E:\LETTERS\XMAS\Xmas13.txt 

edit 2012XMAS.PUB -- don't make a card from scratch 
    
    
    January -- Dave bought another camera -- a wee tiny 
movie camera.   

    February -- After a drop in bank-account interest, we 
bought Norfolk Southern stock.  I think this is the first 
time we've been directly in the stock market since we bought 
our first house. 

    March -- Dave bought a computerphone; I started carrying 
his old TracFone.  My epiretinal membrane was examined and 
found so stable that I don't have to come back for a whole 
year unless I notice a change. 

    April -- Dave revised the household net to stand the 
strain of all those cameras.  My favorite Mexican grocery 
was gutted by fire.  My new typing chair wore out and I 
resumed using the old one.  The spring flooding was 
interesting but not inconvenient. 

    May -- Dave acquired a very large flower pot and bought 
a tomato plant.  He brings the tomato in at night to foil 
the deer. 

    June -- The second flood of the spring terminated the 
asparagus season.  I accidentally rode my first quarter 
century of the year, then set out to do one on purpose, but 
dropped out when invited to dine at Mad Anthony's.  We had 
several trees cut down, and the willow dropped a large chunk 
into the park. 

    July -- Dave's tomatoes start turning red.  I buy a 
pound of bacon.  Dave calls for an estimate on the rest of 
the ash trees.   After carefully examining its construction, 
I buy the only secretary's chair in town. 

    August -- Dave gets a chunk cut off his nose.  The 
cancer was smaller than expected, so no skin graft was 
needed. 
    A computer died and brought down the camera net for 
weeks.  Most of what was on it was backed up.
    I have a tooth cavity filled, deeper than expected.  The 
cat was examined and is doing just fine.   

    September -- The rest of our ash trees are cut down.  
The front lawn looks strange.   

    October -- still getting an occasional tomato.  Dave 
discovers that our slowest computer has been diligently 
running Seti At Home for years; he deletes it and 
performance improves.

    November -- we get our first snowfall on the Sunday 
before Thanksgiving.  It didn't stick.