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Funny - I think . . .

Quote of the Day

Went to work with a song in my heart - unfortunately, it was one of those Fleetwood Mac tunes where Lindsay Buckingham just grinds his teeth and his guitar, because it’s a dull song he’s obliged to play.

- Lileks

Quote of the Day

The way to gain a good reputation, is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

~ Socrates

55 Years Ago Today

Meteorite strikes Alabama woman

The first modern instance of a meteorite striking a human being occurs at Sylacauga, Alabama, when a meteorite crashes through the roof of a house and into a living room, bounces off a radio, and strikes a woman on the hip. The victim, Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges, was sleeping on a couch at the time of impact. The space rock was a sulfide meteorite weighing 8.5 pounds and measuring seven inches in length. Mrs. Hodges was not permanently injured but suffered a nasty bruise along her hip and leg.

On Looking up by Chance at the Constellations

Robert Frost

You'll wait a long, long time for anything much
To happen in heaven beyond the floats of cloud
And the Northern Lights that run like tingling nerves.
The sun and moon get crossed, but they never touch,
Nor strike out fire from each other nor crash out loud.
The planets seem to interfere in their curves
But nothing ever happens, no harm is done.
We may as well go patiently on with our life,
And look elsewhere than to stars and moon and sun
For the shocks and changes we need to keep us sane.
It is true the longest drouth will end in rain,
The longest peace in China will end in strife.
Still it wouldn't reward the watcher to stay awake
In hopes of seeing the calm of heaven break
On his particular time and personal sight.
That calm seems certainly safe to last to-night.

Tis The Season

It's weird but I can't stop watching . . . .

Let it Rain

Here in So. Cal, seasonal weather can be hard to come by. Depending on who you ask, we basically have 3 months of spring, 6 months of summer and 3 months of fall. In an exceptional year, we may get 2 weeks of below 50's weather. I love our climate although I do miss waking up in Seattle every now and again, looking out the window from our bed and shaking the wife awake, "Honey! Look! It snowed!"

Even though I love a warm Thanksgiving - picking out the Christmas tree in 80-degree weather can take some of the twinkle out of a person's Christmas Spirit.

Well this weekend it rained - not much - but we will take it! All thoughts of yard work were postponed. Saturday the wife came home from work and said, "I am ready for Christmas! Let's get it started!" So out the door I went.

I withdrew our weekly grocery allowance (we are trying to only use cash so we stay on budget) and headed to the store. It was raining and I was in jeans and a flannel with a ball cap (standard fare from my Seattle days). The cold felt good, the rain felt good. Most days, walking into the grocery store does not register a change in temperature (unless it is summer and they have the AC cranked up). This time, I stepped from the wet parking lot and was greeted with a flow of warmth from the store. Christmas music was playing.

Cozy in my weather-wear (which I will likely not donne again for weeks) and cozy in the warmth of the store, I picked up the handful of items we were in need of and headed back into the rain and home.

The wife bathed the wee on and bundled her in fleece PJ's while I made dinner and got the this year's first batch of Wassail brewing. Wassail is our traditional Christmas treat:

One part Cranberry Juice
Three parts Apple Cider
One clove and one allspice berry for every cup of Apple cider
Slice up a couple of granny smith apples
Add a cinnamon stick for good measure
Put the whole thing on the stove to simmer
Serve with a splash of Brandy if you are so inclined.

As I stood over the stove finishing up dinner preparations I thought, "Me too - I am ready for Christmas - the spirit of it - the joy of it - the simplicity of it (if you can keep a hold of it - good luck)"

We had a fine dinner followed by left-over Thanksgiving pie and steaming mugs of Wassail while watching the first Christmas movie of the year (The Family Stone).

This morning we are all lingering in our PJ's - the soundtrack to Charlie Brown Christmas is playing. Yep, I am ready - bring it on - but bring it quietly, bring it softly, like a soft cooling rain on a drought-parched soul. Come on rain.

Season's Greetings everybody.

Breakfast Made Easy

Wondering what cereal to eat? Well with this handy-dandy flowchart you will wonder no more! (it actually worked pretty well for me . . . except I only have one type of cereal in my house - apparently it's the wrong one . . .)

A November Sunrise

by Anne Porter

Wild geese are flocking and calling in pure golden air,
Glory like that which painters long ago
Spread as a background for some little hermit
Beside his cave, giving his cloak away,
Or for some martyr stretching out
On her expected rack.
A few black cedars grow nearby
And there's a donkey grazing.

Small craftsmen, steeped in anonymity like bees,
Gilded their wooden panels, leaving fame to chance,
Like the maker of this wing-flooded golden sky,
Who forgives all our ignorance
Both of his nature and of his very name,
Freely accepting our one heedless glance.

Thanksgiving Drama

We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends this year. Always the creative types, one of the boys (Cory) had written a play for the kids to perform. Even Annabelle had a part in the play!

Here is Cory playing the part of the narrator:

It was really more of a Reader's Theater production since all but one of the actors read from their script. Annie's part was to sit quietly in her jumper while the action took place all around her:

Riley got to play the part of the family dawg. Here the scene takes place in a car. Riley was instructed to sit in the front seat and hang his head out the window (a part he greatly enjoyed):

And finally, here is the whole cast:

Another great production!

Thanksgiving Sweater

In Sickness and Health

by Alicia Suskin Ostriker

My friend whose husband
will soon succumb to cancer
loves to lie next to him at night

to smell him and feel the warm
stomach and flanks through his pajamas
the two of them are glad

he can still walk the streets of New York
still get tickets to the Philharmonic on impulse
they never fight any more

914 Years Ago Today

Pope Urban II orders first Crusade

On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II makes perhaps the most influential speech of the Middle Ages, giving rise to the Crusades by calling all Christians in Europe to war against Muslims in order to reclaim the Holy Land, with a cry of "Deus volt!" or "God wills it!"

Quote of the Day

One of the blessings of having children is that you get to remake yourself. Here, suddenly, midstream in life, are people who look to you, depend on you, love you more than anyone ever has, and in ways you barely understand, and they don't care who you were. All that matters is who you are to them now, how you treat them today, and if you were an ass in some previous life, if you lied and cheated and hurt the myriad of strangers and so-called friends that passed through your space in some B.C., well it can all be dismissed now. Just don't do it again, Dad.

-TMST

Thanksgiving 2001

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving feels like the saying of grace before the big feast of Christmas. A pause, a reflection, an admission that things are actually not quite as bad as all our complaining might make them out to be. Thanksgiving is a day when we stop, we pray,we clasp hands and say "Thanks".

I am so especially thankful this year for the many friends, family members, friends of friends and family members of friends that have prayed, sweated and given on our behalf the past 18 months. I am thankful for my wife, my daughter, my lousy dawg, our home, our jobs, those close to us and those who are scattered far and wide.

Blessings upon you this Thanksgiving day.

Thanks.

Poems and Prayers and Promises

By John Denver

I've been lately thinking
About my life's time
All the things I've done
And how its been
And I can't help believing
In my own mind
I know I'm gonna hate to see it end

I've seen a lot of sunshine
Slept out in the rain
Spent a night or two all on my own
I've known my lady's pleasures
Had myself some friends
And spent a time or two in my own home

And I have to say it now
Its been a good life all in all
Its really fine
To have a chance to hang around
And lie there by the fire
And watch the evening tire
While all my friends and my old lady
Sit and pass the pipe around

And talk of poems and prayers and promises
And things that we believe in
How sweet it is to love someone
How right it is to care
How long its been since yesterday
And what about tomorrow
And what about our dreams
And all the memories we share

The days they pass so quickly now
Nights are seldom long
And time around me whispers when its cold
The changes somehow frighten me
Still I have to smile
It turns me on to think of growing old
For though my life's been good to me
There's still so much to do
So many things my mind has never known
I'd like to raise a family
I'd like to sail away
And dance across the mountains on the moon

I have to say it now
Its been a good life all in all
Its really fine
To have the chance to hang around
And lie there by the fire
And watch the evening tire
While all my friends and my old lady
Sit and pass the pipe around

And talk of poems and prayers and promises
And things that we believe in
How sweet it is to love someone
How right it is to care
How long its been since yesterday
What about tomorrow
What about our dreams
And all the memories we share

This Day in History

68 Years Ago Today

FDR establishes modern Thanksgiving holiday

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill officially establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.

147 Years Ago Today

Alice in Wonderland manuscript is sent as a Christmas present

On this day in 1862, Oxford mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson sends a handwritten manuscript called Alice's Adventures Under Ground to 10-year-old Alice Liddell.

Quote of the Day

Jumping at several small opportunities may get us there more quickly than waiting for one big one to come along.

~ Hugh Allen