’21 January

.

O Hope! into my darkened life     Thou hast so oft’ descended; My helpless head from failure’s blows,     Thou also hast defended; When circumstances hard, and mean,     Which I could not control, Did make me bow my head with shame,     Thou comforted my soul.  When stumbling blocks lay all around,     And when my steps did falter, Then did thy sacred fires burn     Upon my soul’s high altar. Oft’ was my very blackest night     Scarce darker than my day, But thou dispelled those clouds of doubt,     And cheered my lonely way. E’en when I saw my friends forsake,      And leave me for another, Then thou, O Hope, didst cling to me     Still closer than a brother; Thus with thee near I groped my way     Through that long, gloomy night Till now; yes, as I speak, behold,      I see the light! the light!

Alex was around for a few days fixing the floor in Olivia’s bathroom and doing a page of Thank You! for me.

He got his 18 year old truck painted. Shiny!

.

It’s Baby Time…welcome to Halayna! Lona sent this picture with the news – mother and daughter and doing well. So Sweet!!

It’s been more than one year since I got the front yard planted.

The flowers on the fence…still a delight.

I drove by DAR&L in Redondo Beach for the first time in 10 months..to drop off a gift for Angela’s birthday. The succulents were part of a big display at the Marina del Rey Garden Center.

Darryl, Rome, Lilly – We waved from the street.

You can still wander around outside. LACMA is covid-closed but also closed because it will be mostly rebuilt in the coming years. For now there are still a few things to enjoy. Lill and I took this opportunity to take the air…and a few pictures too.

My shoe basket by the door has got to overflowing and I’m wondering why.

How can a person who goes nowhere and does nothing have so many shoes?! I have no going-to-work shoes, or shoes for weddings or funerals (I keep thinking I really should get a pair of such shoes) but look at all these shoes. I do have a pair of fancy sandals and dancing flats, I just remembered! They’re not here because they’re in boxes in my closet.

So: 1-warm slippers, 2-slippers for relief of plantar fasciitis, 3-flips that are 80% worn out but I don’t want to throw them away, 4-new flips that Lona walked 12 miles in a pair just like them, 5-Birks that are so comfortable for kicking around and cured my plantar fasciitis, 6-hiking sandals (aspirational really, like I’ll be hiking anytime soon), 7-running shoes (aspirational really, like I’ll be running anytime ever), 8-garden shoes. And with the fancy sandals and dancing flats that makes 10 pairs of shoes.

Ten pairs of shoes and nothing for jury duty. And I used to go out. I used to go to work every day and to parties. I must have pitched all those shoes over the years. I must know people with SO many shoes!

I know, my Hair, omg, out of covid-control.

This is the wonderful group with whom I have been reading Attar’s Conference of the Birds for months now, and it’s been a weekly delight. Hilda is responsible for making it happen, and as always, YAY Hilda. Every week I appreciate ‘us’ more, I think because we know each other better and what we say comes with context.

The book and the discussions are quite spiritual and those who know me know I’m incapable of spiritual thought but I’ve been enjoying it anyway and today I realized why. You don’t have to believe in a supreme being, or the afterlife, or reincarnation, or the supernatural to get something out of the book. For me we live all our lives in one go, here in the life we have now and that’s it, but the principles still apply because we, (like the phoenix, the story we just read) have reinvented ourselves often and we hope we’ve learned more of life’s lessons each time.

Judy, me, Luna, Victoria, Hilda

The Tunnel! I got my first covid vaccine shot today. Wow am I happy. It’s neck and neck, and I’m hoping for an across-the-tape tie, the second shot and the two weeks wait after that for 95% immunity Or/And the last of my wounds from The Incident closing. I’m old, and I think we all need a break from all this so EYE can GO Somewhere and DO Something.

I got the Moderna. The needle is pointing to the end of the line.

Things To DO

Some thoughts, all including some places I have never seen, all about 6 weeks. Oh yes baby.

.

Wild Frontiers Tours Central Asia

Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan – 2 minibuses are used, so no one will be cramped. 

Tajikistan – 4WD vehicles are used but with only 2 travelers in the back seat.

Uzbekistan – A coaster bus is used (a bit smaller than standard coach bus). 

Turkmenistan – A coach bus is used. 

.

Will Mindy still be in Jordan

Alexandria/Cairo

Amman

Doha

Abu Dhabi/Dubai

.

Antwerp and around designed by B&K

then by train:

  Luxembourg

  Bern

  Lucerne

  Zurich

.

Italy! some places where I’ve been and others where I haven’t

a week in the Adriatic sailing along the Dalmatian Coast (Dubrovnik to Triste) or mess with ferries and fewer/longer stays

Venice

Florence

On the road between Pisa and Genoa including Cinque Terre

Amalfi/Positano

Leaving at least one week in the south

On Jo Ann’s wall.

.

Alex and Carol are looking at getting a bigger boat. Engine porn for Alex.

.

Should I clip off those about-to-be flowers? I asked Lill and I know she’ll tell me!

.

I watched One Night in Miami in reflection of MLK Day. It’s pretty good, worth watching for the historical value alone especially if these actors don’t look familiar in their rolls.

I’m going to try to get this picture bigger..this is how big we can do now. Oh my goodness, they’re all together!

Rupa and Anil’s two daughters and their families both live in cities far from home so they don’t often have the chance for them all to be together in Vadodara (formally Baroda) very often. Rupa’s 75th birthday did the trick!

Tanya’s husband Rakshit, Tanya, Meghan, Meghan’s husband Deval. Anil, Meghan’s daughter Shakti, Rupa, Tanya’s daughter Mishka.

I finally got the kitchen mostly cleaned up. Ha! The rug is reflected in the oven door. I’m one person and an occasional guest, so why is the kitchen always in need of a tidy-up? I’ve been on a bit of a cooking binge. It will pass soon I’m sure but for the time I’ve got tasty dishes packed up in the freezer.

A ‘funny’ thing happened. I got a delivery from Whole Foods and the picker seemed to have choices of his own. I wanted whole carrots and he brought baby carrots. OK, at least they’re in the carrot family. I wanted chicken thighs and he brought pork chops. Now that’s a leap, especially since so many people don’t eat pork. No problem though, I took it as a challenge and cooked some super-delicious pork chops.

Here’s a totally unrelated matter. Letterkenny. Why is this show so great? Kooky Canadians. Oh man, LOL.

But this was definitely not a pretty day. But was this the day we deserved? For letting Trump have his way all these years? For electing the scorpion?

The Scorpion and the Frog via Wikipedia.  “A scorpion, which cannot swim, asks a frog to carry it across a river on the frog’s back. The frog hesitates, afraid of being stung by the scorpion, but the scorpion argues that if it did that, they would both drown. The frog considers this argument sensible and agrees to transport the scorpion. Midway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog anyway, dooming them both. The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence, to which the scorpion replies: “I couldn’t help it. It’s in my nature.””

.

My first BATH in 5+ months, since The Incident, and it was glorious, fanTAStic, a New Year’s JOY. My wound care nurse said it would be ok and we scheduled it so that he’d come just as I was finishing. Good thing too considering I still have a 1.7 inch diameter open wound where I sit, but I’m So Much Better I could take a BATH.

In these trying times a bath can feel like a weekend trip to the spa!

AND Surprise (they’ve kept it a secret…), TeeTee is pregnant and the baby is coming at the end of the month!

All photos thanks to TeeTee and Lona.

Lona is retired?! Yes! Lona and Trevor have hired a property management company to take care of the day to day operation of the rentals effective January 1. I’ll add that Lona is six years older than I am and going strong.

.

Watch me now! (This is btw, the highlight of my New Year.)

Click; Make it Full Screen; ENJOY!

.

.

And now, if you want, you can have a stroll down memory lane and enjoy the source with this version from Dirty Dancing.

Rainbows, living room, dining room, bedroom, kitchen, service porch, Santa Monica

Click this link: For the story of the bathroom.

Like I read somewhere, a new year is not a magic reset.