Happy Holidays*

*Whichever and however many you care to observe, and anyone who wants to be exclusive and hog all of December for themselves can go do it elsewhere.

We didn't buy a tree this year, but while we were looking for a convenient way to display our incoming cards (the mirror where we usually tape them up has been removed while we restore the living room wall -- note the nice fresh drywall in the background), we saw the ladder leaning against the wall and decided to set it up. And having once done that, it seemed like a good idea to drape a string of lights over it.

So there you have it. Our Yule Ladder for 2010.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "For goodness' sake, do please ring in the new."\\

A Narrow Escape?

A few minutes ago I was up in the lookout tower on top of the house (which these days is located in the former boys' bedroom at the top of the stairs*), working on a story I'm writing**. I had carried the laptop up there in its bag, mainly because it was still in it after I'd gotten home,*** but I picked up the computer as I usually do, tucking it under my arm and wadding up the extension cord, then picked up the carrying case and my coffee cup, and then picked up my glasses case and held it between two fingers....

And then I suddenly saw how precarious and unstable the whole arrangement was, and felt a chill at the possibility of falling on the stairs.

So I put the computer and its cord into the bag, and my glasses case into my pocket, and descended the stairs in a much more sensible and grown-up fashion.

In how many alternate timelines am I lying dead or crippled at the bottom of the stairs for Kathe to find me when she gets out of the bathtub? Possibly quite a few but hey, that's their problem, as is the loss of the laptop in the timelines where I dropped it.


//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "The one thing nobody ever gets to know is what would have happened."\\

* Kathe's grandson Dick may be moving in soon. We would both enjoy the extra company, as well as the rent money.

** I'll let you know how that works out later.

*** I spent the morning sitting up with my father while my mother attends to the closing of the house and their moving to a mobile home in Corvallis.

One, Anyway

Driving out to my parents' place this morning, the fog was very thick until I got up onto the elevation of Reese Creek Road, when it suddenly became clear. I grumbled about how I could have used to have clear driving on 99W, until I noticed how very frosty it was up there, also.

Some of these microclimates are pretty damned micro, I must say.

Also, I must say the Valley sure is flat, that the entire stretch from Corvallis to Monroe is in the same band of weather.

And one more thing about the weather this morning: as I got out of the car, I saw just one brilliant meteor. We'd have seen many more, if the sky had been clearer lately. But it almost never is, in the Valley in December.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "One can be enough, if you let it be."\\

The Last Christmas

My father's health is not improving, and my mother is not large enough or strong enough (or young enough) to take care of him without more help, especially not in a house that is not really suited to an aging couple in frail health.

So, they are moving to a more-accessible mobile home in Corvallis, to be nearer to their doctors and to emergency services.

They will be moving early in the new year, which means, among other things, that this will be The Last Christmas (cue portentous music) in the house at Bellfountain.

David and Tom and their families will be gathering at the house, and will help with some of the moving (and will take away some quantity of family heirlooms, as will Kathe and I).

It probably won't be too difficult or too tearful, but I reckon it's going to be interesting.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "You can cue portentous music all you want, but it still is going to be The Last Christmas."\\