Wow!  We had another steady, drenching rain this week.  Gotta say I really do enjoy those, especially now that I live in a place where they are so rare.  There’s a verse in the Bible that talks about winter rains, but I never really experienced them before.  Here in the desert, I find them most encouraging as I look ahead to a new year, a new spring, and rebirth.

Christmas is upon me, and I have not gotten nearly as far as I hoped with holiday activities.  Those things, of necessity, have been set aside the last two Decembers.  Hopefully, I won’t move in 2008, and I will be able to devote time and energy to what should be a fun time of year.  I have to work Monday and Wed.-Fri., but the office closes at 3.  I have a couple of potential social activities Mon./Tues, and I will likely end up at the beach for sunset on Christmas as I did last year, even though I was deathly ill.  I’m thrilled to report no illnesses this year, and I expect to enjoy my short amount of time off much more than last year.

If you’re here reading this, thank you.  I wish you a Merry Christmas and a New Year blessed with much more than just happiness.  I’m going to set up a regular blogging schedule for 2008, though I have yet to work out the details.  See you soon.

Steve the wildcane

Well, I’m halfway through another productive weekend and starting to get a glimmer of hope for 2008 being the year I thought 2007 would be.  Life hasn’t seemed manageable for a while, but I’m getting back to that point slowly.

Friday is my office Christmas party, so I have to face holiday shoppers long enough to find a white elephant gift.  If only I knew what a white elephant needed… *rimshot*

I sure enjoyed vegging out last night with cable TV and internet.  I actually did some research and writing.  So much easier with the internet only a click away, and my motivation soared.  I’d probably write most of the day today except that I never got to the grocery store or laundromat yesterday bc the cable installation took so long.  (Old wiring by my landlord had to be replaced.)  The guy was great, though.  He cleaned up all the old wiring from a different company–wiring and boxes that were all left in the bottom of my closet–installed a new phone jack in the corner where I have the TV instead of on the other side of the door–where the old one is–and avoiding running wires over the door.  Everything is neat/tidy when I look at it with fresh eyes this morning, and I am closer than ever to winning the war on clutter.  My new four-drawer filing cabinet is finally all assembled and loaded.  Now I just need to cull/reduce what’s in it and file what’s on top of it.  Life is looking up.

Time for breakfast, laundry, grocery shopping, and more writing in roughly that order.

At long last, I again have internet at home.  Today’s installation took about twice as long as expected, but I am now enjoying cable TV and high-speed internet at the same time.  *sigh*  Ahhhh, this, I am going to enjoy…

The Salvation Army Thrift Store two blocks from my office has become my new Sat. hangout since they started having 50% off sales the last few Sats.  As a result, I have nearly furnished my small new apartment.  Here’s my tab, in no particular order, rounded off:

$  3 – 1 blanket
$  5 – 1 small table for the living room
$  5 – 1 small table with 2 folding leaves (and wheels under all) for the kitchen or wherever
$  1 – 1 teakettle
$  1 – 1 set of 4 knives (unopened)
$  2 - 2 spatulas, one for each hand
$  3  – 1 four-slot toaster
$  4 – 3 shirts for casual Fridays
$  7 – 2 tennis rackets
$  3 – 1 huge stir fry wok/skillet thingy
$  4 – 1 deluxe ironing board
$10 – 1 spinning office chair (with arms and wheels)
$20 – 1 TV

$78 total to date, that I recall

Then there are several big dollar stores with more selection than I’ve seen.  I got a TV antenna that gets me about 10 stations without cable, more than enough for now.  That works out to about 10 cents per station.  And the Super Target with three floors ain’t bad, either.  If nothing else, I can ride the escalators for free entertainment.

I am crazy busy at work with 3 out of 5 admin people out (2 vacations, 1 jury duty), and tutoring still takes more time during the week than I’d like, but all in all things are settling out pretty well finally.  I’ll be on vacation from both jobs Thanksgiving week and hope to explore northward, something I’ve had no time or money for yet.  I also plan to set aside some time to write, which I’ve hardly done since my last week off in July.  I’m thinking Sequoia Natl. one weekend and drive the coast to San Francisco the other.  We’ll see if I survive the next 10 days how far I feel like driving…

Another LA first…

A hilarious coworker pointed out yet another oddity to me the other day.  A helicopter was “painting” a hill.  Really.  Never seen anything like it.

Now, for context, realize that this is a hill that was burned by a fire several weeks ago, and it’s possible they were dumping green seeds by the gallons, but it looked like paint, and it was a not-so-blending-in Irish green, if you know what I mean.  Well, then later, it seemed to have changed color and blended in completely.  Hmmm.  Leave it to Californians to allow for sun/heat colorization factors.  Let’s just hope the latest fires don’t run back to the same spot.  Sounds really bad down towards San Diego. 

Fires rarely affect people positively in the short term, but they do lead to tremendous regeneration, both in nature and in the soul, once the flames are extinguished.  Sometimes, though, the flames just…won’t…die.

Ever really think about seeds?  Amazing…

This week, Ohio State gets to be #1 in the football polls.  I guess I’ll choose to be happy about that for now, though the Indians scoring 7 runs in extra innings the other night was pretty fun.  I was raised a Reds fan, but the Indians haven’t won a World Series in my lifetime, so I guess I should follow them more this week. I’m still a bit stunned that they beat the Yankees so easily.  It was fun watching Game 2 vs. the Red Sox with 3 Yankees fans the other night.  Every time Cleveland did something good, the room would erupt.  I was cheering for the Indians, and they were cheering against the Red Sox.  Ah, sports fans.  We’re all nuts.  If the Red Sox claim another World Series and Boston College ascends from #3 to #1 in the football polls by the end of the month, the northeast may get so heavy with pride that the historic city could sink off into the famous harbor. 

On a side note, all of my sports interests now have new energy on the west coast.  Generally, sports fans here are as insular about their interests as midwesterners or southeasterners are about theirs.  It has been my lot (1) to grow up in the MidWest, where Big Ten football thumps several Bible Belt denominations as the dominant religion, (2) to live/work/study in two cities where SEC/ACC football fans (and basketball fans for several schools) thumps Southern Baptists as the dominant religious class.  So I bring a fairly wide perspective to the few PAC 10 faithful who care.  However, it seems most broadcasters here are as blindly loyal/delusional as every other place I’ve lived.  I can’t really listen to them for long.  But it’s a great year to watch college football with the sound off or at a large party where you can’t hear them, as was the case Sat. night at my two friends’ birthday bash in Santa Monica.  I realize most of you don’t care about any of that, but just consider it my way of noting the re-emergence of a social life, if only for one night.

I wrote another new poem, but for some reason a title escapes me.  I often start with a title, but this time I have finished everything but the title and I’m still stumped.  I don’t remember that ever happening before.  Probably has to do with the season I’m in, and those of you on my protected poetry list will probably understand when you see it.  I’ll let it sit till Monday and see if a title follows along…

Happy weekend all.

Still no internet at my new apartment.  Long, boring story.  However, I did renew my MacAfee subscription today by phone.  That’s a big first step.  Maybe by next weekend I’ll either have internet at home or haul my laptop off to a library.  I know where at least one local library is, and I already have a membership card…

Today is a sad day for a fellow raised in Ohio.  My beloved Reds were officially eliminated from third place in their awful division of major league baseball.  They have lost 5 or 6 in a row and fallen into a tie for fifth.  Only two days left in another lost season to try to regain fourth place.  Dignity went out long ago, but at least the new owner does not in any way resemble Marge Schott.  Two months till college hoops…

One of my bosses went to Italy for three weeks, and I got busier.  Just doesn’t seem right.  Time to check out and hope for a Monday that leads to a quieter week with fewer crises.

Temps returned to normal last night.  I opened my windows and enjoyed a cool breeze.  My new place is small, so it cools out quickly.  It was in the low 70s most of the night I think.  Nice. 

Still no rain, though.  I heard a while back that this was the driest year in LA history.  I’m balancing out those last few crazy hurricane years in Miami, I guess–especially ’04 and ’05.  Yeeesh.  After that, dry seems fine. 

One day, I will find equilibrium again.  The new apartment is a big step in that direction, and then Monday night I added another important step when I made friends with the neighbor’s gray cat on my second attempt.  Despite the heat, the cat was on my lap within ten minutes, purring and “pawing” away as I talked on the phone.  Naturally, the lap-sitting was short-lived due to the heat, but he gladly curled up beside me and stayed till I decided it was time to go back inside and get ready for bed.

And now I’m halfway through the short work week.  Things are definitely looking up…