fan on before he went to the living room to sit with the men. I could see that there was really going to be a big mess in the oven. I got some aluminum foil from a drawer and placed it on the floor of the oven to catch the dripping sauce. This helped some, but the sauce kept dripping down and sizzling that finally the oven floor caught on fire.

I quickly got the salmon out of the oven, as it was clearly done baking and poured salt on the fire to put it out. There was quite a bit of smoke in the kitchen so the women opened the windows to get the smoke out. The host seemed to be numb to all that had happened and didn't even comment on the mess he had caused.

His wife, went with the punches, and served up the salad along with jello, banana bread, and soup. The kids at the party all got a kick out of the excitement.

The salmon tasted great, as did everything else. It was a fun party. It seems to me that some of the best gatherings I have been at are the ones that aren't perfect. When things don't turn out as planned it can be the best time for everyone.

Speak softly and carry a wrench

Sheila Donnelly

I ran into a neighbor over the weekend and she told me that her two teenage daughters had the flu on Christmas day, so that they ended up in bed and couldn't eat all the fancy Christmas food. I was sympathetic and then I told her how my Christmas went and she didn't think hers was so bad.

The first thing that happened was Tom had to dig a grave on Christmas Day. He has been digging graves for 16 years and this is the first time he has had to go off to work on Christmas Day. We open our gifts on Christmas morning and Tom missed opening the gifts with us, as he had left early to thaw the ground out over the grave. The frost is eight inches deep and Tom said that since we have had so little moisture this year that the ground is very dry and it is hard digging.

My six children, my son-in-law, my son's fiancee and my grandson were all at the house and after we opened gifts I started to make breakfast for everyone. My kitchen is still under construction since it was ripped apart a year ago, so there isn't that much room to get around in it. I was frying bacon and boiling water when I realized that the flame on the gas stove burners was extremely low. I said, "Oh no, we are low on propane."

We use 100-pound tanks to store the propane that are hooked to outlets that run into the house. There is always another full tank to switch too, but the reserve tank was not hooked up and I needed a pipe wrench to attach it to the gas outlet and the pipe wrench was in Tom's truck. I have a wood heater in the kitchen so I fired it up and cooked breakfast on top of it.

After breakfast was over, Tom showed up and I asked him to change propane tanks so I could cook dinner. He said, "I don't think the tank is empty yet." He turned on the burners and they worked fine. Tom opened his gifts, ate breakfast and then left to dig the grave.

The rest of us cleaned up the kitchen, took a walk, played games, and then about 2 p.m. I went out to the kitchen to make dinner and the burners didn't work. There was absolutely no flame. I had mentioned to Tom to leave the pipe wrench with me, but he had forgotten. I then decided to use the outdoor grill and cooked the ham and sweet potatoes over charcoal. I fired up the wood burner in the kitchen again to boil potatoes and steam vegetables.

The kitchen got so hot as I used hickory wood in the stove. The kitchen was like a sauna with food steaming on top and the hot fire roaring below. We decided to have a good time and stay clear of the kitchen while dinner was cooking.

We drank wine and played cards until everything was ready at 5 p.m. when Tom came home. The dinner was delicious. The grilled sweet potatoes and ham were the best we have ever eaten. My daughter Mary said, "Mom you would have made a great frontier woman." Her husband Dave said, "Your mom is a frontier woman."

It was a fun day, even with all the mishaps. I had baked pie the day before so dessert was already made. Tom apologized for not being around to help out. I told him I wanted to make sure that I had a pipe wrench handy so I could switch tanks if this happened again.

"I have two pipe wrenches in my truck," said Tom.

"You have two?" Why don't you leave one here in the house?" I asked exasperated.

He shrugged his shoulders. We were both too tired to argue about it, but I am going to stick a pipe wrench under the bed so I will know where one is when I need it.