Cold Enough For Socks

Today has been pretty cool.  I haven't actually put sock on, and the windows are still open, but I have thought about putting on socks and closing windows.  And that means Christmas is comming. So, today I learned this song on my ukulele.

CHRISTMAS TIME'S A-COMIN'

[D] Holly's in the window
[A7] Home where the wind blows
[D] Can't walk for runnin'
[A7] Christmas Time's A-[D] Comin'.

[D] Can't you hear them bells ringin', ringin'
[G] Joy, don'tcha hear them singin'
When [D] it's snowin', I'll be goin'
[A7] Back to my country [D] home.

[D] Christmas Time's A-Comin'
[A7] Christmas Time's A-Comin'
[D] Christmas Time's A-Comin'
And I [A7] know I'm goin' [D] home.

White candle's burnin'
My old heart's a-yearnin'
For the folks at home when
Christmas Time's A-Comin'.

Snow flake's a-fallin'
My old home's a-callin'
Tall pine's a-hummin'
Christmas Time's A-Comin'.

But it sounds a lot better with a fiddle, mandolin, banjo, and bass.

Coffee

I walk into the kitchen. Put the Mellita cone on my mug, insert a filter, add two tablespoons of ground coffee - dark roasted arabica beans from Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Quatemala. I pour water into the kettle and set it on the stove. Then I wake up my boys by singing to them. By the time they are out of bed the kettle is singing with me, so I return to the kitchen and slowly pour the water over the coffee. It is a cool morning, and I enjoy the warmth of the steam on my arm as I pour. Usually, but not today because it is Wednesday and the Beheading of St. John, when the cup is full, and the kitchen smells beautiful I add a little milk.  No sugar. I drink it while my sons get ready for school, while the squirrels play in the orange tree outside my window. 

Physician, Cure They Self

So, I'm being put through a divorce.  But a funny thing is that I got a letter from a friend the other day asking for advice on how to save her marriage.  The friend is a woman I have not seen since 1986, when I was 16 and she was 15.  I gave her the best advice I could think of, and yesterday she thanked me and said it had worked.  I wish I could do the same for my marriage.

Three Miracles I Have Seen

I was 6 years old.  My mother and I were driving home from somewhere.  The gasoline light came on.  We were just about out of gas.  My mother said, "Let's pray". We prayed.  I saw the gasoline guage go from empty to 1/4.  Enough to get home.

I was 15 years old my parents and I where out in the middle of nowhere Forida, near Horsehoe Beach. There was nothing but forest for miles.  We ran out of gas.  A big white truck pulled up behind us.  A giant black man with the most beautiful face and dressed in spotless white got out of the truck and walked up to my dad's window and said, "Hi, I have three gallons of gasoline for you.  It will get you to the next gas station."  My dad tried to pay him but he said, "No, God has been very good to me."  Then the man got in his truck pulled in front of us and at a certain point -  and I cannot explain it for there were no intersections, no driveways, no place for the truck to go - the truck and the man were gone.  We did not see another soul until we got to the gas station.

Just a few years ago I entered a church near here.  I was early and there was no one in the building but me and an old great schema monk, leaning on a cane.  He frightened me.  When he looked at me I knew every sin I had ever commtted.  Then he floated through the air to me. There were about two inches of air between the monk and the floor.  

Meteor Shower

Anselm, Basil, and I went out and watched part of the meteor shower tonight.  Right after supper (pasta with mushrooms and zuchini) we set out for the San Antonio Valley.  To get there from San Jose one drives on California State Highway 130 over the peak of Mt. Hamilton and the Lick Observatory, where the state highway becomes San Antonio Valley Road.

On the eastern slope of the mountain the grade was so steep and the turns so sharp and so frequent that even in first gear my brakes started to over heat.  It is merely an 50 minute drive from where I live but could be another planet.  Granite boulders, scrub oak, gnarly pine, deer, owls, bats, jack rabbits, bobcats.  I think it is named appropriately.  St. Anthony would feel at home there.  It is a beautiful piece of land.  Looks like a good place for cattle, but I think the Nature Conservancy has bought up a lot of it.

 We sat out there for three hours and only 1 pick up UC-owned truck heading to the observatory and three Hells Angels went by. We saw some amazing meteors.  Most of them were just short whit lines flashing in the sky.  Five of them had tails 20 degrees or more in length (Yes, I measured.) and traveled half way across the vault before they burnt into nothingness.  One meteor burned brightly enough to light up the sky, not like the sun, of course, but close to the brightness of the full Moon.  I was astounded.  Anselm and Basil both yelled "WOW!"

I was way past the boys bed time by the time we saw the first meteor.  And they were so tired from a long day of play and swimming at the YMCA that a few minutes before 11 I decided to drive them home.  It was fun.  And this outing helps Basil earn the Cub Scout astronomy pin. (Anselm already has his astronomy pin.)

Athanasia Wants a Divorce

She says that for 10 years she has not loved me and wants out of our marriage.  I beg God to kill me and he doesn't answer.