AND THE CALENDAR SAYS..........

Grandma Mae's calendar hung above the apartment size gas stove in her kitchen. Each and every day, she wrote the temperature in pencil. Perhaps she took it from the news on the local radio station KTRF. The calendar was a 'gift' from Peterson - Biddick, a place that may have sold her chicken feed for her leghorns and mash to feed them, as well. Perhaps she sold her eggs there to be candled and sold to local markets.

In later life, my own parents calendar had the doses of 'rat poison' my dad took to try to keep his blood thinned after his first stroke. It also included the appointments to have his protime.

Our kitchen calendar as appointments. Lots and lots of appointments. In January and well into February it includes eye drops for which eye and the over lap days between Tom's cataract surgery.

As I leafed through the 2008 kitchen calendar, I noticed a Kenalog shot every other month; it was to be for sinus but works on body aches and pains. Hair cuts are listed, often three weeks apart.

January birthdays in the Johnson family are 20 and 26; Tom and MaryAnn's mother, Erna, was born on the 30th. Tom's birthday picture was taken outside with his cake, and the snow.

We have another calendar, the kind that really gets used. It is at the lake. Every day we are there, we mark fish and weather. If we do not fish, we mark why. At the end of the season, the calendar is brought home and converted to a spreadsheet for the photo album.

And then, in a private, precious stash, is a birthday and anniversary calendar. It only has about six dozen names which represent very special people. I am certain you are on it!

What's on your calendars?

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