Here’s what our friends over at AI had to say about our run of Tule Fog:
As of mid-December 2025, the Sacramento Valley experienced an unusually long, record-setting stretch of dense tule fog, lasting over three weeks (since around November 21st) with little sun, setting records for consecutive gloomy days and cold daytime highs, with some reporting 22-25 days straight of heavy fog. While exact total days for the whole year aren’t set yet, this late 2025 event was a significant, prolonged period of fog, typical of the November-March season but exceptionally intense this year.
Uh.. yup!
Now the fog’s turning into rain. This is our next week:
All of this said, I’m okay with all of it. Tis’ the season of darkness and insideness, fires, tea (and I don’t even like tea all that much), cooking and holiday prep. All the better that the weather’s bad and we’re not tempted to bail out on all the holiday chores and go outside and play. Amiright?
Heading out to a latkes and carols party and gotta drive to the Bay Area in the dark, rain and certain traffic. Not thrilled about that, but looking forward to those latkes!
Jim and I attended the 22nd annual Home for the Holidays concert tonight. We’ve attended each year for the last 20, missing (maybe) the first one or two. It is truly a gem of a community event.
This year’s was a good one! All our faves: Webster, Walton, Edwards (Eating my Way Through the Holidays); Misner and Smith; Rita Hoskings; Boot Juice; and a couple new ones this year, both exceptional. And of course this guy:
That is the supremely talented Joe Craven and his daughter Hattie. Their set was perhaps my favorite this time around. He’s just so incredibly entertaining. I think I’ll tire of his schtick, but you know what? I don’t. He can bring me to tears with both his talent and wit.
It was a great night.
And look who we found ourselves sitting next to! This is Senorita Enriquez, Peter’s third grade teacher.
Shockingly, she recognized us! It’s been 20 years! The conversation was really fun.
Stumbled across this ancient family photo, taken circa 1934… (I’m guessing, based on how old Aunt Ellie looks, and extrapolating from there.)
I think Uncle Vic and Dad look like Wally and Beaver.
From L to R: Aunt Ellie (1932-2019), Grandma Mary (1898-1995), Edward Short (Grandma’s dad, 1868-1936), Uncle Vic (1922-2014), Hattie Short (Grandma’s mom, 1871-1949), dad (1927-2000), Grandpa Pete (1894-1981).
I loved Grandma and Grandpa so so much.
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Then… I started down a rabbit hole……
I dug this up on my great grandparents:
Hattie and Edward Short are buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Cedar Falls, Black Hawk County, Iowa.
Hattie Dellavon Brinkley Scott Short (1871–1949): Buried at Greenwood Cemetery.
Edward Short (1868–1936): Buried at Greenwood Cemetery after passing away in Cedar Falls Township.
Aunt Bonnie took Matt and me to visit the Greenwood Cemetery in 2017 when we were in Iowa for a visit. We saw Great Grandma Hattie and Great Grandpa Edward’s gravesite. It was fantastic to see this.
I dug deeper…..
This was my great grandmother Hattie…
And my great grandfather Edward…
More on him:
This is a great photo of Hattie, Edward and 7 of their 8 children. Hattie Zoe didn’t come along until 9 years after Ethel (oops!), which is why she’s not pictured here. I’m guessing this photo is taken in about 1910.
L to R: Martha, Hattie, Ethel, Leone, Romeo, Cynthia, Vera, Edward, Mary
Jim, Matty and I will be traveling to Grinnel, Iowa this coming summer to celebrate Aunt Bonnie’s 95th birthday (she’s Dad’s first cousin, and Cynthia’s daughter). Maybe we’ll get back out to Cedar Falls. There is a lot of history in that town on Dad’s mom’s side of the family!
Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were brutally murdered yesterday, stabbed by their son, who clearly suffers from mental health issues. They were found in their Brentwood home by their daughter. It’s a truly horrific and sad story. Rob Reiner was a beloved Hollywood legend, brilliant in his breadth of work and an icon in the film industry. He was also a deeply respected voice on the progressive left, someone who worked endlessly for human rights causes, and, unsurprisingly, was an outspoken critic the Oval Office occupant.
This story has dominated the news today… though has shared headlines with the shooting at Brown University in Providence, RI (2 dead, 9 injured) and the massacre of Jews gathered to celebrate Chanukah on a popular beach in Sydney, Australia (15 killed, dozens injured) .. which both happened on Saturday.
The dark days continue. The Reiner stabbings yesterday were a shocking pile-on to Saturday’s tragedies, and just another assault in an endless stream of foul news. Our nation, our planet are in a world of hurt.
Where do we look to for solace, guidance during dark times..
Here’s the statement that Barack Obama released this morning about the Reiners:
Michelle and I are heartbroken by the tragic passing of Rob Reiner and his beloved wife, Michele. Rob’s achievements in film and television gave us some of our most cherished stories on screen. But beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people—and a lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action. Together, he and his wife lived lives defined by purpose. They will be remembered for the values they championed and the countless people they inspired. We send our deepest condolences to all who loved them.
It’s a kind statement and we can read that and collectively share in grief for the loss.
Our absolute psychopath of a president, however, said this:
I’ll tell you what, that is one asshole right there. Not a shred of decency, not a nanoparticle of kindness. Our nation (and world) does not deserve this POS who insults the office of the presidency daily and has NEVER offered a unifying word. I cannot bear to hear the scum that comes out of his mouth every time it moves. I could not loathe a person more and cannot wait for the day is he out of our lives.
~~
This post brought to mind that Dionne Warwick song (Burt Bacharach, actually).. What the world needs now, is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing, that there’s just too little of.
I spent time today going through the 9,744 photos I took in 2025 looking for the best ones for our Christmas card. No small task.
I selected 23 for Jim to consider as he muscles a year’s worth of photos into an 8 1/2″ x 11″ space. He won’t be able to use all 23, of course; I give him more than he’ll need so he can choose the ones that work best in a collage and at the same time do the best job of representing our year. The collage is always an incomplete story. It would benefit from some sort of narrative, but we’ve never made that a part of our annual card, so no sense starting now! Jim and I are creatures of habit, routine and convenience. We figure most people are just fine with a wordless photo collage, anyway.
I’m fairly confident these will not make the cut, so I’m posting them here.
Something tells me Jim will opt out of this one…taken as we ate dinner this summer at an outdoor restaurant in Bayeux, France. He looks a little stern.
This was taken on a windy walk in Dillon Beach last January. I like it, but it we have a ton of other selfies with far more interesting backgrounds.
I love this shot of us, too, but it’s too similar to another we’re using of Jim and Peter on the same stoop (our tent cabin in Tuolumne Meadows).
This won’t make the cut because, to be interesting, the photo needs all of that sky, the clouds and especially the mountains. But in a tight photo collage, that becomes wasted space… but it’s a great lunch spot, no? It was a fabulous hike in Yosemite in about August.
Stay tuned for the ones that do make the cut.. coming to a Christmas card soon.
Have I written about these guys before? They are Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg, co-founders of Indivisible and hosts of a weekly zoom called, “What’s the Plan.” This is one hour of political inspiration I absolutely depend on and look forward to each week (Thursdays at noon, Pacific). I don’t think I’ve missed but 2 or 3 this entire year….they are that good. Smart, wonky, politically astute, strategic. They are a firehose of insight and information. I feel smarter listening to them.
Today, I’d just returned from coffee with Vicki. I’d walked to Cloud Forest (and back) in the misty, frigid fog that has become our daily reality for weeks now here in the central valley of California. Vicki and I typically sit on the patio and even today, weirdos that we are, we sat outside in the bone cold air (the owner just couldn’t believe it). By the time I got home, I was frozen to my core so decided to take a bath to thaw out and warm up. Submerged in very hot water, steam rising all around, I watched today’s “What’s the Plan.” Ezra and Leah were in fine form, 60 solid minutes of rapid fire brilliance. Always gives me such hope.
Foggy air, icy chill, political despair, political inspiration, hot water, steamy steam… there’s probably a good metaphor in there somewhere.
This summer, while driving in France, Jim noticed his hand shook as he gripped the wheel of our rental Peugeot. Seemed odd. When we got back to Davis, Jim checked in with his primary care physician who suggested he keep an eye on it and let him know if it intensified. He did, it had, so Dr. Ho referred him to a specialist.
Three weeks ago (on November 20th), Jim and I saw Dr. Mense, a Kaiser neurologist. He did some simple in-office, observational diagnostics and concluded Jim has Parkinson’s.
Not the diagnosis we were hoping for.
So that is the bad news. The more positive news (it’s all relative) is that he’s got a subtype of Parkinson’s called tremor-dominant Parkinson Disease. The neurologist was quick to say that Jim would live a long and active life and that PD would not be what gets him in the end. His subtype is characterized by a resting tremor (as opposed to a tremor that activates when engaging one’s hand or arm, for example) which is annoying, but largely addressable with a medication called levodopa. He will not experience the other symptoms of PD.. rigidity, bradykinesia (slow movements), loss of balance, dementia. At least not anytime soon.
For the last three weeks, he’s been titrating levodopa, and is close to arriving at a dosage that will settle his jiggling right forearm. Aside from taking this medication a few times a day, and dealing with a mostly manageable tremor, it’ll be business as usual … we hope for a very long time.
Nothing in life is certain (how’s that for a platitude!), but we are feeling generally optimistic as we feel our way along this new path.
Here’s my otherwise healthy, fit, good lookin’ guy chillin’ on a Dolomite mountainside a year ago this past summer:
I starting writing Life of Wry in October 2008. Initially, I thought it'd be about writing. I thought I'd write when I had something to say, and I'd make my writing publish-worthy, or at least thoughtful.
But, two things:
1) Everyone's a writer these days. Anyone can, and many do, just put stuff out there. It's not so fussy. So maybe I should lighten up. So I write fast and don't edit.
2) Life of Wry quickly became more family journal quality than literary journal quality. And I decided I like that. Something I can leave my son. My hope is that he'll learn a bunch about us, me, our life. At some point.
I also take a shit ton of photos, and wanted to put my favorites somewhere.. because where else?
I struggle mightily with the idea people are reading this. I am not necessarily writing for others; I'm writing and taking pictures for family posterity. If that holds any appeal, please enjoy! But my intended audience is our family.
Finally, if I don't do a DAILY blog, it will become a NEVER blog. I thrive on discipline. I fail without it. So whether there is anything to write about or not, there will be a blog.
Thanks for stopping by. I actually love that you're here.
Life of Wry 