The Fourth Day of Christmas

My true love gave to me: Four Calling Birds

Last night was pretty much hell. As you can guess, driving 2 hours each way to my concert didn't make my back feel any better. By the time I picked Forest up in Lansing it was nearly midnight, and the roads were abyssmal. There was freezing rain in the pitch blackness for my entire ride home, and the concert was basically pointless, since our audience was tiny. I don't blame them one bit for staying home in that nastiness. I would have stayed home, too, if given the chance. As it was, on the ride home I saw countless accidents along the freeway, and in one place ended up stopped for nearly a half hour while the police enlisted a nearby snowplow truck to pull several stuck cars out of a ditch. I later found out that the local towing services were running at an 8-hour delay. It was that nasty. In one quarter-mile area on I-96 I saw 7 cars in the ditch and median. It was incredible, and I only managed to avoid that fate myself because I was going 30 MPH and in my van, which handles very well on ice.

Saturday afternoon, Forest and I had planned to go out and get our Christmas tree, and then decorate it after Forest's shift at Olga's. It turned out we were thwarted again; this time not by the weather, but by Forest's friend Will and his travel emergency. Somehow Will and Amanda had gotten it into their heads that they didn't need their tickets in order to board their airplane. (?)

They called us shortly afternoon from Detroit Metro Airport, and asked if we'd please run to East Lansing, pick up a key to their house, go to Haslett and get their tickets, then drive to the airport and drop them off. Their flight was to depart at 3:30.

We were in the car within 10 minutes, and drove as quickly as we could. We almost didn't make it in time, but thank heavens, the first leg of the trip the roads weren't too bad. Neither Forest nor I were thrilled about this; it wasn't anywhere close to the way we wanted to spend our day. Still, we made the trip with the grim resolution that this is what friends do for each other. We made the best of it, and recited 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' to each other. (We remembered most of it.) Maybe we will use this experience to enlist Will to drive us to O'Hare in Chicago for our honeymoon. Heh heh.

After about 5 hours spent in the car, it was pretty much all I could do to sit on a heat pad for the rest of the day, until it was time to pick Forest up. I know that sounds cowardly of me; but after all that driving, there was simply no other choice.

Then, we became determined. Come hell or high water, we were GOING to get a Christmas tree. Now. Nevermind that it was after 11 PM when Forest got out of work. Piffle. We'd find one, even if it was a Charlie-Browner, and take it home with us.

Out of desperation, we tried Meijer first; their red signs all say "Open 24 Hours". On the contrary: only PART of Meijer is open 24 hours. The garden department closes at 8.

Grumbling, and about ready to concede, we headed out on Snow road (aptly named at that point in time) and cut over to Waverly, on our usual route home.

Then what to my wondering eyes should appear.... but Home Depot! They have everything there, they are open 24/7, and I thought perhaps they might have a tree. This is where it starts to get a little surreal. Here we have been struggling since Thanksgiving to find a tree, and failed time and again. Now, as we walked into Home Depot, there was a giant neon pink sign on the door, proclaiming that trees were 50% off! At this point we didn't care about the price, but took the sign as an indicator that yes, they did have trees! We quickened our pace in eagerness, just as the overhead speakers informed us that in 10 minutes, the store would be closing. Apparently they aren't open 24/7, either, despite what their signs say.

Forest and I made a beeline to the tree area, and quickly discovered that it was in a shambles. I began to lose hope. There was no roof over the Christmas trees, and everywhere I looked were 6 to 8-foot snowbanks, with little pine branches sticking out. Clearly these had been the Christmas trees on display, and now they were nothing but snowdrifts. As we stood there, the freezing rain begain again.

We wended our way desperately through the piles of snow, when miraculously, standing upright with barely any snow at all, appeared an 8-foot Frasier Fir. It was a beautiful tree, even by non-desperate standards. I could hardly believe our luck. It was almost as though someone had stood it there, just for us. A happy Home Depot worker helped us bale the tree, and we gladly paid half price for it, and tied it to the top of the van.

Forest and I were nearly giddy with our success! It took us an hour to drive the 15 miles to our house because of the freezing rain, but after much gritting of teeth, we made the trip readily enough, too. Of course when we arrived home, our tree was frozen and covered in ice and snow; but we took it inside anyway, and put it up on its stand to dry out. After all, surely the early Americans occasionally had to cut their Christmas trees in the snow before. Maybe it's part of the charm of the thing. Hmm.

Forest and I have joked continually about our tree experiences. Last year was a complete fiasco of engineering; we got the tree easily enough, but spent three weeks trying to convince it not to fall over. This year the tree stood almost on its own, it was so well balanced. It seems that this year's tree malady was focused upon acquisition, rather than decoration. Hopefully it's downhill from here.

Amazingly, Forest and I both managed to stay up until an obscenely late hour; just reading, relaxing, and listening to the snaps and pops of the tree thawing in the Ninja room. It was a quiet, peaceful, pleasant evening.