8 December …

Well, I got my Covid booster last thursday.  I had a competent provider and no reaction, no redness, not even a sore injection site.  So I guess I’m good until next October for flu, pneumonia, and whatever else depending on Covid mutations, new scientific discoveries, etc. 

I have some friends, neighbors, family, etc. with whom I disagree over various ideas, behaviours, beliefs … but that doesn’t overshadow why I value them.  

I just listened to a TED talk about confrontation and the difference between that and the act of “calling out”and the idea of change both in others and in ourselves.  I do not plan to either confront or call-out anyone.

My tenet is … I choose for myself and others make their own choices.

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When he was here last, John checked out the Grandmother clock.  She seems to be adjusting to her place in our new domain.  She did vacillate for a bit but seems to have settled into a comfortable place.  Her face and her voice both prodube pleasure, especially at night.

He also brought personally poured meditation/prayer candles.  I don’t yet have a secure place for them in my bedroom as I had in the past.  Instead, for now it is where I can see the glow on the wall and be reminded. 

Two things which make my nights more comfortable.

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The weather is hedging toward winter … but very, very slowly.  Dawn when there is frost followed by chill but without wind is normal.  And there was one morning when the ground was dusted with light snow.

The animal population is interesting.  The hawk earlier … and one morning a covey of quail were busy gathering evergreen seeds.  

Plus, there are always the ravens.  

A group of crows is a “murder” and a neighbor and I were curious about what a group of ravens is called.  We found that a group of ravens is an “unkindness”, maybe because of myth and expectation, and maybe because they are tricksters.

I’m told they like bling, shiny things, so I may set out a few and see what develops.  And a neighbor told me ravens like peanuts in the shell.  That might be an option since the bears probably leave nuts in the shell alone.

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My first batch of cold-brewed coffee was started two days ago and decanted yesterday afternoon.

I had my first cup of coffee with creamer this morning.

It’s every bit as tasty as I remember.

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As I told you previously, I have the car, and during one trip last week I drove around town looking for the house where “Little Wilma” (I was “Big or Tall Wilma”) lived during the time we worked together in the local Emergency Room which has since become an Emergency Department.

She is a year older than I am and I had been told she is now mostly deaf and her sight was slipping as well.  But the house I remembered as her home looks as if there are new owners.  The family name plaque at the front door, which I remember from having visited there in the past, is missing. 

I knew her daughter and family had lived next door.  But that house didn’t look right either.

Oh well …

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Last minute update on the fugitive “murderer” in our area reported a week or so ago …  Not a “murder”, a “suicide”.  

Nothing in the local paper and nothing on the telly.

Sorry … that’s all I know. 

~~~

Yesterday was …  

George and I were teenagers, it was one of the few times I saw my father cry.  Before I graduated high school, George was in the Navy and served as an Aviation Electronicsman/Radioman on both Guam and Saipan and later aboard a Cruiser in Korea. I missed being a service nurse training as part of the Student Nurse Corps by a couple of months, I remember drawing lines up the backs of my legs, I still have some of my ration books …

George and I used to watch “Tora Tora Tora” every year and he wore his WW II / Korea ball cap proudly … 

This year I didn’t watch the movie, but I did watch some documentaries.  

I didn’t cry but it was good I had a box of tissues close. 

~~~

After a couple of run-ins with immature twits, I was reminded of this ..

As an Ancient Mariner of a sort, I occasionally want to hold the young with my skinny hand, fix them with a glittering eye, and say, “I have been to a place where none of you have ever been, where none of you can ever go.  It is the past.  I spent decades there and I have the right to say … you don’t have the slightest idea.”

So … ‘til next week …