Hey there, Friends and Lovers, we are in the time of Saturnalia. From December 23 to 25th, depending on your historian, the Romans raised hell. Before them our ancestors celebrated the winter equinox, the return of the light, for forty millennia. And now? Comes Merry Christmas.

It’ll be a good day. Believe. When I was seven or six or eight, all the family came together on Christmas Eve and celebrated being together. It wasn’t so much the Lord’s time as family fun time.
We gave each other knockers, “Yeah, Uncle Gene, a roll of pennies. Put ‘em in your shoes and you won’t have the flat feet that kept you out of the army.”

We had a hell of a good time together. We played with the toys and competed for laughs. The uncles were fun. For a change. Mother and Daddy were actually there on the spot. She had her kitchen duties done, which always included a twenty pounder ready for the oven. He had closed up his drive-in pre-Big-Mac burger shop and stayed home - at last! - for one night. We played, we teased. It was marvelous, magical. Christmas Eve gave us all a reason for life and living. And it had to do with us, only us. We were the focus and we contemplated no supernatural beings.

We were there as our ancestors had been in their caves for 40 thousand years celebrating the Return of the Light. We didn’t know that’s what we were doing, we played because it was the night for people to play.

When I got to be 12 all that went away with the spirit of Santa Claus. I had long known he was fake news. Something else went missing tho, my innocence. I had begun to develop an ego. I could be easily hurt. Play had become unfunny. I had lost my toddler's importance.

Uncles showed me I had lessons to learn, told me I needed to listen to my elders. The priests and nuns at church and school had become enforcers of obedience. Daddy told me I could develop duck-like webbing between my fingers or even go to an insane asylum if I continued … that … you know. I’m still reluctant to use bad words.

Now it’s 80 years later. We have a growing custom to look back over the year and share the best with friends. Did we do it right? I dunno, but I can tell you that being alive has resulted in a splended spin around the Sun.

We’re still living a week better than pay-check to pay-check. We haven’t taken out the boat for months. It’d be better to use it. We have gardens that are barely flourishing. We call them woodland forests, another word for neglecting to chop out saplings and seedlings.

The House is in pretty good shape because of a crew of Mexican guys who have been doing the hard labor for the last 17 years. Good people. One problem though, their boss went up onto our roof the other day to blow off the leaves? It’s a metal roof. Slippy. And yes. He fell off.

Grim. The word is that he broke a wrist and needs dental work. Lots of concerns here about that. We love the guy, but what happens next? Don’t know. We’ll keep you up to date.

Went out to Santa Cruz to spend a couple weeks with both Amelia and Alexandra and their husbands, Koos (auf Nederlands) and Michael, Alexandra’s husband. Marvelous.

It was great to be together. Their gardens are so beautiful, we took pride in them. Michael has a Tesla and arranged for us to drive a new one. Zero to 60 in one second! Well, it felt like that. He arranged for us to experience a big 8 passenger model. When it introduces itself, that four wheeled robot defines fantastic.

See the eight of us standing in the drive way in front of the garage. Michael presses a button, the doors go up, the Tesla emerges without a driver, and decides when to stop. We’re all standing around California dreaming. The big Tesla [kinda looks around], decides it's time to play music. Then it dances. It’s middle doors rise up and down to the rhythm, rear mirrors move back and forth. Front doors open and close, rear door does its part. Did it shimmy? Not sure. But it goes through a five minute welcoming gig that earned cheers. Yes. We stood there applauding a four wheeled robot.

That brings me up to date for the first six months. In my next chapter, we’ll explore my nine month adventure as a political candidate running for Oconee SC County Council as a Democrat. More later.
Love all y’all, B