Takin' Out the Trash

It's only about six weeks until Christmas.

I hadn't even noticed. Little Doug was talking about going to a Christmas party in a few weeks. That's when I realized how close it is.

Time marches on.

And now it's time to catch up on some Sack news.

***

The rebuilding of Burning Manor has begun.

Workers arrived on Monday and began to set up a power box for the construction process. A teepee-like structure now sits on the front of the property. It houses the power box.

On Tuesday, they started framing the ground floor. That's as far as they've been able to get this week. It has been raining in The Sack ever since.

Burning Manor is slowly rising from the ashes.

***

It is still a mystery whether Dirk and Dora will move back.

Mrs. Wonders and I were on our way out on Sunday and passed Dirk's car as it entered The Sack. There were three women in the car.

We think Dora was driving, but we're not sure. If it was Dora, she seems to have changed her appearance since last August.

The car drove around The Sack's centre circle and moved slowly past the lonely foundation of Burning Manor. Then it sped away.

***

Elizabeth put up her Christmas lights on Sunday.

I was walking by when I saw her on her porch. She was standing on a chair, while attaching lights to the roof line of the porch.

"It's that time again, eh?" I said. I will say this a lot, now that I know Christmas is getting closer.

Elizabeth looked down at me sternly and replied:

"No, it's not. I'm only putting these up now, because it's warmer today."

"That makes sense." I answered.

She stepped down from the chair and looked over her glasses at me. "Last year, I put them up at the end of November and almost froze my friggin' fingers off."

She looked at her fingers for a second and then wiggled them a bit.

"I'm not going through that again. If I don't put them up now, they won't go up at all. And I won't be turning them on for a long time, yet."

It's that time of year again, indeed.

***

Oscar's boy, Dorian has been invited to play for an elite hockey team. Oscar is proud of the lad, but very displeased at the same time. It means a lot of driving and time spent in cold arenas.

"Never before," Oscar says, "has my need for a helper monkey been greater."

***

Little Doug is on the mend.

In the space of a few weeks, he fell off a ladder and tumbled down his front steps. The cast has now been removed from his broken wrist. Apparently, his ribs have healed nicely.

Besides Little Doug himself, Gordon was the most pleased about his recovery.

Little Doug's yard is strewn with tools, scrap lumber and other building materials. He had a lot of projects going on when he suffered his string of injuries. He left everything in his yard while he recovered.

When asked about the mess, he said he "might get around to it next week." This is not what Gordon wants to hear.

As each day passes now, Gordon will become more incensed if Little Doug doesn't clean up his yard.

Oscar and I find no end of amusement from these little Sack dramas.

***

We recently reported a minor Britney Bitterman explosion. She accused Norma, of all people, of spreading rumours about her.

Norma was stunned by the accusation.

However, I'm told that Norma has since pieced together a possible explanation for Britney's little meltdown. Of course, it is all a misunderstanding.

It seems that Britney and her mother go to the same bingo hall as Norma on Tuesday nights. Bingo, I must bashfully report, is a popular past-time in the old town.

Norma has learned that someone in the vicinity of her usual sitting area did, in fact, make some disparaging comments about Miss Bitterman. In the interest of good taste, I can only say that the woman described Britney as "a harlot in need of a good bath."

***

Norma thinks someone overheard the comment and by the time it filtered back to Britney, she'd been mistakenly identified as the perpetrator.

She's still thinking about whether to approach Britney about this matter.

I'm still thinking about Christmas being only six weeks away.

***