By Elaine Rassel

We started out the Christmas week ending with five more deaths in our area. Christmas Eve (Dec. 24) Shirlee Nelson passed away; Christmas day (Dec. 25) Mary Whited died and so did Dennis Means; and Dec. 26, Orville Tapper and Irvin Deichmann passed away. During Thanksgiving week, there were three deaths. I guess the Lord knows when to call those Home. All of these who have passed away will be missed by their family and friends. May they rest in peace until we are united again.
The year 2021 has passed and now we are in year 2022. Will it be any better than what 2021 was? I’m finally getting back to normal, if there is such a thing as this. There might not be much on television of the “you have until Dec. 7 to add more money to your SS check, etc.”, but the mail I am now shredding was mostly this. On television there is still that guy that “whoopy dings” trying to sell you his insurance just in case you might have made a mistake in choosing the one you did Dec. 7.
On New Years Eve I went to Orville Tapper’s funeral that was well attended. Afterwards I went home and took an hour to cut up vegetables for Vegetable Beef soup. That night we went down and ate supper with Steve. Zachary and I were having oyster stew and Steve and Bethany ate the Vegetable Beef soup.
After eating, Zachary and Bethany went to the living room to play games on their phones. Steve and I went to look up some relatives on the internet. I had wondered if my mother’s sister, Marjorie was still living. We found she had died in July at age 90+. Then we went to look up my mother’s cousin, Lillian who I have not heard from in two years. Yes, we found her living at Stone Brooke Assisted Living in Brookings, SD. In November of 2020 she had celebrated her 99th birthday. Evidently the facility hasn’t put this past years events on as she should have celebrated her 100th birthday in Nov. Her age isn’t surprising as her mother was born the very last of the 1800’s, lived through the 1900’s and died just going into the 2000’s. Not everyone can do that!
It was decided on Friday afternoon that we wouldn’t have church on Sunday due to the cold temperatures. I really don’t think anyone was objecting to staying home vs. getting out in the cold. There were quite a few churches that came across the television screen on Sunday morning that also decided to not have church.
Have any of you made a New Year’s resolution? Most of these are only good for a couple of weeks. It has been said that during the pandemic that people gained at least 18 pounds! It is hard to have sat home all that time and passed up some “goodies”!
Bethany will be celebrating another birthday on January 11. It doesn’t seem that long ago that she was just a “little girl” that has made all the difference in our lives.
I turned in on Public Television the other night on a “Simply Min” cooking program. I couldn’t believe what I thought I saw. There was a brightly striped thing on a platter that looked like a “snake”. He was going to tell another male cook how to cook what I saw. He went to pick this up and it wasn’t a “snake” but an octopus! In fact there were two of these. He picked up the belly part and yes, there were eight feet or whatever they would be called, dangling. I didn’t know if I was going to get sick or not! But, I was curious as to what he was going to do with these two octopuses. He had cut the suckers off the ends of the feet and then stretched the feet out in a baking pan and put them into the oven. After a while, he took them out and began to cut the feet up into small pieces. He put the pieces in flour, then into beaten egg, and back into a crushed cracker mixture. Then the pieces went into a pan with cooking oil. It didn’t take them long to be done. The pieces were put on paper towel to absorb the oil, and then they were ready to eat. The two cooks just ate away and enjoyed the octopus. I had never seen this sea creature being eaten before!
Talk about queer things on television, I saw a fully bearded man, on The Doctors’ program that had been on a different diet for the last two years. He started this diet because he wanted to get rid of what he called “a foggy brain” he was experiencing. Just as he was ready to eat a raw sheep’s eye, I really thought I was going to lose it! He was shown eating raw animal brain, raw animal organs, raw dairy products, a raw sword fish, and raw liver. His diet was all “raw” and nothing ever cooked_all raw!. He claims that his color of his eyes have changed in the last two years because of this diet. Of course, he has lost weight and thinks his jaw has become larger.
There was a woman doctor/dietitian who explained that the jaw was probably because eating raw meat, etc. would cause the muscles to work harder, therefore leaving the jaw to stretch or get larger. She explained that eye color can change with other health reasons other than this raw diet. He was asked if anyone commended on his “breath” as certainly the raw things eaten would leave an after taste or smell. No one had commended to him about his breath. She asked him if he had ever had any blood work or any other tests done since being on this diet_like cholesterol and a bacterial imbalance. He hadn’t and she advised him to get to a doctor and check up on these things. She was worried about his colon as colon cancer can stem from “raw” meat, etc. At last he did say he would check in with someone_but I really don’t think she scared him enough to be worried about this diet. All the Doctor on this program could say was that it never hurts to try and get healthy with diets but the diet should be checked out by a doctor and the person on the diet should check in often with a doctor. This raw diet was one that was unbelievable and sickening.
There was a man on television (appropriately just before celebrations of New Year’s Eve) telling how a drunk driver affected his life. He and his wife, who was expecting a baby very shortly, always took walks. On her last walk, a drunk driver hit her and she died. The baby was saved and this was the reason he was on this program. He now has become (too) attached to her. He knows that his wife wouldn’t have wanted this to happen but it is hard for him not to be overly grateful for her life. You might say that he is “worshipping” her.
Can a person give too much attention to another? Yes, the attention he is giving this baby is not good for the baby and he knows in the long run it will affect the baby’s life. A licensed therapist is going to give him 10 free meetings to try and sort this out.
Nothing was mentioned as to what happened to the drunk driver.
In the Sunday program that has the programs of the week included, I see where there is going to be a “Women of the Movement” beginning January 6 (Thursday) on ABC at 7 p.m. It is the beginning of six episodes where the mother experiences her worst nightmare. This is all about a 14 year-old from Chicago that went to Mississippi to visit a cousin and was accused of offending a white woman in her family’s grocery store. (Many years later, she confessed that he had done nothing to her_but it was too late.)
I had found this nightmare of a story of this African American boy that had happened back in 1955. I had it all written up but the writing never found a space in the newspaper. This was written many years before the George Floyd episode. I came across my writing of this boy just recently but knew now wouldn’t be the time to tell it. Now, no matter what has happened since George Floyd, someone is going to put it on television. Take time to tune into this as it is really a story that no mother would want to experience. The last episode is when the mother shows all those who were responsible for her son’s death just what he went through. (You might say she left the best until last.)
Betty White died just before her 100th birthday January 17. She was quite the lady! One of her remarks that I remember was, “I am able to live longer because of all the exercise I get climbing back upstairs because I forgot something!”
Just as I was ready to send this out, I got a welcome, surprise call from James McGee from California. I hadn’t heard from him ever since this COVID bit. His call just made my day!
Remember in your thoughts and prayers all those who have lost loved ones to death, especially this time of year. Remember those who have health problems, some of which will never get better; those who are struggling with making ends meet even though they have a job, and encourage those who need to have a job in their life as well as those who are still trying to make a bridge instead of a wall with friends and relatives.
I will leave you with this quote from Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish writer, “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”