Roses in December

"God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December." J.M. Barrie

As much as I make use of the plethora of foodstuffs available year-round in the most mundane grocery store, I still miss the way the presence of strawberries and asparagus once enhanced any dinner table simply because they were rare, seasonal treats. It's the same with roses. We can now have roses any time at all. They seldom have the heavy aroma of quality cut roses, but now everyone can have the occasional luxury of fresh flowers if they so desire. So, the J.M. Barrie quote is less than apopros, I still enjoy the sentiment.

We've had unusually warm and sunny weather lately. T'aint natural. Still, anything that makes the winter season more bearable is okay by me. Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, has come and gone. Our family in Seattle didn't join us this year, and this year's festivities never took off without them here to liven things up. I hope I'll have a chance to have a Thanksgiving-in-August next year. It might be fun to barbecue a turkey. We were fortunate to have friends join us; something we should do more often. One thing I'm thankful for, besides my family and friends, is the opportunity to use the word plethora today. It's an awesome word.

I'm reading the new Jack London biography, and interspersing it with The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Both books are good reading, but The Goldfinch is excellent. It's the kind of book that is like a rich dessert. I have to periodically set the book down and savor certain lines because they are so complex, and rich enough to make your teeth hurt.

If I had the opportunity, I would commission an oil painting of red roses to hang on the wall of my dining room. It would have a gold frame. My memory of roses in December could use the jump-start, and it's always a good idea to behold something beautiful every single day of your life. 

A beautiful sunset this evening. Winter isn't all bad. It isn't really bad at all most of the time.

There....I admitted it.

Happy Evacuation Day!

Thanks to a well-informed Thanksgiving Day guest, I have now been enlightened about a true American holiday. Evacuation Day! This is going to be an awesome holiday as it catches on. If you missed Sarah Vowell on The Daily Show, I've included a link here. She's an awesome writer, too.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-november-17-2011/happy-evacuation-day

Proposed symbol of Evacuation Day

Happy Nontraditional Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving holiday feels traditional to me because it's the way I've always done it. There are a lot of the traditional foods and desserts, the football game provides background noise, and I always exhaust myself. Our out-of-town family flies in on Thursday so we have our dinner on Friday. This works out because my two daughters can have dinner with their "other" families. (we  haven't done a very good of a job melding the families, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it.)

Now Thanksgiving is becoming a shopping day. I feel bad for the people who have to work on what could be a perfectly good holiday. Turning Christmas into an event at the mall can't be far behind.

I've been working on a short story that I need to send out to my writing group by Friday. The story isn't very long, and has two points-of-view. Some people get very fussy about more than one POV in a short story. The rules will start flying around the room.  Hands will be wrung. Now don't get me wrong... I like rules. I like people to stop at stop signs. I don't like pilots to fly planes while drunk. I could go on for pages. But writing has to breathe. It has to be like the story I'm seeing in my mind while I write. If there are two characters circling and dancing around each other, then I want to know what's going on in their heads. Knowing other people's thoughts are a luxury we aren't allowed in the real world, but fiction isn't reality. It's better!