Merry Christmas!

I have a week off for the holidays, and plan to watch my favorite Christmas movies with friend Shondell on Sunday - "Die Hard" and "Lethal Weapon"...popcorn and brownies are the plan.

Then I'll ride the bus into Seattle on Monday (I have 2 free passes that have to be used by the end of the year!) and I'll wind up in Kirkland to help Ellen make cookies and join her and other good friends at Denny Park to see the Christmas Ship...There will be caroling, a huge bonfire on the shore (firemen too!) and dogs, kids, the entire neighborhood...and wine. Check it out here...
http://www.argosycruises.com/themecruises/xmasSchedule.cfm

Ellen has plans for seeing Christmas lights and events on Tuesday, then I'll return on the Wednesday bus for a quiet end of week with the cat, a pile of good books, and plenty of hot chocolate.

Merry Christmas to all my friends!

Randon Thoughts

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted anything. I confess to going home from work and settling in with a book most days...I've been walking (25 minutes to work from home - 35 back up the hill after.) It's beautiful, with trees in bloom and mild weather. I've seen nest-building birds this week. A robin (Turdus migrtorious - look it up if you don't believe me) in my neighborhood flew off with such a big lengh of yarn that it made me laugh to watch.

I've also noted that the local Blacktail deer (Odocoileus hemionus) are looking pretty shaggy. Loosing your winter coat must itch! I saw one just along the road near Taylor Park one day as I drove home. She was grazing on the new green grass in a yard. People were walking dogs and riding bikes. It makes me happy to see them, and a little afraid that I'll witness an accident.

What I've been reading: "The Serpent's Daughter", the 3rd Jade del Cameron novel by my friend Suzanne Arruda. I love her descriptions of post WWI Africa.

"The Education of Little Tree" by Forest Carter. We sell this book at the Wilderness Awareness School website, and have had some complaints. Recently, nine staff members, Residential Program students (current and past), parents, a forner English teacher, and invited guests read the book and did some research about the author. Yes, it seems that Mr. Carter misrepresented a work of fiction as autobiographical. Yes, he does not appear to have been a nice man - and was in fact a member of the Klu Klux Clan at one point in his life.

And, yes, he wrote a wonderful book. The story, written for young adults, is lovely. None of us detected any underlying message of hate. Regardless of the man's politics, we found no reason to pull it from our shelves. We wondered how it happened that near the end of his life this book came from such an unpleasant person...we found no answers to that question.

I know that I've done and said and thought things in the past that I'm ashamed of now. Perhaps that's what happened to Forest Carter. Something else to wonder at...