A Short Update Gets Longer

The other day, the UPS truck came bearing gifts. It had to stop at our closed gate, so I walked down the field and met the UPS guy half-way. He gave me a very heavy and very cold package. "Why is it so cold," I asked. "It says it's fish and needs to be frozen, it's from Judy," said the man. "We got some fish from Judy," I called out to my husband, who immediately lit up in a big grin, probably thinking this was a salmon from Alaska. "I rather it were books," said I, knowing that Judy was going to send me some after she cleaned out her bookcases. 

We both got a good laugh as we opened the package. Judy had used an old box, on which clear instruction were printed all over: Keep Frozen! But it was full of books, Christmas presents, and the above Kindle, in the beautiful cover pictured in the top photo. So elegant! Thank you Judy, you are way too generous. This is her old Kindle, which will work great for me. In addition to this, I got a free Nook when I ordered my new computer on Cyber Monday. It will come any day now. So I'm going from none to two, just like that! Wow, I'm excited! And I'm so glad I didn't buy one ~ the Nook alone is worth $99.00, so thank you HP!

A cloud picture from our walk this morning. We've been promised snow for a week now, but so far just a little rain. 

Friday, we drove down to see the urologist in Bakersfield. The doctor was an older guy, very nice, very thorough in asking questions. He ordered a CT scan and said he will not do anything until he gets the results. I liked him and felt very relieved. It's so immensely important to have doctors you can relate to. 

 It has been cold here for the past week and the snow that fell in the mountains remains in this canyon, which is where the fire closest to us burned so badly last summer. I can now see the burnt out trees, contrasting against the snow, looking like sticks from a distance. 

After the doctor, we went to Costco, where my husband lingered at the meat counter forever. I don't find meat counters fascinating, so I strolled over and looked at the cheeses and found a nice big chunk of Jarlsberg. 

Then we drove up the mountain in the dark. It's a very steep drive, you get from the valley floor to 4,000 feet in no time. Hwy 58 is a major truck artery and wall to wall trucks, lit up like Christmas trees in the dark, took up the slow lane as we drove home. The really slow trucks are so slow, they almost stand still, and must flash their rear warning lights to avoid being run into from behind. 

There's pogonip, or ice fog, in the distant mountains in the center of the picture. You can perhaps see that strange light green color of the ice crystals that form on the trees. It's hard to capture with my camera, but I remain fascinated by the phenomenon. 

When we came home, the sky was lit up by a thousand stars. It was one of those cold winter nights and we were glad to be home. 

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Let me add: I just read your comments from yesterday and I'm deeply touched. I'm glad that the ancient prayer helped you as it always helps me. Thank you for letting me know you were comforted by it.


Header photo taken by my husband. ~ From Archives