HO HO HO OH OH OH

Season's Greetings from www.milwaukeeworld.com where we put the "Ho" in "Holiday." We'll be back next week with more offerings.

For now, it's off to continue decorating my dwelling place, although I live alone and expect no formal callers.
I should mention my decorating idea, since I think it is both attractive and functional. It occurred to me that bubble wrap would make an excellent insulator as well as a good privacy screening device. I took some of the packaging material I saved that had accompanied a purchase, unrolled it and taped it neatly on a large, uninsulated picture window. Then I hung lights in the window, and covered the works with another application of bubble wrap. The light is very diffuse and attractive, both inside and out. The room is much warmer. Following up on that concept, I did the same (minus the lights) in my bathroom, and hung bubble wrap between the house windows and the storm windows, overlapping them just a bit at the top and bottom of the sashes. Then I popped the row of bubbles at the top and bottom sills, closed and locked the windows, and gained even more R-factors in three rooms that I rarely use. I did a similar thing in the dining room, which doesn't have much of a view, or storm windows, for that matter.
I also sealed up all movable window surfaces with Mortite brand Rope Caulk. This product, essentially modeling clay formed in coils, is the best $6 investment you can make. It is easy to apply and remove, and can be reused if you are careful. I was able to seal up my fifteen windows for only $12. The savings in energy costs and the benefits in comfort are considerable.

As far as the holiday is concerned, the big action will be Monday evening up in the Land of Oz, within the walls of the city where it all begins with "Me." I asked Santa for long underwear and energy-saving lightbulbs, yet something tells me I might be chided for my extravagant demands. I come from a scandalously small family by most standards, except those of my mother's many regular guests at holiday parties. Some of these folks really are alone. I've known them for decades, and that has informed my knowledge that there is something to "family" that transcends consanguinity.
I remember wondering once about a rather difficult, and somewhat demanding, regular guest at our family gatherings, which she attended since she had no family of her own, thanks to World War II, which I had nothing to do with. "Why does she always have to be here?" I (a grown man) asked.
"She was always very kind to your grandmother," I was told. That shut me up, and opened my heart to the spirit of the season.

Best wishes to you,
Michael Horne