Merry Christmas 2020!
November 2020
It’s Saturday after Thanksgiving, so it’s time to start our annual Christmas letter. 2020 will be a memorable year, but luckily totally uneventful for us. Covid colored this entire year. Early March, the state shut down, and even though Susan’s employer was deemed essential, they encouraged employees to work from home when possible. From March through June, Susan worked from home, only going into work one or two days a week, mostly to send paperwork to production and check on important shipments. I enjoyed having her home, but I drove her crazy. “Coffee’s ready!” “Aren’t you going to eat lunch?” It was just one interruption after another. By July, they let her go back into the office every day and she was ready! However, she has only worked four days a week with every Friday off for the rest of the year as she had to use her vacation or lose it.
And we learned new ways of doing things. Church service, Sunday morning is on You Tube and Bible study is Wednesday on Zoom. Seeing and talking on Zoom helps us keep contact.
One door closes and another opens. All of Susan’s retreats were cancelled, and her monthly Days for Girls work sessions were put on hold. But Susan responded when she realized that masks were in short supply. She found many patterns on line, tried several and after some experimentation came up with a design that she used to mass produce them. Local nursing homes and care centers were glad to have them. And when our church considered reopening she volunteered to supply them too. We stopped counting after 500 masks, hard to tell how many now months later – perhaps close to 1000.
Susan has also agreed to cook breakfast on Sunday mornings at the local homeless shelter for the season. The season runs from the first of November to the end of April. She makes eggs (cooked what ever way the guest want) toast and bacon. This is now her fifth year serving and she has gotten to know several guests. I understand they look forward to her cooking for them. This year the shelter moved from the Catholic Charities building they were housed in until Covid hit to one of the Methodist Church downtown. With their building primarily closed, they were willing to host the shelter this year. There is a move within the community to move this seasonal shelter, one of the community food pantries and a clothing pantry along with other resources to assist the homeless and needy into one location that is on the bus line. Right now many of these resources are not on the bus. Hopefully that will be in place by next season.
Now-a-days in preparation for retirement, Susan likes to futzpuddle; she hand knits or crochets a little, machine knits a while, takes a nap, sews after that, then she changes the order and does them all over. She will be retiring at the end of the year.
If the weather permits she’ll go to the barn to ride Dalyte. Dalyte is a bit calmer and quieter, she is now 23 years old, but Susan enjoys being out with her. Some days Susan goes out and just takes her for a walk. Just to spend time together. We miss having cats, but not enough yet to look for a new cat; probably after Susan retires.
There was some remodeling early this summer. The brick front on our house was showing its age, with more and more split or broken blocks, so we had a local builder come in and replace them with stone. We’re very happy with the new appearance. Susan has pictures on FaceBook. This winter we’ll have him come back to start remodeling the basement; replace the staircase, and re-do the floor and ceiling in the main room.
Ah, dear readers, I can hear your query; “But what about Paul? How is he coping?” For years, Susan has worried about Paul and his inclination to become a hermit. Well, Paul is now openly embracing the life of a hermit and thanks to Covid without any guilt. He shops inside the grocery store on Mondays, and orders on-line and just picks up the groceries when he shops on Thursday. He says he needs to physically walk the aisles at least once a week, just to gain inspiration for the menu. Susan continues to try to get him out of the county every year; so this year they got in the car and headed north. When they crossed into Lincoln County (the next county north), they pulled into a driveway to turn around and came back home (yes, by a different route). It was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. So don’t worry, my friends, Paul is quite relaxed and smiles most of the time.
Well, dear reader, this brings us to the end for this year.
Enjoy Christmas and enjoy Life!
God's blessings to you for the coming year.
Susan and Paul Stomieroski
6310 Setter Road
Weston, WI 54476
(715) 355-7769
Susan@Stomieroski.com
Paul@Stomieroski.com
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