American Elephants

I have mentioned that I live on the East-facing side of a hill in a Seattle suburb. Have a view out my second story window far to the South, that is remarkably uninteresting. There is often a flickering light far off to the South, completely unidentified. No radio towers, no airports, no industry. Annoying that I cannot figure out what it is. See and identify planes in the distance, but flickering lights are beyond me. It ‘s a fairly timbered area, which does not help identifying anything whatsoever.

Had a lovely Christmas, our tree is beautiful, with special ornaments. Who could resist glass pickles, Santa Clauses in kilts (celebrating our Scottish ancestry) and sleds and toboggans. Everybody has their own Christmas traditions, and it’s fun to haul them out once a year. A pain in the neck waiting for the tree to become more of a fire-hazard than is acceptable, and having to take it all apart and put it away for another year.

I need, I think, some kind of Christmas ending ceremony. Something better than worrying about it becoming a fire hazard. New Years should do it, but that season has become more alcoholic than fun, and too infested with resolutions and vows to do better in some unintelligible way. I’m not big on vague promises to be a better person, perfect as I currently am.

It always seems like there should be some New Year starting thingy, which is not satisfied by New Years Eve Parties. It has never seemed to me to be any kind of celebratory beginning of something new and wonderful, but more of a downer.

I keep thinking about the Midwest folks who have retired and moved to Florida for the warmer winter weather, and wondered how they are adapting to beaches and sun at Christmas time. I have no idea whether it is deliciously welcome, or a matter of major homesickness.

President Biden has gone off to the Virgin Islands for sun and sand. I can understand a vacation from Winter, since for many people winter weather is a pain in he neck, and winter driving even more so. But there are some of us who miss Winter, snow and ice and all that the season brings.

Christmas has come and gone, without a drop or flake of snow any longer visible. That’s what one gets in a Seattle suburb, and most people are undoubtedly grateful. After all if you are anxious to see snow, you can just drive up to the pass. And city snow is a general pain in the neck. Slick streets, wet snow thumping in the roof all night. I just miss Christmas at home in Idaho.

Yes, I am homesick. Nice quiet Christmas, coming up on a nice quiet New Years. I’ve never particularly appreciated New Years. For many it’s a riotous, hungover day but I’ve never really participated.

We tried one year at home to move our river rocks around to create a skating pond, but it was pretty much a flop, since the main purpose of the pond was to have ice thick enough to cut for the icehouse, full of sawdust to keep the ice preserved for the summer months. Harvesting the ice was a full day or more of cutting the ice into blocks and hoisting them into the icehouse and burying them in enough sawdust to last through the warm months. Complicated but exciting operation. Something left over from ancient days. It was some time before we got Idaho Power. We produced our own electricity with a dammed pond, a power house and electric lines. Had to go up early in the morning to close the dam, and start the pond filling up again.

What small amount of snow we had is long gone, the last traces kept dropping on my bedroom roof all night. I must be a real pain in the neck around Christmas and New Years, missing snow and ice and freezing weather. A farmer near our closest town had a pond. It was known as Leek’s Pond, and during freezing weather, the town turned out to build a nearby bonfire and everybody ice skated, nobody either skillfully or gracefully. But it was exciting when the whole town turned out.