











Well, I am back in the San Francisco Bay Area again, and there is a long story behind this trip.
But the main point of this adventure is to save Christmas for my family. We haven’t had Christmas yet. Our daughters were in other states, and I was working on Christmas Eve, and New Years Eve. My wife was sitting alone at home.
But now we are all at my 97-year-old mom’s house, the house where I grew up, the house where we always gather for Christmas. So there will be pictures of flowers… with my fake, spray-on dew from a mister bottle…
And there will be pictures of birds…
And there will be pictures of other things, although we are really pretty much in quarantine lockdown. In fact, we all stayed locked down for two weeks before getting tested and cleared before we all set off for the Bay Area. This is a major operation.
We took a walk around the neighborhood, where I took these pictures of Christmas lights with the telephoto lens. I thought the way the lights vanish in the distance would represent this holiday season in a way.
Mollie brought her boyfriend, Ben, on his first visit to the Bay Area. He is from New Mexico, where he and Mollie spent the actual Christmas week.
So it is a little different, but we will try to make this late Christmas as much like a regular Christmas as we can.
And I will try to tell the story as we go.
And I will try to do some entertaining things.
And share a little beauty…
So, see you around, I hope.
It represents an old, outmoded way of thinking that most Americans, and indeed, most of the world, consider to be deplorable.
It represents a system that tried to destroy America, but was defeated, even though some people refuse to believe that fact.
It represents white privilege and dominance by the use of force.
It represents America being divided by violence.
It represents the idea that your freedom is more valuable than that of anyone else, and that you are willing to kill those people, who believe in their freedoms just as strongly as you do.
It represent the complete inability to compromise, to bargain, to be reasonable, to debate, to not get your own way every single time.
It represents a past history that everyone else is trying to move past and beyond.
It represents the few trying to force their views on the many.
It represents American soldiers in blue uniforms dying in battle to preserve the Union.
It represents a lost cause that never should have been a cause to begin with.
Wave clouds.
Dogs waiting to bark at the mailman.
Okay, I am really just clearing the photos from this week off my phone.
She has her blanky, a pillow, and the remote control for the tv… life is good.
I left that bird poop on my car, because it looks like fake snow.
Sleepy sun dogs.
Not much snow in Southern California.
But we do have three dogs and a cat.
It’s almost Christmas, and you know what that means… the monkeys from my self-illustrated children’s book—> available over there, in my sidebar—> are getting into the spiked eggnog again. *(NOTE… the monkeys in the actual book do not get drunk… it is a book for children, for cryin’ out loud)*
Of course I make it all about me… that’s what I do…
But don’t worry… there is other stuff too…
Because Christmas is all about elves…
And funny Lord Of The Rings tie-ins…
And labor disputes… wait, do elves even get paid?
It is also about hanging out with your friends…
And funny hats…
How is that war on Christmas going?
Okay… that’s just silly…
And I leave you with some animals getting in the Christmas spirit…
Because red animals should wear red hats…
And also, I have crack squirrels living in my head.