Christmas

We got the boxes off, and a smattering of cards out (more to do). Laura and her cat Adee came to visit for a few days. We decided last Sunday to have a Christmas Eve brunch, and emailed out some invites. About 20 folks came by and we enjoyed the morning.

We strolled through Winterhaven late in the evening. My favorites were the 12th day of Christmas and a green Charlie Brown Christmas tree amid all the led lights, music, and other fantastic light displays. On the drive across town, folks seemed to be heading home, though the Walgreens and the hospital parking lots were quite full.

Back home, we made preparations for Christmas morning with Laura taking on much of the responsibility. And then we slept....a long winters night sleep. The morning started with stockings and a late brunch, and continued with phone calls, gifts exchanged and appreciated, more phone calls and stories, a late afternoon walk in the twilight, a simple dinner and a little tv, including Charlie Brown Christmas.

It was a quiet day for enjoying family and friends and celebrating whatever meaning one can find in it. I've realized it doesn't have to be a perfect holiday or a perfect day. It just is what it is:
peace on earth...joyous noel...liberation and freedom...friendship and love....family and friends...hope...chit ananda...tis better to give than to receive...a day to practice patience and love. We hope your day was a wonderful day.

Blessings to all.

Winter Comes

I keep humming, "In the bleak midwinter" and consider rereading John Steinbeck's In the Winter of Our Discontent* or Dickens, but the solstice arrived in Tucson at 5:04 a.m. on Sunday December 21 and we are on our way back to summer and light. True, there is one more very dark week before the sunrise begins to creep backward, but it contains the Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas Eve and Christmas, so it will be a joyful week.

We knew we'd have a leap day and a leap second in 2008, but can you remember a longer year in your life? Somehow, though, I am hopeful with 61% of the folks voting, and thousands of people continuing to be engaged at a grass roots level after the election. Civil dialogue? Who knew it was possible in this age?

Comings and goings of the year

Hannah graduated from UA in veterinary science and moved to Denver where she works as a certified vet tech at the Firehouse Animal Health Center on Colfax. She had a great review and has worked phenomenally hard. Hannah is applying for vet schools and a couple of veterinary science master's programs in her quest to become a veterinarian. Although admitted to CSU last year, she decided to take a break and work. Matt, her beloved, is completing his culinary degree at Johnson & Wales, and will set off on an 11-week externship at a very upscale restaurant in New York or California this March. We're missing them for the Christmas holiday, but Laura will visit them in January, and we'll pop up that way soon. They are enjoying the snowy weather and opportunities for young folk in Denver.

Laura was admitted to the PhD program at UA in Natural Resources and works
with Don Falk. She spent much of the summer doing field work in New Mexico and Arizona, and is analyzing the data and working on some papers for submission. She received her master's diploma from UC Irvine during the year. She moved into the place that Hannah vacated when she left for Denver, making us official empty nesters again. Laura is an amazing desert gardener. We're still eating tomatoes off her plants, and she kindly landscaped her rental unit. Laura taught herself to knit this fall, and her photography is worth a visit on her flickr site linked below.




Bob and I are news, science, and documentary devotees. He runs. I yoga. We are both working on family genealogies. We have taken up bananagrams as sort of a faster version of scrabble. We eat at home much more regularly, and try not to look at our IRA statements more than necessary. I caught sight of What Color Is Your Parachute? for Retirement: Planning Now for the Life You Want by Richard Bolles and have added it to my reading list. There is something very nice about simplifying, and I'm grateful for my frugal parents who taught me well. I wonder how a job stimulus package to rebuild the infrastructure will really work? We've been pointing folks to the post-industrial information, post-industrial work force for decades. The service-based, buying of stuff that takes discretionary income economy has many cracks. So, like everyone, we watch and wait. And we are frugal.

Frugality can have great unintended benefits. It takes me back to working my first post-graduate job c. 1975, when the office newlyweds had a $10.00 gift budget for each other. They strove to find the most clever, interesting, one-upping gift they could each find for $10.00. Granted that was worth more than it is now, and long before everything was made more cheaply. Craig's List wasn't even a thought. They were great savers with a plan, and they really enjoyed seeking a worthy gift on a shoestring.

Life was simpler without the pressure to have every technology gizmo in the house. Studies show, however, that we look at the past with rosy glasses and nostalgia. I for one, am not trading in my computer. And my general advice to know how to support yourself 6 different ways turns out to be good advice for a lot of folks.

We've enjoyed some trips and guests this year....Oklahoma City, Columbus, Atlanta, Washington DC, Flagstaff and Denver. We lost some dear family, and reconnected with other family members in the process.

Are we connected yet?

The conjunction of the moon, Jupiter and Venus amused us in early December. Bob says it doesn't mean anything, they are all just hanging out in in the same line of sight. First there was a sort of smile, with the planets above the moon, then it flip flopped....for those of us in the northern Hemisphere. We're slowing down, dark matter has been photographed, the planets align and realign. What we see in the night sky is really not there anymore. It all gives me perspective on our tiny place in the universe.

We miss the girls, but cell phone, email, Facebook....keep us in touch. I remember setting off for college in the late 1960s and being told, "you can call home on Sundays." Period. It isn't the same. I've managed two visits to Denver, one shortly after the August move right as the DNC started up, and another on a 4-hour layover on the way to D.C. Who knew a layover could be valuable?

The connectivity explosion has propelled me to become a joiner. You'll now find me on Facebook along with my Peace Corps Fellow and Peace Corps Fellow alum groups, Ning for work, Linked-In for professional contacts, Twitter because Wendy and Bert told me to. And I'm still maintaining the Peace Corps Fellows web site, throwing up You Tube interviews of the Fellows, emailing, managing 5 listservs, and occasionally updating this Which Way Ranch blog.

I say, sign up for Facebook. It turns out to be an entertaining and useful tool for quickly reaching others. It sends a message to your email in-box. It is fairly easy to throw up photos. The over 40 crowd is flocking to it. It is more likely to have baby pictures than "babe" photos on it among my crew.

Happy Holidays

Wherever you are, whatever your situation, whatever you believe, we wish you a moment of peace and harmony and hope you are with those you cherish. Since everything is impermanent, this time will change too...we just don't know when. We do know that the light will return.

* See the linked New York Times review of "Its a Wonderful Life" if you want a slightly ironic view of the post-industrial age we inhabit.

Early December

With just the cat and the chicken and Bob and me at home, the pressure's off. The Thanksgiving horn of plenty and the lady pilgrim candlestick holder are still laying about and the frig still has ubiquitous leftovers that are now likely headed for the compost bin. We're thinking about decorating for the holidays and perhaps a little simple entertaining.

We attended the Messiah Sing-Along last Monday, Dec. 2, at Grace to the Nations Church. We warmed up with some carols led by the Tucson Boys Chorus conductor. Last year we arrived late and sat with the tenors and I sort of kept pace with the sopranos seated right next to us. This year, we went with the soprano section, and guess what I've learned I'm an alto. We snagged a new copy of the libretto. This year, the bass recitative "Behold, I tell you a mystery" caught my ear. "Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be chang'd in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet." The chorus chimes in with two pages of "we shall be chang'd, be chang'd" and indeed, that pretty well sums up this year in every way.

I attended Adrian and Febe's wedding in Agua Prieta yesterday with my friend Laura. It was a charming wedding and lovely dinner, and we had a great time catching up on the drive. The minister did a lovely job of reminded the couple and the congregation what it takes to tend to the marriage over the long haul. We were all amateur photographers and took many shots of the beautiful day.

It looks like we really do have to produce our passports in about 6 months to cross, so I've got to get mine renewed. In the meantime, my faded, but certified birth certificate got me through our very thorough crossing guard. We stopped again at a Border Patrol check on the north side of Sierra Vista. One wonders what changes may take place.

This evening we drove across town to Nick and Mary's tree trimming party, an annual tradition for many moons. I walked in and brutally thought, "who are all these old people?" Oh, it turns out that they are us, though now there are kids of original guests coming.

Mary always slaps a nametag of a famous person on your back and you ask questions of others to guess your identity. I was a dead male Arab - it turned out to be The Prophet Monammad and Bob was Helen Keller. The theme was persons who 'rock hope.'
Mary asked us all what the highlight of the year was. Hmmm, I thought about it and decided doing a handstand on my own at the wall was pretty wonderful. It took me about 6 years to actually pull it off. Bob and I also agreed having the house to ourselves was also pretty nifty. We do miss the girls and wish they spent more time with us, but there's a simplicity we enjoy.

A tip from Mary on tree trimming....she had 3 or 4 bouquets of baby's breath for the final glory instead of . It tucks in beautifully.

Hannah sent photos of snow in Denver. It looks like she and Matt will stay there for Christmas this year, but they may visit afterwards and sister Laura is planning a visit out to Denver in January.