First snow of the season

Last night Judy got an extra birthday gift -- the first snow of the season.  It's not a really heavy snow, but it came down slowly without a lot of wind so it sits lightly on every branch in the woods.  It's also a nice gift for our son Rob, who has always visited early in the year when we had lots of snow and he was able to go sledding.  Maybe we'll get in a run or two before he goes home!While the westher is beautiful, and while we really enjoyed seeing our daughter Deanne over the holiday weekend, we're glad she went home early yesterday and we're looking forward to seeing her again soon for Christmas.

Black Friday

Shopping -- is there a more dreaded word in the English language? Especially -- ESPECIALLY -- as in "Holiday Shopping"?  But sometimes one must bite the bullet and take one for the economy, so we went out shopping at 5:15 this morning to get something that had a limited number of items at the store. Even at a technology store the line was long, but we did manage to get what we were looking for.

But sometimes when you go to the store you see something that catches you by surprise. In a store that passes for a "department store" these days, I saw a display of something whose function is not entirely clear. The wag in me would call these "Christmas bedpans" -- after all, what else do they look like? -- but somehow it doesn't feel like that's their intended function. Who knows?

Family Thanksgiving

We have so many things to be thankful for that one day just isn't enough time; every day Judy and I tell each other how fortunate we are.  But for Thanksgiving day, we had even more reasons to be thankful.  Deanne was with us from Chicago, Rob was with us from Sacramento, and Rick was with us ... from across town.  We weren't sure just how many people we'd have for dinner, though, so we had a 22 pound turkey for five people.  But it was a lovely day, from seeing an eagle flying over the house to cooking (Judy), carving (Steve), eating (the Young People), to pie and a movie.  We hope your day was wonderful too.

Changing of the guard

A few weeks ago I wrote about the robins in our trees, but we've had a changing of the guard here.  Yesterday I noticed that I hadn't seen a single robin for a week or so, and today I saw a bald eagle in a tree by the Iowa River where they congregate in the winter.  In fact, we've seen eagles around for a couple of weeks, but they're getting more and more common as they come in for the winter.  Such wonderful birds...

The 2012 elections

I just saw this remarkably jarring image in a post that talked about the "Election Horror Picture Show" -- so (of course) I had to share it with the three of you who read my blog.  Doin' the time warp again...

Writing in Iowa City

We found out today that Iowa City has been named by UNESCO as a "City of Literature," joining Edinburgh and Melbourne as the only cities with this designation.  This is a significant distinction and goes along with Rick's decision to move here to be in a writing-rich environment.  With this designation, Iowa City joins the Creative Cities Network, a group of cities with rich creative environments.  We're delighted with this designation, and we're glad to be able to participate in our own small way.  (My co-author and I recently completed the review of the copyedits for our forthcoming Shaders book, and today I saw the book listed in the AK Peters online catalog.  Not exactly literature, but I claim that it's still creative!)

Sadie Hawkins Day

Today, friends, is Sadie Hawkins Day.  The actual date is taken from the first day when the notion occurred in the Li'l Abner comic strip, though some celebrate a date a few days later.  I expect that most of you are too young to know about this venerated tradition of the hills, but I come from the Ozarks where single young men stay indoors on that day.  So if you're single, this is a good day to watch your back...

Final results are in

WARNING -- election geek stuff ahead!

We've just heard the final results for the Presidential vote in Johnson County, Iowa, where both Iowa City and Coralville are.  Before the election we heard that our precinct, Coralville 6 (CV06) had never gone Democratic, and the first returns showed that the precinct had gone Republican again this year.  But for the first time, absentee and early ballots were counted in their precinct this year instead of simply being counted generally, and it made a difference -- CV06 went Democratic.  It probably had done so before, but we did have the lowest precinct percentage for Obama in either Iowa City or Coralville, with only 60% for Obama.  (A few rural or small-town precincts were lower, and two, with a total of 809 votes, actually went for McCain.)  So I'm feeling better about where we live now...

Birds & berries

There is a tree in our front yard that turns dark red and produces berries each fall. I don't know what kind it is, but there are a few others in the neighborhood; it seems to be a popular sort. When the berries get "just right" the trees are swarmed by robins and cedar waxwings (see the photo at right); it would be easy to conjecture that the berries have fermented and the trees have become a local bar. But the birds don't seem to fly drunkenly (I've seen that and it's a strange sight indeed!) so probably they're just feeding and getting ready to fly south.  The robins should have gone already, because we've had snow flurries and it's gotten well below freezing.  But winter is close and we'll lose them all too soon now.

Pride

When I hear someone say "I'm proud to be an American" I cringe inside. I can be proud of something I've done, and I can be proud of something someone I love has done. Pride is a satisfaction by which one measures one's stature or self-worth. But I cannot see a reason to be proud of something I had no control over. So I can be, and am, proud of my/our kids for their accomplishments.  My father could be proud to be an American -- he made the choice to immigrate to the US. But I cannot be similarly proud because I made no such choice. What I can be, and what I genuinely am, is grateful and happy to be an American. Most of the time.

But I am proud, button-popping proud, of America this evening. To elect someone who promises a new way to think of America, to reject the politics of fear and division, to make a choice to turn the country towards a more positive relation with the rest of the world, is more welcome than I can say.

And I apologize to all my friends from the Americas who will rightly cringe when I mis-use "America" and "American" as I have done. Please recognize that at this emotional moment I can't really think of a better way to express myself without this clumsy shorthand!

Final early voting statistics in our precinct

Since we're poll watching on election day, I've been watching the early voting statistics in our precinct (Coralville precinct 6, or CV6). Iowa's had a lot of emphasis on early voting, and it shows -- in our precinct, 57.8% of registered voters have already voted, almost 70% of Democrats, over 50% of Republicans, and almost 50% of independents. We're guessing that we'll have a pretty easy time as poll watchers tomorrow; we hope so!

Fall chores

I got a lot done of fall chores done over the last few days. Rick and I took out a couple of large limbs from our big backyard tree to create a bit better balance and open up the ground to more sunlight, and we put up the deer fence around the junipers by the driveway. I did most of the work (and none of the creative culinary work) for a big batch of butternut squash soup (with 12 pounds of squash). Yum! I've put up the winter bird feeder and added a second hanger so I can get both sunflower and thistle seed on the same pipe. The birds also say Yum! I've also cleaned gutters, done a little weeding, and grilled what's probably the last set of burgers outdoors this season. Yum again! So let it snow, let it snow, let it snow (it's forecast for later this week...)