Life of Wry

It just occurred to me that since I re-started blogging on January 1, I don’t have a photo record of the just-completed holidays. So, Imma gonna post a few Thanksgiving and Christmas photo highlights, just to remember those.

I’m aware that 2022 is not the only year, or holiday season, I’ve missed documenting in Life of Wry. But going backward in time to pick up all those undocumented moments is a slippery slope; I’m not sure where that would end. So let’s just be reasonable here! I’ll allow myself to reach all the way back to November and December, and call it good.

…and with that, holiday season highlights from 2022!

The Thanksgiving week started with two thirds of the Peterson boys, and Chris’s girlfriend Pam, arriving in time to celebrate Chris’s birthday.

(Note: Jim and I started hosting Petersons for Thanksgivings in 2011 and have done so every year since — minus 2015 when we went to Florida to be with the James Frames for Thanksgiving and celebrate Marty’s 60th birthday, and 2016 when mom was too unstable to travel, so we went down there.. and then she passed away a few months later. If you’re counting, then, that makes 2022 our tenth year of hosting the fam!)

Some cooking shots … Pam made Chris’s birthday cake, tons of Thanksgiving day appetizers and a whole bunch of Thanksgiving day dishes.

The red foods.. these are Peterson family Thanksgiving staples — cranberry sauce and Harvard beets. I’m the only Frame who eats these things. (Actually, Peter likes cranberry sauce.)

In the baked goods category, I made cheese crackers, pecan pie, and pumpkin bread. (I also made a pumpkin pie, not shown.)

Jim’s the gravy guy. He takes the lead on the turkey, as well, and eats neither. He forgoes my dressing, but does eat my green beans. (One wonders what he does eat on Thanksgiving… ).

Here are the 2022 Thanksgiving day feasters. Paul and Janet joined us this year. Janet made a salad, Pam made ambrosia and a very rich potato dish PLUS a sweet potato praline dish. And, as mentioned, Jim and I made all the usual stuff.

There were games…

and conversations…

walks in the Arboretum…

That’s Matt on the bridge near Spafford Lake.

After Chris and Pam left, Matt hung around for another three days. One day we headed up to Capay Valley and went olive oil tasting at Seca Hills tasting room. This is taken outside the tasting room.

It was a lovely, very low stress Thanksgiving. Missed Peter terribly. It’s only the second time we’ve missed him on TG.. the first being during Covid, when he stayed in A2 and celebrated with Claire and Lisa. This year, he was with Maya’s family in Bloomington, as he’d attended his annual American Physics Society conference in Indianapolis, which just precedes the holiday.

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And then there was Christmas…

There was the prep phase… we got the lights up on December 2 (and they’re still up today (!), even as the rest of Christmas has been put away. We’re waiting for the rains to stop… if they ever do). We’ve now figured out it’s easier /safer for Jim to get on the roof to attach the lights. In years past, it’s been three different ladders. Not sure how long we’ll let Jim be on the roof.. but for now he’s good up there. The man can sure focus on a task!

I love these lights.

I’m in charge of the interior decorations (obvs). This was a new thing this year.. putting all the xmas chotchkies on the mantle. They’ve moved all over the place, but I think this will be where they go from now on. I’ve now ordered matching stockings for Peter and Maya to replace these fill-in stockings (Peter’s original one is lost somewhere in his A2 room).

Home For the Holidays is a must attend event each year. This was their 19th or 20th… We’ve attended all but one or maybe two over the years. This is a bit of a Way Out West mash up… Bill Edwards, Tracy Walton, Joe Craven.. with Rick Lotter (from Mumbo Gumbo) playing a version of drum.

Janet, Jim and I went on a walk to check out lights one night….

Now on to baking… I decided on cheese crackers this year as an alternative to the deluge of sweets we always give and get. As far as I know, most people really liked them (thanks to Susan’s mom for the recipe!). What’s not to love about butter and cheese.. with a pinch of cayenne?

Peter and Maya were a HUGE help. They rolled and pressed and we ended up with about 24-25 dozen crackers. We were a well buttered operation. They also did all the deliveries. So grateful!

I forwent my favorite gingerbread muffins in favor of Jim making a babka! Since nobody ever eats my muffins, this was a good alternative. It had some issues, but was fabulous and next time’s will be even better!

I made my usual pumpkin and pecan pies.

Sign of the times. It was another year where we all needed to test before gathering.

The only Christmas pic I have of these two… my loves.

It was our first year of hosting the Frame clan. When Uncle Dean died at the early part of 2022, it left everyone feeling a bit rudderless. Monica and Dror didn’t feel inspired to host this year (as they usually do) so we offered and everyone came to Davis! Everyone contributed their usual dishes, we supplemented with a honey baked ham and bunches of other things and had a ball. Thirteen of us at three tables. Cozy, but definitely manageable.

And that was our holiday season.

Last weekend, I de-Christmasified the house. It always feels so good to declutter and clean up.

In its glory days:

Christmas 2022 is a wrap:

Is it spring yet??

(*) I wish… but I did not make that up. I saw it in a Bob Dunning column recently, so credit where credit is due. I don’t know if he made it up, but whoever did — and Dunning’s clever enough to get the prize — it’s perfect!

Meaning….. those people who come in after a storm and clean up all the tree debris. Or is that tris debree? (That bad word-mangle is all my own.)

After the string of atmospheric rivers and their attendant howling winds, we have a LOT of tree debris in town. A ton of trees have been uprooted.. like this one at community park that I passed tonight on my way to Nugget (fabulous pre-made dinners anyone?)

Thankfully, our monster neighborhood redwood is still standing.. (though I secretly root for its falling.. preferably down the center of A Street, well away from cars, homes and people).

But hoo boy, I don’t want to be in the bedroom when it comes down.. it’d be curtains for us. Here is the pile of fallen branches that the first treesponders swept up..

… though I can tell you there are a lot more that got blown throughout the neighborhood, including some large branches in our front yard.

I’m just not going to think about it.

Instead, I’ll think of the few minutes of sunshine that burst through the living room window this afternoon, after our third power outage of 2023 (this one lasted from last night at 9:45 to 11:20 this morning). I love this picture.

This was the power outage map this morning:

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One other thing worth mentioning, as I set out to document 2023: I had an eye appointment today, routine, in order to check my contact/glasses prescription and whatnot. I learned that I have double vision. I could have told you that my eyes have been doing weird things over the course of the last year (or so), but I’d have followed that up with something about aging eyes and all old people have difficulty driving at night, and doesn’t everyone close one eye in order to bring things into focus? I guess I just didn’t give it much thought. But, in fact, I have double vision! It’s apparently the result of one eye that rests slightly upward facing and the other slightly downward facing. It earned me a follow up appointment with an ophthalmologist. I did learn that I don’t have glaucoma, don’t have cataracts, and don’t show any signs of macular degeneration (yet). But man… double vision. Stay tuned for the array of possible adaptive strategies.

I was just about to settle in and write about how we’re managing in the dark of a power outage…. when… PrEsTo, the power came back on!

This was our second power outage this winter — the first being a week ago, January 2, when it went out for about 3 hours. That one didn’t hurt too much because Peter and I were in San Francisco… eating pasta and veal scallopini dinner at Sobini’s, sipping cappuccinos at Caffe Trieste and perusing Jack Kerouac books at City Lights. (“City Lights”.. how ironic). During that outage, Jim, poor Jim, was left alone to manage the dark and cold water. We missed him!

That outage was just the incentive Jim needed to purchase a battery back up for our water heater. It arrived this week and he installed it on about Thursday.. just in time for outage number two! Good job, Jim.

I would describe us as in a full state of readiness for any future power outages resulting from California’s string of Atmospheric Rivers (yes, ARs are now a thing). (For the record, I’ll take atmospheric rivers over draught any day.)

• we have a fireplace gas insert (politically incorrect as it may be) for heat
• we have a nice, large battery pack to charge our phones, watches and whatevers
• we have a gas range (again, to be phased out one of these days, but for now it’s sure handy) for cooking
• we have a back up generator to power our refrigerator if the outage goes on too long
• and we have the aforementioned back up battery power for our water heater… as of three days ago!

This power outage topped out at 13 hours and 15 minutes.. and most of that was while we slept (12:15am to 1:30pm). So no violins for us. The redwood tree next door is still standing, so that’s a positive, as well. (And I will also note, as long as I’m reporting good news, that the ants have significantly abated, which was very considerate of them.. one less thing to manage.) They are preparing us for a couple more ARs before mid-month, so we’ll stay in readiness mode. But not feeling too stressed about this.

Here are a few shots of us living like the pioneers:

Jim warming himself by the fire…

(I’ll be de-Christmasing the house TODAY! It’s time!)

Making pancakes for breakfast, since all of downtown is also out and we couldn’t go out for Sunday brunch. We had to light the stove manually, but the rest of cooking was pretty normal. Oh, had to heat water and milk on the stove for coffee.. forgoing my new fancy pants espresso maker.. these are the sacrifices we make.

And finally, here’s what you do when 1) your desktop is un-powered and your wifi is out anyway; and 2) you’re battling a cold (not covid we learned following two days of testing):

And, right after I took this picture, the power came on. And that’s where we are now… powered up, doing laundry, writing blogs (still by the fire).

I watched a documentary tonight on the insurrection of two years ago (delayed a day b/c of last night’s Speaker vote). It was so damn unsettling. My heart felt like it was racing, I was vaguely nauseated, I got teary. The depth of people’s ignorance.. it just takes your breath away. The lies and manipulations, the conspiracies. And what it all lead to! And of course the pure evilness of the perpetrator (you know the one). I feel like I need a shower after watching it.

For my part, I’ll try to not be distracted by any of that evil, not let it in… just wrap myself in love, beauty, and all things honorable, truthful and dignified. I’ll surround myself with sane people only; find the spark of hope and optimism; always try to do the right thing. Probably other things too… those just come to mind. And damn, the documentary was produced by Drew Griffin, an incredibly decent, smart guy and a reporter I really liked at CNN, who passed away a month or so ago. RIP sir.

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In the “finding the spark of hope and optimism” department, I’m reminded of the best part of last night’s passing of the gavel ceremony …. it was new minority leader Hakeem Jeffries’s speech. Here’s the best part of that great speech:

“House Democrats will always put American values over autocracy…

benevolence over bigotry, the Constitution over the cult, democracy over demagogues, economic opportunity over extremism, freedom over fascism, governing over gaslighting, hopefulness over hatred, inclusion over isolation, justice over judicial overreach, knowledge over kangaroo courts, liberty over limitation, maturity over Mar-a-Lago, normalcy over negativity, opportunity over obstruction, people over politics, quality of life issues over QAnon, reason over racism, substance over slander, triumph over tyranny, understanding over ugliness, voting rights over voter suppression, working families over the well-connected, xenial over xenophobia, ‘yes, we can’ over ‘you can’t do it,’ and zealous representation over zero-sum confrontation. We will always do the right thing by the American people.” 

That’s my kinda alphabet!

Oh, and there was one other highlight to last night’s interminable Speaker election process:

(That’s Katie Porter, democratic congresswoman from Orange County area… she clearly had better things to do while waiting for the republicans to beat each other up.)

After four days, fifteen ballots, a couple near brawls on the House floor, and a whole lotta selling out to the fringiest of the fringe, there is now an official Speaker of the House. Kevin McCarthy, at long last, eked out a victory and, it appears, achieved his forever, lifelong dream. For the last seven or eight years, he seemed prepared to do anything to get that gavel. Honestly, it has been an ugly and disturbing thing to watch, for years, and especially this week. It’s not like I’m some big-time political gadfly, but our politics for the last seven or eight years have been fascinating-shocking-mind-numbing-heartbreaking and we’ve all become gadflies, and I do admit to having spent a lot of time this week, particularly, tuned into this head-shaking drama. Not proud of that.

Be that as it may, it seems worth a blog post and a couple choice photos (not mine) to mark the occasion.

It’s worth noting that C-SPAN cameras were all over the floor, and the network was allowed to put out its video feed for all to see (this, evidently, is not typical, but gave the public a fascinating look behind the scenes of this particular government procedure).

Two central players in the drama: Gaetz was happy to be the center of attention and did all he could to get and stay front and center. These guys hate each other. Both are loathsome.

I’m no McCarthy fan, but I certainly understood the anger at the stunts these chaos caucus members — led by Gaetz and Boebert — pulled. This guy (the one with the maybe toupee) was angry enough to lunge at Gaetz, but was held back by the quick-reacting other guy. A commotion ensued!

There are more great photos, but, heck, I don’t want these guys on the pages of my blog.

As I wrote last night, many funny people memed the weeks events, which made the whole embarrassing process at least fun to follow. There were also so many great puns; here are two of my favorites:

• Kevin and Hell (credit: Stephen Colbert writers)
• Kevinsurrection (credit: Crooked Media writers)

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The worst part of all of this was the irony that, exactly two years ago in this very House chamber (almost to the hour), most of the folks voting for McCarthy tonight were voting to overthrow the government. Including McCarthy himself. And he took, and then administered to the entire House, the oath of office, in which he (and a good chunk of election-denying, insurrectionist-supporting house members) promised to uphold and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. And he’s now second in line to the presidency.

Every bit of this is wrong. I just hope the people get it. I hope McCarthy and his corrupt conference are out there for the entire country to see and that they get run out of town next election.

(And for the millionth time, it’s why I’m grateful for all the fantastic political organizations that are doing the good work and why I’m so incredibly grateful to be plugging into them a couple of them. Even if my contribution is small, it feels so righteous and important!!)

Re: the title, I’m not sure who the biggest loser is.. McCarthy, trump (my fave today), the GOP, the House, democracy, all of us… ? As usual with these nutcases, it’d be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

Think I’ll just focus on the funny for now.

Two things jump out at me in this photo and both sort of define our experience of Winter 2022-2023 so far:

First thing: Jim’s wearing his brand new Northface McMurdo parka. He’d pined after Peter’s when we visited Ann Arbor last Fall. Peter, of course, living in Michigan, is dealing with weather that totally justifies a super heavy duty winter coat and when Jim saw it (and tried it on) he determined then and there that he needed one just like it. He concluded that a McMurdo parka would be just the thing to get him through the bone-chilling Davis winters. He marked his calendar for the day REI would drop its prices on winter gear and, on that day, he placed his order. It was a huge celebration when his McMurdo parka arrived! Davis has been particularly cold this year, and Jim’s fancy-pants McMurdo parka has been a reliable and bullet-proof go-to. He’s happy (he’ll never be cold again), I’m happy (because he’s not complaining about the cold) and — bonus — it’s a fabulous looking thing.

Second thing: See that green thing that looks like a chessboard pawn? It’s part of a system that the Integrated Pest Management folks at UC Davis recommended to address our raging ant invasion. We’ve been dealing (unsuccessfully) with ants now for about five weeks. They started marching two-by-two, then three-by-three, then four-by-four… (hurrah, hurrah) when the first rain hit at the end of November (beginning of December, maybe) and have been showing up in unlikely places ever since. We take care of them in one place, only to have them show up in another. It’s been ant whack-a-mole for five annoying weeks (they did disappear on Christmas day, inexplicably and thankfully). Never seemed food related; they’d appear in the hall, or the living room, a few times in Peter’s bathroom. At the first ant sighting, we brought out our dishsoap-filled spray bottle, which has always worked in the past. Still kills them on contact, but instead of eradicating them, it seems only to relocate them. I was ready for a more serious abatement strategy — even poison! — so Jim researched, consulted UCD, and came up with these. Not cheap but hopefully effective. He placed four such green pods around the exterior perimeter of our house, filled them with something chemically but not bad for the environment and now we’re waiting to see if they’ll do the trick. So far, so ok. The ants seem gone from most of their usual places (or greatly reduced, anyway) but came back yesterday with a vengeance in our pantry (what a flippin mess that was). I’ve long lost patience for this. I imagine the cold and rain is to blame — mostly — and I’m not unhappy about that because we need the rain so badly after three bone-dry drought years. But definitely bummed about the ants and hoping the green pods are the ultimate solution.

This is that part of the post Christmas phase when I go into a not-insignificant-depression. Ugh. It’s that day when Peter takes off and returns to his home-that’s-not-Davis, leaving a big hole in my heart. Ugh.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

It’s been about nine hours since I dropped him off at the airport.. and for the most part I’ve distracted myself with 1) a nice walk and coffee with Vicki; 2) ants; 3) watching the shit-show that is the GOP House Speaker selection process; 4) ants; 5) ants; 6) dinner; 7) ants.

[I’ll write another post, likely, about the great December 2022 Ant Invasion.]

Now I’m sitting here by the fire, depression welling up. I have an overwhelmingly wonderful feeling of gratitude for our sweet little family unit, over-the-mooness that Peter’s got the world by the tail, and a deep sadness that Peter lives so far away and is so far out of observation and hug range. It’s that so-very-familiar mix of happiness and satisfaction mixed in with emptiness and longing for the olden days, with unfathomable, aching love wrapping its arms around the whole mess.

I didn’t take that many pictures of Peter this trip (shocking, I know, but he’s not all that agreeable to me snapping photos of him all the time). I do have a few of him, mostly taken without his knowing, and a few others that represent our mom/son outings (which I was hugely grateful to have this visit).

This is Christmas morning, he and Maya on the couch, opening presents, eating Jim’s babka:

Here’s another from later in the day. We hosted for the first time all the Frames for Christmas evening and dinner. This is Peter and Maya hanging out in the kitchen, talking with Monica, Janet and Maita. (I have lots more of Christmas day, but this post is about Peter and I’m digging this picture of him and Maya, both wearing Christmas gifts that I picked out, both of which were a hit!)

This is the Square in downtown Sonoma, a few days after Christmas. Peter and I drove over there just to goof around, check it out. I’m not sure Peter had ever been. We wandered around the entire square — a couple of times, actually — and ended up in a wine bar (Enoteca) for some cheese and wine. Very nice!

The next day, we drove down to San Francisco and spent a few hours wandering around the Embarcadero/Financial district. Here’s Peter entering a lovely little park — Sydney G. Walton Square (bounded by Front, Davis, Jackson and Pacific):

.. where there is a sweet statue of Georgia O’Keeffe:

We spent some time at the Ferry Building, as well, and had a late lunch at Boulette’s Larder and Boulibar, which was quite yummy. Then drove over to Emeryville to pick Jim up at the train station and headed to Monica and Dror’s in Oakland for dinner. Ben and Nina had just gotten back from Slovenia, so we got to hear about their trip; wonderful to see them!

And here are a couple from yesterday’s trip to San Francisco (again). Peter looking at an art piece at MOMA, and another at dinner at Sobini’s in North Beach:

My guy. I love him so. Miss him already. Glad for 12-ish great days, though!!!!!!! (Wishing Maya could have stayed the whole time.. also a topic for another time.)

This was Peter’s last day before flying home to Michigan, so he wanted to go somewhere.. which usually means San Francisco. Second time in a week, but… you know… San Francisco.

Since it was raining, again, we decided inside was the way to go… and I talked him into MOMA. Turned into a wonderful choice!

It wasn’t raining too hard so we opted for a bit of a walk first. This is shot from across the street at the Yerba Buena gardens; MOMA appears dwarfed by the buildings around it!

We missed the Diego Rivera exhibit (sold out today), but loved seeing some familiar artists, like Georgia O’Keeffe, Henri Matisse, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Mark Rothko…

Some local favorites: Wayne Thiebaud and Robert Arneson ..

And a whole bunch that was new to me. I loved a huge exhibit by San Francisco artist Joan Brown, and another by a German painter Gerhard Richter.. here are a couple of theirs that I really liked (Brown first, then Richter):

We also saw this guy, Robert Indiana, who did the LOVE painting and sculpture. I read that there are some 50 of the sculptures spread around the country (maybe world). This may be, but I’m not sure, the original painting:

Here are a couple other museum shots… one taken of Peter on the bridge, where there was a colorful glass tunnel and a view of the floor five stories below, and another shot into a mirror that includes us both..

If we’d had more time (and if our legs had held up), we’d have spent countless more hours wandering around. Seven floors and so much to see.

Instead we went to dinner at an Italian place called Sodini’s…. old and full of North Beach character, but underwhelming foodwise. We followed that with a fantastic visit to Caffe Trieste for coffee and dessert:

And finally spent about an hour at City Lights before heading home.

I thought we fit in a lot, considering the SF portion of the day started at 2:00! Not unlike a trip to San Francisco last week that also started late in the day, or another to Sonoma that started so late we arrived to the square as it was getting dark! Adventures with Peter often begin late in the day. He is, as he’s always been, a late start kind of guy. Not a planner, thrives in the last minute. (To wit and in total character, he finally made his reservation for tomorrow’s flight at about 10:00 tonight.)

I cherish the time, though. Don’t mind the late starts or the long drives, even in the rain, even in the dark, even as we often listen to Ezra Klein podcasts about subjects well outside my knowledge zone! It’s all part of the Peter experience.

Love it all. Glad for every minute.