With a one- or two-day exception, this month is living up to its status as my LEAST favorite month of the entire year. I loathe November. Dark, wet, windy, cold, and a very long way from spring (let alone summer). It even snowed! Here near the water, it didn’t stick, but it did in higher elevations. Jeeze, what are we in for?
We had a pretty robust wind storm last week that made me wonder if we’d have a chance to test out our new whole-house generator in real life. But, aside from several blinks, the power stayed on. We have actually tested the generator (the truly awesome electrician came by and he and John worked it through its process) and it definitely works! Once power is off, there is a slight delay and then everything comes back on as if the power was restored! Then, when the power does come back on, it’s instantaneous for the the switchover between the generator and the house power. I couldn’t even tell when the actual power came back on! It was seamless. I’m so glad we have it and that it works! Definitely a peace of mind.
I’ve been “inward” lately, mostly reading and putzing. I hung out in the glass studio for a couple of days, but I haven’t been having great successes so I’m not COMPELLED right now. The creativity factor is NADA.
Phillip Pullman, who wrote “His Dark Materials” series (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass) just published a new book that is a prequel to the Golden Compass (apparently the first of another trilogy). I LOVED it, and after I finished it, I just had to re-read the original trilogy. I don’t often re-read books (exceptions have been Lord of the Rings and Dune), and I’m thoroughly enjoying these the second time around.
Good escape from the craptitude of the news these days. In fact, this passage from “The Subtle Knife” is certainly apropos to what godawful shit is happening today:
Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit.
It is such a dark time. A president who has been accused by 16 different women of sexual assault (and who admitted it on the Access Hollywood tape and was elected by morons anyway) is now supporting an Alabama senator candidate with nine women accusing him of sexual assault when they were teenagers—one when she was just 14 years old).
And then today, the 54th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy—and the day before Thanksgiving—trump viciously tweet-stormed a private citizen for not thanking him enough for helping release his son from a China jail for shoplifting a pair of sunglasses. He was relentless. He was savage. He was monstrous.
Not a word commemorating President Kennedy’s anniversary of his death. And he certainly isn’t going to help serve Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless. Nope, he’s golfing at his Florida resort.
I have never hated somebody so purely.
We met my brother and sister-in-law today on the Tacoma waterfront for dinner to celebrate Thanksgiving (a day early, mostly because there weren’t many restaurants open on Turkey Day, which is fine because I feel sorry for people having to work on holidays). It turned out that traffic south from Camano was horrendous, so they were on the road for a l-o-n-g time and arrived a bit late, but John and I had an appetizer and a drink (Cosmo for me!) while we waited. It was an astoundingly WARM day. (I swear it had to break records!) When we pulled into the Ram parking lot, it was 72°! It was mostly sunny with rain clouds swirling by from time to time, and we could see multiple rainbows out the window over the Commencement Bay! It was really something.
And, aside from this:

…I didn’t take any pictures! I’m an idiot!
I guess once they arrived, we were busy chatting and ordering and then eating and the table was kind of small so my phone was hidden by my plate and it just didn’t occur to me. 
Then, when I did think about it when we were on the sidewalk alongside the parking lot watching the water and chatting, it was too dark. (iPhone doesn’t do well in the dark). So no photos. Except of my Cosmo.
Tomorrow I am posting a picture I’ve been looking so forward to sharing! I wanted to wait until Christmas season kicked off, and I think it officially does on Thanksgiving, right?
Stay tuned.