Back to Work and Starting December

Last Sunday (29 November), I composed my annual holiday newsletter. I send this either with or in lieu of a Christmas card to family, friends, co-workers, and others I know. It recaps the past year for me and includes a photo of me taken last summer. I also have many of the ways people can contact or at least follow me--by mail, phone, or online. The first batch went out Wednesday, included with Christmas cards for my rental branch colleagues.

We had a problem with the clothes washing machine Sunday night, as it suddenly stopped in the midst of a load. My mom--who came back from Charleston Monday afternoon--called in a service technician. He came by Thursday afternoon (3 December) and found it was a loose connection. It was soon fixed and the machine is running like normal.

We had a good bit of business early this week at the branch, due to many people returning their vehicles from the Thanksgiving weekend. Our new assistant branch manager, Cayla, started with us on Monday and she will be a great addition to our branch.

After work Tuesday night (1 December), I was at Mark Twain Hobby Center (http://www.hobby1.com/) in St. Charles for the IPMS/St. Louis (http://ipms-stlouis.com/) meeting. Only three of us were present, as I showed off my USA-USSR Missile Set completed last month and shared some hobby news.

My off day Thursday was very nice. I met my friend Ramona Bass for lunch at Lotawater Creek Southern Grill (http://lotawata.com/index2.html) in Fairview Heights, Illinois. She had dined there some years ago and recommended the place. I soon found out why: Wonderful atmosphere and tasty food at good prices. I had the meat loaf lunch and it was very good. Ramona and I chatted about each others lives and it was a very pleasant time for us.

After lunch, I bought some holiday cookies from a nearby Walgreens and visited two branches were former co-workers from Ellisville now work. First, it was the downtown truck rental, where Adeline recently became manager. She was away--meeting with clients, I presume--so I gave a co-worker Adeline's Christmas card and the cookies (the latter for the office staff). Adeline later emailed me to thank me for the thoughtful gesture. Then, I drove to Chesterfield to see Tim, its manager. He thanked me for the card and cookies, and we got to chat a bit. I'm planning to visit other branches on my off time in the coming weeks, bearing cookies for the staff and Christmas cards for my friends and acquaintances.

Today's scheduled edition of Writer's Block (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/autistic-people-) will not air today, as the host is having to deal with pressing personal matters. We'll be back next month (2 January) at noon Central Time (10 am Pacific Time; 1800 hours GMT). I hope you can tune in then.

A bit of fog this morning. Hopefully, it will clear off for the Saint Louis Area Sippers Meetup this afternoon. More on that next time.

Later.