a new year

the last day of 2018 looking east across the fallow cotton field

I usually look back over the previous year but it was enough to live through last year without going over all the ways Trump and his administration has diminished this country, the damage done to businesses and workers and farmers, to our standing with our allies, to our free press, to any moral imperative we ever had, plunging the government deficit into the trillions with his insane tax cut to the wealthy and corporations. He governs by tweet and whim, spouting total nonsense, attacking and sacking everyone who doesn't praise him, obsessed with the idea of a wall along our southern border. The only people he can keep in his administration are as morally bankrupt as he is with a Congress that did nothing to try and mitigate his madness.

So, Ellen, tell us how you really feel.

It wasn't all bad of course. The house got finished after the flood of 2017 and it's really pretty. I finally got back to work drawing and making art, learned a new technique. I spent 3 weeks in beautiful Portugal. And just the day to day loveliness of life...birds and beasts and flowers and trees and family and friends.

The last day of 2018 (and the first day of 2019) the Twilight Zone marathon was on all day, we listened to the less than exuberant fireworks while the dog trembled, and the gunfire which sounded very close jackass doesn't seem to care that those bullets don't evaporate once they leave his gun but go somewhere. We went to bed at 10, probably the first time in my life since I was grown that I didn't stay up til midnight.

Yesterday was done in the usual way...mimosas 

and brunch of bacon and eggs and sweet rolls, more Twilight Zone, took an early nap, lazed on the couch reading, and then in the evening watched two more episodes of Firefly (we have the boxed set that includes the episodes that were never aired).

While being lazy all day is part of the tradition, watching Firefly isn't. In fact we haven't watched it for years but the other night there was nothing on TV so we slipped in the first disc. I only mention Firefly because the next day and for several days after, both Marc and I had an ad pop up on our FB feeds for Firefly. We don't have a 'smart' TV, we did not post anywhere that we had watched it. We do have a fairly new DVD/Blu-Ray player. How the fuck does that happen?

Today is cold and rainy, Marc is off the the grocery store and I have a stack of dishes to wash. Last night we noticed a big puddle on the kitchen floor and under the sink was wet but couldn't locate a leak. This morning when I started the dishwasher I put a big bucket under as much of the plumbing as I could, checked on it later to find water on the kitchen floor and under the sink wet but nothing in the bucket. Just then Rocky showed up (Gunnar had put gutter screens up for us this morning).

Rocky! You're just in time. He located the problem and got us fixed up. Would that any problems encountered in this new year are so easily taken care of.

the last sunset of 2018

and then it turned into this