Well, the weather outside was frightful. It didn’t snow, but we had lots of rain and wind. It was not too cold, so it did not freeze. It was a great weekend to hunker down and enjoy movies and Christmas presents.

Happy birthday to all who celebrated their day this past week. Big balloons go out to Leah Cimeno and to Geuvana Ferreira, who celebrated Dec. 26; Caroline Conover, Dec. 27; Noah BenDavid, Samara De Oliveira, Dec. 29; Lucas Lisboa, Matheus Lisboa, Kaniel Morgan, and Bristol Roten, Dec. 30; Jonah Mafcher, and Finnigan McAleavey, Dec. 31 and to Cuyler Fisher, who celebrates her day today, Jan. 1.

I hope you had a good holiday. It was quiet for many people and they were missing their family, but I am seeing about many Zoom times so people were able to see family, though there was no hugging or hanging around. We made the best of things and with the vaccine becoming available, next year will be a different story.

I want to end this year’s column with a couple of do-good stories. My friend Beth Erickson is a good cook. If she sees a recipe, she always puts her own ingredients in and doctors it up her way. She cooked some potatoes one night with a dinner for her friend. The friend loved them and asked what she did to them. Beth told her the recipe and one ingredient was McCormick’s Perfect Pinch Italian. The friend had never heard of that, and neither had I, so Beth thought for Christmas she would buy all the ingredients for her friend to make it. She went to the Stop and Shop and she looked at the spices and of course they did not have it. She expressed her dismay to one of the fellows working in the isle and he said he would see  what he could do.  Well the next time she went back, the man had special ordered the spice for her. It may not sound like much but it made her happy to be able to give a gift that someone wanted and the clerk went that extra step.

Rick Lambros got his RAV4 stuck in the sand at right fork last week. Rick has been driving the beach a long time, so he knew all the right things to do. His tire pressure was 15, and locked AWD. But the sand was so soft he got stuck right up to the undercarriage. He knew he was not going anywhere. The Trustees came and could not help because his truck was not towing equipped. AAA came in 45 minutes and did not have a cable long enough to reach. The driver told him he could go get another vehicle, but it was getting dark.

Rick declined, locked up the car and checked with the police department to be sure it was OK to leave it overnight. The next morning, he called Dave Morris to help and after two unsuccessful attempts they started digging. After a half hour they had half the sand moved and then as Rick said, “a miracle happened:” Greg Bettencourt showed up with his front-end loader. The men dropped their shovels as Greg pulled the RAV4 back to the pavement.   Greg would not accept any renumeration, and Rick felt after a 16-hour ordeal, Christmas had come early for him.  Greg had restored his faith in mankind. 

Some happy stories to end the year, and I am happy to write them. I want to thank all the people who read this column, for all their comments and encouragement when this was a tough year as we did not see people for news and there were no events going on. It is always nice to hear you enjoy what I write, and I thank you.

I wish you all a very happy, and most importantly a healthy New Year. Have a great week and keep the home candles burning.