We had a first snow up here in Boston, December and 41 degrees.

A North wind shaved the moisture out of the air and dusted.

Mmarking our path to the old chair we had sat in summer breezes.

Impassively she waits under our gazes cold and frosted.

We had a great Holiday season!  We hiked and walked; visited and ate; laughed and were with the ones we loved.

Walks and Wonders of Our Holiday

A Pond in Hudson, NH
	The reflection of the old year shone back at us
And then we were in the woods
	And the future was before us and unknown
Then the sunset came upon us
	The light of the world dimming behind us
A smile holds it up for a few more moments
	The face of love staring back at us
while the stream of time keeps on running
	The stuff of life courses beneath our feet and in our veins
Happy New Year!!!

This is the deal.  I've been listening to the radio all night, my Honey at my side, notebooks slave (or is that we to them?) 

A photo copied sign was posted in the T Station

Due to delays

Due to increased delays, Holiday traffic may be in service of 5 to 20 minutes.

Due to increases in Holidays, traffic may be in service of 5 to 20 minutes.

Holidays, due to increased service, may there be delays of 5 to 20 minutes.

Delays, Holidays; 5 to 20 minutes in service!   May there be traffic.

Impish impulse: I typed the radio station, 92.5, that I'm listening to into the "Currently Listening" box and Schubert is a result?!

We live on the Merrimac, above the falls, upland and upriver.

And the river ends here, in Newburyport.

the end of the river the and the other side of the bridge

Where my girl, the sun in my eye, the smile on my lips ...

May you all have a happy holiday!

Friday Night, Date Night

I love my date nights.  I had a half day today,

working Saturday.
To the store I tore for wine,

cheese and more. 

My Honey,
she was not feeling well and at work she had to dwell.

The wind chill minus five.  The wind speed near thirty five.

I stoked the fires and lit the furnace,
closed the shade and inside I did dive.

I will be the comforter,
I will be the warmer,
I will welcome her.

I am full of open arms
and the smell of bread;
kisses for my Angel
full of Tupelo Honey.

The evening darkens,
and we are in a room lit
by lights from the Christmas tree. 

Candles flicker
harken to other times when things were slow,

Wine glow, music low and she, not feeling well,
is covered head to toe. 

It is Friday Night,

Date Night. 

I think back to earlier me having bid farewell
and fond adieu to that erstwhile lad.

This is where I belong, my Honey and me,
glow of us lighting our tree. 

Without one another
there would be no me

and without us we would
not be.

Morning Commute, early, early
rolling,                             rolling
morning commute.

The sun has barely opened its eyes,

squinting,

squinting over the edge of the horizon.

I drive one hand on the wheel, elbowed
arm resting

(oh when will I get enough sleep!)

arm rest resting in the morning

repetition,

coffee in mug,
mug in hand,
hand to mouth

Salute to the day!

The world slowly turns under my wheels.  Moving
minutely backward as I shoot forward into

dawn.

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
  - Arnold Lobel

Even though we haven't had a proper frost yet the Christmas specials are on. 

But not all programming follows the neat Holiday progression, twelve days of Christmas and all.

Someone once wrote that our traditions exist to insulate us from the unexpected.

I am trying to reconcile what my brain has just experienced.  First I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965); Then, Apocalypse Now - the directors cut from 1979, the year I graduated High School; Did we really send guys over to the hell of Vietnam at the same time we embraced the sweetness of 60's Christmas?

I have my own version of snow and war, ice and pain: now I'm watching the Bruins play Toronto

And to all a Good Night!
 

A little warning ... I'm watching Two and a Half Men, with Charlie Sheen et. al. ... nothing I say fromhere on can be taken too seriously.  If it ever could be takenseriously

My brother was in for the weekend and after the usual Thanksgiving stuffing, us as well as the bird, we got down to a littlesite seeing and good times.

Not everything went according to plan, the BostonCeltics game we went to was less than splendid, they got handled by the Nicks.

Then Saturday was the Lowell tree lighting.  And there was much more but I wanted to get the the picture in.

While walking around before the parade I took some shots of one of the old mill building and the canals that make up so much of the city.

The sun was setting and the weather still, 

nothing stirring in the old dead mill .

The last light reflecting off ochre and steel,

An American city, staggering, down on its heel. 

 

"And this is good old Boston,

The home of the bean and the cod, 

Where the Lowells talk only to Cabots, 

And the Cabots talk only to God."^[1]

Extinction is slow.  A world forgetting piecemeal.

Life a meuseum diarama and you tied to the wheel.

The canals are full of sediment and fill,

starring blackly at the old dead mill.

There's more to this weekend but the moment took me away ...