Happy Father's Day

Another Father's Day, and here is my dad when he was a cute lil' angel.  The pencils are significant -- he turned out to be quite a visual artist and architect.  81 years young now, I still see that little boy in him.  Happy Father's Day, Dad.  I love you.

Happy Easter

L., 4 yrs old

Yours truly, 3 or 4 years old

Two girls.  Two Easters.  Decades apart.  There's a grandson who will someday be added to this collection.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This parade happened yesterday in Old Town.  Apparently a lot of people were getting their party on early, being that Saturday does not fall just before a work day for many.  Better to wake up on Sunday with a raging hangover than on Monday. 

It's hard to believe that it was two years ago my mother fell and broke her hip while under my care at her San Diego house.  Dad was up here in Sacramento scouting for a home to buy.  Big surprise to me, but I was calm under pressure, not wanting to scare or upset her.  The ambulance came, as did the paramedics, and off we went to the hospital.  Dad caught the first available flight home, and the rest is history.

I shall always remember this on St. Patrick's Day.  Just as I always remember my dearest grandmother who passed away on Christmas eve those many years ago.  Way to mark the occasion, ladies!  We Irish like to do things dramatically with a bit o' flair.

Happy New Year!

Having next to nothing inspiring to say about the new year upon us, I've taken to reading quotes.  There are many.  Here are my favorites:

New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions.
- Mark Twain

The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year's Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you're married to.
- P. J. O'Rourke

Well maybe it is just the time of year,
Or maybe it's the time of man.
I don't know who I am,
But you know life is for learning.

We are stardust.
We are golden.
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.   ~ Joni Mitchell

And from me to you:  may we all learn some new and useful things in 2013, about ourselves, each other, the world, and the universe beyond.

Namaste.

He Makes Me Feel Okay

This lil' guy made my Christmas morning.  Still a little young to get the whole Christmas thing (him, not me) but old enough to get the tearing of the gift wrap.  He liked the little bus inside with the people you can pull out and put back in.  After he tasted and chewed every one.  And, of course, the larger boxes had their own playful magic. 

And what could be better for a Christmas breakfast than Cheerios?  Followed up with pancakes that daddy made.  And sausage.  Oh, and a bit of sweets.



If you've lost that loving feeling for Christmas, may I suggest finding a child to spend the morning with next year?  It's pretty grand.

A Seasonal Greeting

Nadine

Nadine Robinson, Beloved Grandmother 1912 - 12/24/97

She was a wild one.  Married 5 times.  Mother to my father.  An artist, a secretary, a social butterfly with a beautiful singing voice.  A constant smoker until her late 70s when she contracted lung cancer and beat it.  My sisters and I remember the nights she sang lullabies in our darkened bedroom, the glow of the lit cigarette in her hand keeping time.  Nary a window open.

She took us on 'fun rides' in her Volkswagen convertible with the top down, going up and down on the hilly asphalt and tar roads of Mission Hills.  She treated us to fancy dinners and introduced us to fancy food: crab, lobster, shark, frog legs, escargot and the ever present Shirley Temple while she sipped her Martini.

She lived long enough to see her only granddaughters have children of their own.  And she had fun with her great grand babies as well.

Christmas was one of her favorite holidays.  She had beautiful decorations - a village made of stained-glass houses, shops and a church.  She gave my daughter a procelain fairy each year to hand on our tree.  After a few years of this she gave me the entire collection, making me promise to give just one each Christmas until they were gone.  So, for years after she died, I watched as my delighted daughter discovered the "new Christmas Fairy from GG." 


Merry Christmas Grandmother, GG, where ever you may be.  Your great granddaughter's Fairies still hang on her tree.

'Tis the Season to Relax

My friends reminded me of the marvelous Grooveshark on the internet, wherein you can listen to all kinds of music.  A blessed break from all the Christmas carols polluting the airwaves.  Instead, take a dip deep into your subconscious mind.



Don't get me wrong, I dig Christmas.  Just not so MUCH of it.  I may even be putting up my tree today.

Christmas Candy

My sis and her family have been making candy for Christmas gifts for 26 years.  One year they said to heck with it, and they got an earful from many disappointed friends.  People have come to rely on their candy, as sure as day follows night.

With our nice new big kitchen, we expanded candy making to both of our households.  We finished all the peanut clusters in 6.5 hours, compared to spread over 3 days.  We have a big refrigerator, and I have my little one downstairs.  All decks were cleared to harden up the peanuts mixed with melted butterscotch.  I can't even remember how many jumbo sized peanut cans we went through (10?) and how many bags of butterscotch chips (20?).  Sis cleaned out the store where she bought them.

Today is chocolate covered coconut balls.  Let the season begin!

Happy Thanksgiving

Today the local newspaper arrived wrapped in plastic it was so huge.  No surprise, 3/4 of it was holiday advertisements.  This drives me mad.

But on the better things.  This happy scene is from last year at my sis' house, and we'll be there again this year.  I'm making a few dishes to contribute, but all the hard work will be done by her and her family.

For many, the holidays only bring more feelings of isolation.  I did a couple of good deeds yesterday, delivering lunch boxes of food to a couple of down and out guys (one, "starving DJ") outside my local grocery store.  The look on their faces was priceless, they were so grateful for a turkey sandwich, chips and a cookie.  I only wish I'd had more boxes, I would have liked to walk our streets and hand them out.  Good idea for next Thanksgiving: more!

Or, radical thought: any time of  year.  It is true: that in giving we receive.

Happy Thanksgiving, dear blogging friends!

Happy Easter, Wherein a Rabbit Delivers Colored Eggs

Carmel, CA @ 1960

auld lang syne and bell chant

A cup of kindness to you all.

The Great Bell Chant (The End of Suffering) from R Smittenaar on Vimeo.

Christmas Past and Present

Today on Christmas I remember a couple of things: my dearest grandmother, Nadine, died on Christmas eve (years ago, now) after a bout with the flu. I loved her so very much, and her exit was quick and unexpected -- just how she wanted it. No lingering about for her.

I have this necklace now, and whenever I wear it I feel her close.

The other thing: my daughter's second Christmas on this earth was spent on the opposite coast from me: her father took her to visit his family, per our separation agreement. That was a hard one for me, to be away from my baby at all, much less on Christmas. I could have wallowed in self-pity, but instead hopped a plane for southern climes and joined my parents for an adult Christmas of fine food and bubbly.

This small child kept us in stitches.

This year, my daughter arrives tomorrow with her husband and son!  It all works out, it all comes back to center.

My nearest and dearest.

Blessings and good wishes to all my friends this Christmas!  Happy New Year!

Fiat Lux

I experience this emotional clash each year during the holidays, starting with Halloween and ending with Valentine's day. So much hype and expectation for fun, frivolity and fellowship. I'm feeling the love this year, and enjoying the holidays with friends and family, and generally not getting caught up in the excess.

However, I am also acutely aware, how many people are struggling. It may be financial or emotional, or mental. It's the worst time of year to be in the pits of despair, because dammit, you're supposed to be HAPPY and you're supposed to CELEBRATE.

This year is my first Christmas in a decade I will not be with my wife. I've already passed the first Thanksgiving, and I sailed through that happily with my family. Though she was never a huge fan of Christmas, it is nevertheless odd not have her around during the holidays. I know a few other folks who are experiencing their first post-separation/divorce holiday season and my heart goes out to them. If we all lived in the same town, I would say "Come on over!" and we could hold each other up and toast to our new adventures in life.

As this calendar year ends and a new one soon begins, it sets me to wondering what lies ahead. What will I being doing next December? And the following? And...? I cannot know. But I'm okay with that. I don't need to know. As read on Mountain Musings this morning, "Seneca the Younger said it well:
'Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow it loses today.'"

Tree Lighting at the State Capitol

The 'rents and I walked over to the capitol for the tree lighting ceremony. It had some pretty hokey entertainment, but there was a youth choir from Oakland who absolutely wowed the audience. The Governor's remarks were - uh - sincere - if unrehearsed. It was fun to see him up close and personal.



I'm getting too old and feeble to stand in a crowd for more than 5 minutes, though. Everyone annoys me. Even little children piss me off. Actually, it was their parents who pissed me off because they neglected to reign in really bad behavior. I had to rescue a toddler from having her hair pulled out by another toddler. The mother of the "victim" was very grateful to me, the other mother took her son and slunk out of the crowd, presumably to beat him senseless (one hopes).

Merry Christmas.

Tis the Season

JJ is giving away Christmas ornaments and money - seriously.  Look at these gorgeous handmade beauties:

The story behind these ornaments is a good one -- a 'feel good' story if there ever was.  Check it out.

A Tree is a Tree is a Tree

I got a jump on Christmas this year. I found this tiny tree for $9.99 (omgosh, is it a Herman Cain tree?) and decorated it with tiny ornaments and my old batik scarf from Bali.

A far cry from Christmas of old, but we have no room in the apartment for a full sized tree and despite our resolve to do without one this year, I presented this one for approval.

Dad thinks it's tacky.  Mom thinks it's sweet.  We win.

It's just a little wink to the season, a smidgen of Joyeux Noel.

When I was growing up, my maternal grandfather's family owned a Christmas tree farm in the mountains outside of Placerville.  Grizzly Flat.  They still  operate a tree farm, though in a different location since the patriarchs passed away.

Helping out on the farm during Christmas season is one of my happiest childhood memories.  We would bounce around the hills in an old open jeep with Missy, his black Labrador retriever,  and the ever present stream of grandpa's cigarette smoke.  I can see the old man's hands gripping the wheel: stained yellow and brown, nails ragged and dirty with tree pitch and soil.  The smell of gasoline and motor oil oscillating with the sharp green smell of fresh cut trees.

My cousins and I were given the task of making wreaths, and there was a little shed devoted to it, with a foot pedal operated contraption that squeezed shut the heavy gauge wire to secure the greens to the round frame.  We embellished with pine cones and berries, and thrilled when someone marveled over them and actually purchased one.

So, this year's little quasi Charlie Brown tree is my humble salute to the season.  For me, the tree farm days are long, long gone.  And that's okay.  $9.99 for a little holiday cheer delivers a lot of bang for the buck.  Stunning realism?  Unsurpassed quality?  Not.  Happiness?  Definitely.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving day! We did. My sister's cats stayed off the table, but Fred the cat had great fun on the backs of the chairs. We indulged them because it was too cute!

Later, Ginger (L) and Fred (R) resumed their post.

To Veterans, One and All

A beautiful true story of humanity rising in the middle of war.  I'm a pile of contradictions, I know that.  In my last post I fantasize about rocket launchers; today I honor a story of peace and great good will.

Happy Halloween!

2011 Mount Airy, North Carolina

Regina got very creative with her jack-o-lantern...mine is just laughing at hers.  The kiddies will no doubt be here soon and we stopped at the dollar store to pick up more candy (what, oh what, will we do with the leftovers?).

We returned today from our trip to Asheville, a 2 hour plus drive through the incredibly beautiful Blue Ridge and Smokey mountains.  The fall color is spectacular; I've never seen anything like it other than in photos.  I didn't even attempt many photos of it, because I knew my iphone would not do it justice.  Here is one attempt, from Warren Wilson College:

North Carolina, WWC, 2011

The Smokey Mountains were indeed smokey.  Home to the largest black bear population in the eastern US, the mountains get their name from the fog that is typical for the area.  The fog was there as we drove through, but only a thin veil of mist.  The peaks of the range are very different from what I normally see in California, and it was grand to be traveling through territory I had not seen before.

Alas, my trip comes to an end soon, and I'll be winging my way home to Sacramento.  I'm more than satisfied by my choice of destination, spending time with old friends has been delightful.  They have been up to showing me around, seeing sights and making sure the sheets were clean and food was available.  How nice is that? I've kept the national news at bay for an entire week, and though I know there is a lot going on, I don't care right now.  I have visited museums, walked city streets and small town roads, gazed upon trees of every bright hue and slept in comfy beds heaped with hand-made quilts.  Life is good.