Life of Wry

It’s fun to have such cute grand nieces… this one’s Diana, Maia’s little girl. (And okay, technically, Maia is our first cousin once removed, so Diana is our first cousin twice removed, but we think of Maia as our niece, so we therefore think of Diana as our grand niece. Generationally, it makes sense.)

Again, this is Diana, napping with Reddy, Monica (first cousin) and Dror’s (giant, old, patient) kitty.

Reboxed ornanents and took down the tree, lights, decorations and stockings. Reduced the large dining table to its round config and returned it to the west wing, swapping it out for our square table which took its rightful spot back in the kitchen. Re-shuffled some other tables, baskets, plants, and reclaimed some tchotchkes that had been temporarily banished in favor of holiday stuff.

All back to normal.

Looks bare around here. It’ll take a few days to adjust to the relative spareness (our house is anything but spare). I know I say it every year, but: it just feels great.

Here’s our tree in the gutter. Bye tree.

Jim and I both had the sensation that the season seemed short this year. Not sure why that would be; we went to most of the same events, repeated the usual activities, checked off all the traditional tasks on the list. Maya was here for five days, Peter for twelve. It was all just comfy and great.

Deeply grateful for all of it.

This is what we’re dealing with these days. I mean, polls schmolls, and the intractable maga base and all that… but still… really?

The majority of Americans — 51% — think the FBI instigated the riots at the Capitol on January 6th, or are not really sure one way or the other. 

That’s just bonkers.

A sample of some of the artwork we received as gifts this year…

From the ever-thoughtful Maya, a couple of handmade ceramic pieces.. a small pitcher and a bowl, both made in her ceramic class. Beautiful and practical and homemade. She has said she appreciates the act of gift giving because it gives her a chance to get to know the person she’s gifting. I love her.

And then Chris gave us something quite unexpected… a fairy house and some mushrooms (his words). I asked him what one does with them and he said to put them in a favorite potted plant or garden box.. so I put them in the Japanese maple on our front porch (currently leafless).

More whimsy than we’re used to around here, but there it is!

Throwback: Thirteen years ago today, the year is 2011, Peter is twelve:

I really like the one to Teri and Chad.

Thank you notes are still a grunt. I believe I was able to wring thank you notes out of him most years, but I don’t believe the importance of them ever really sunk in. I’d make a list of everything he got, supply the blank note cards, stamped envelopes and addresses… and he’d write the notes and address the envelopes. It was, and still is, a chore. I can’t make him do it anymore (I mean, he’s 25), but I did put some forever stamps in his stocking this year. 🙂

This was from a trip to San Francisco with Chenoa and her cousins on January 2, 2003 — 21 years ago — they are both four years old.

Sitting on Bart…

Four was a very cute age.

Sure I’m not the only one in the world to come up with that title…

I watched the Rose Bowl this afternoon for the first time in decades. I watched it with Peter and Jim, sitting on the futon in Peter’s former bedroom.

Of course we watched because University of Michigan was playing (against the Alabama Crimson Tide), which by itself was pretty exciting (even for non football watchers like Jim and me). This was the first of two semifinal games today (the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl) in the College Football Playoffs. The playoff tournament features only four teams, selected to play, by a committee of sorts, based on their season record. It was not without controversy, but Michigan’s selection was not in question. In fact, they are the #1 ranked team. This Rose Bowl game between Michigan and Alabama was a match up between two of the most legendary college football programs around, which made it fun. There was see-sawing, there were lots of sacks, some great plays, and the game was close. So close, in fact, they went into overtime to break the 20-20 tie. Michigan got a touch down on its drive. Alabama came up short, so, it’s the Michigan Wolverines who will advance to next week’s final against Washington (who beat Texas in the other semi-final match up).

Go Blue.

A whole bunch of the US is in deep winter weather; I’m sure it’s painful to see all the shirt sleeves and bare chested men and bare midriffed women….and this gorgeous settling for a January football game:

Congrats to the Univ of Michigan!

Every year I buy one bottle of eggnog. That’s enough to get us (read: me and Peter) through the holiday, but it’s not so much that we regret eggnog was ever invented. Since I’m limiting myself to one bottle per year, I buy the best that the Coop sells.. Straus (so, so good). And then I save the bottle (apparently), because who could recycle such a throwback? I have a bit of a container fetish anyway.

So.. now we have four (utterly unusable) bottles. I was probably cheaper in earlier years and bought cheapo cartons of eggnog. But now that I have this growing collection of Straus bottles, I’ll have to think on how I can put them to charming use.

Anyway.. as I was washing out 2023’s eggnog bottle, I got to thinking about Max — our Adohr milkman back in the day. I was remembering how he’d show up a couple-three times a week, carrying a metal basket loaded with bottles of milk (and eggs and butter). He’d march right up our long driveway, open the garage door (it was a manual hinged, pull-up kind), shimmy between our two cars (or maybe my dad had already gone for the day, leaving just my mom’s car to get around), knock on the utility room door (and yell “Adohr!”) to announce himself, and then proceed right into the house. He’d say hello to whoever was around and walk right over to the icebox (which.. it wasn’t really an icebox anymore, but that’s what our family always called the refrigerator) and load the goods. He’d do a mental inventory and let my mom know what he’d bring next time, and/or ask what she needed. One of us might suggest chocolate or strawberry milk, a suggestion that would probably be ignored. He’d take the empties and be on his way.

This was such a routine part of life in the suburbs, I never gave it a thought. Max was a regular in our kitchen; he knew all of our names, he even bought our family car one year when my dad was planning an upgrade.

Milkmen. Milkmen. Unlocked doors. Veritable strangers rummaging through your refrigerator.

Only a half century ago.

And then there was Wayne, our mailman. The entire neighborhood of kids absolutely loved Wayne. (My nickname for him was Waynebow.) Most days, he’d stick around shooting the shit with my mom, not for long, but long enough to be friendly. Often, kids would tag along with him on his route. And I’m not kidding at all when I say he used to give us rides in his mail truck. Like, lots of us at once, standing in the open doorway holding on for dear life, sitting on his lap or on the dash. Everyone, including all my brothers (and me), had special relationships with him. I can’t remember if we knew much about his personal life or where he lived; my mom probably did. (As I write this whole paragraph, my 2023 brain goes right to perverts and child abusers… but it was not that way back then. Don’t make me have to defend this point. I will defend Wayne and Max to the ends of the earth. Kind souls, both.)

We, of course, gave both Christmas cookies. I have a memory of my mom writing an annual holiday check for Max.. not sure if she did for Wayne (suspect the federal gov would look down on that).

It all seems a lot like Mayberry or Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood … but it was just a typical Southern California neighborhood in the 50s and 60s. Sure it’s similar to others’ experience. Seems unimaginable now.

I’m old.

Look what I found on the Interwebs…

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Also, happy new year. It’s been gloomy and grey all day. Sitting by the fire (writing this), planning a meat loaf dinner and baked potatoes with my two favorite guys tonight. How great is that?

After quite a bit of ado, I got the 2024 Peterson Family Calendar designed and ordered today. I don’t know why I don’t start these things earlier in December, I sure could, but I just don’t. This year’s was complicated by the fact Costco has now closed its photo center and moved all of its customers’ photo accounts to Shutterfly. I had to get used to that user interface and deal with some complicated payment/discount issues (significant discount: I saved over $100 because of my Costco membership). But in the end.. not a big deal.

Here are this year’s photos. It’s almost magical the way each family member’s photo adorns the month of his or her birthday — kind of amazing how that’s worked out over the years. The other rule is, I have to use a photo taken between Jan and Dec of the previous year, which works well for everyone except Jay since we don’t always see him in any given year. For him, I screen shotted a Zoom meet up.

Cover: Our family home; art by former neighbor David Charleton.

January: me, with Matt in Chicago, on the architectural boat tour (freezing, but we drank bloody Marys anyway!).

February: Magnolia (incredible photo taken by Alexis).

March: Juniper, in her apartment’s pool.

April: Jim, pictured with his siblings on his 70th birthday and with Peter and Maya on Mt. Dana in Yosemite.

May: Michael (whose birthday is really in August), pictured here at Legends with his sister, Pam. Not sure who took this picture.

June: Peter and Maya, cute (and convenient) that they have birthdays one day apart.

July: River (left photo taken by Alexis, the other by me).

August: John (both photos taken by Alexis)

September: Matt

October: Jay (whose birthday is in September). No current, in-person photo since he’s in Thailand, but the Zoom photo is at least current, and I thought it’d be nice to show a side-by-side contrast from the 1950s. Lol.

November: Chris.. I had a lot of good ones of him so I used them. Chris and me at Thanksgiving; Chris and Pam in North Carolina (photo credit Pam); Chris and Pam also at Thanksgiving; Chris and Juniper in John’s apartment.

December: the Peterson kids, River, Magnolia and Juniper (this is the page previously reserved for Alexis who has a December birthday, but, well… they’re separated.. and, well… it’s tricky.

Downtime galore. Not much to blog about, so I went foraging in my Pretty Good Stuff photo file… and found this nice picture.

Guy on the right is Albert, of course.