Sunday, December 20, 2015

Winter Arrives

Today is the solstice and the storms are beginning to arrive from out in the Pacific. This is an El Nino year and many are purchasing sand bags,tarps and other assorted items at Ace Hardware for the upcoming season. It is cold today, and it is a damp cold. I like days where I can stay in and not feel guilty about not going outside. This is one of those days, although I plan to go to dinner at a place close by.

Today, I am writing cards and sending emails.I've sort've reached an impasse with my rock painting.It has supported me over the past five years, but I am beginning to tire of it a bit. What I am going to do next is anyone's guess, but until I do, rock painting will be the order of the day.Besides,It is Christmas after all, and remembering friends during the holidays is a good practice and something that is expected.Most of the people I know will be spending the day with family and friends.It is not any different for me.

This year I plan on participating as a speaker at an Alcathon meeting in Napa at 2am in the morning on Christmas day. What better time to be grateful for all that has been given to me. I am planning on being with friends on Christmas eve, and will also be doing the second reading at the church I go to here in Calistoga.Besides this,I will be probably be eating lots of good food and sleeping long hours on Christmas day. Best wishes to all, and to all a good night !

Tuesday, December 01, 2015

Winter Approaches

I don't seem to mind my indoor activities much because I have a good reason. I'm earning a living by staying busy in the studio part of my one bedroom apartment where I've lived for the past twenty years. I would have never imagined that I would stay in Calistoga, if you had told me that back in the nineties.Today was pretty darn cold. The temperature only got up into the high fifties, as the thermometer went down into the high twenties, which is just cold enough to kill the plants on the deck.The fruit as been dropping around here too. My neighbor Raphael let me pick a whole grocery bag full of lemons,and my friend Eleanore gave me a bag of Fuju Persimmons which are like eating fresh apples... yum! The other kind are to bitter and puckery unless they are soft enough to put in your yogurt.Okay, I am hungry and their is still enough turkey left over from Thanksgiving to tide me over.Speaking of which, you can see the whole group there noshing away at Martha and Ernie's place. My friends Veda and Bill are there along with my niece Terry wearing the party hats.