I think Dad was just playing with the camera and Photoshop, but doesn't BC look magnificent? |
Mom put the Christmas yard art right to work... |
Dad says this one should be entitled 'Land of Broken Dreams' |
I guess this one should then be 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' |
Mom went to San Diego with Maggie, Susan and Gran for Gran's birthday... |
Mostly they hung out at the beach... |
Ethel decided that she would shuffle off this mortal coil (shufflel'd off this mortall coile in the original Shakespeare) while Mom was away... Dad and I got to say goodbye. |
I guess when they weren't on the beach they were eating... |
I don't know if it really compares to an Australian sunset, but I don't think Mom was complaining too much... |
Yes, it is another beach photo... |
When did Mom get so tall? |
One more group selfie before Mom came home for Dad's birthday... |
We can grow almost anything in Oregon, but I don't know about one of these! |
Look at Dad's enthusiasm! He's just trying to distract you from the one-eyed train cake! |
Dad better come up with a new project - he needs more glitter in his life! |
Of course, he can't do any woodworking while he's in China... |
But apparently he has time to go to parties! |
And he had to go all the way to China just to see some snow this year... |
Dad didn't have a great gift for Mom, but he sure came up with a great gift bag! |
I said, 'Ooh! Take a dramatic picture!' This is what Dad came up with... |
Dad would have included the whole fashion show, but Mom said, 'No!' so all you get is one with the birthday jacket... |
And Dad said Lu wouldn't want to stay in the microbus I made for her... |
Well here we are again. A brand new year. Of course, it is entirely arbitrary to consider January the beginning of a new year. The Earth just goes around the Sun in a constant cycle and we could pick any point along the way to be the "beginning". Now this year January 3rd at 5:35am UTC was when the Earth was closest to the Sun, so maybe January is a good month, but really the whole midnight on December 31st is the beginning of a new year thing is still wrong...
Of course, that also means that the Earth is closest to the Sun when it is coldest in the Northern Hemisphere. You know what that means... It is hot as heck in the Southern Hemisphere because they get to be close to Sun and tilted towards it at the same time! Hooray for the Southern Hemisphere! It also means that we just got to have a super blue blood moon! Aren't those noble or socially prominent natural satellites just fabulous?
What else? Well lots of us are born in January and that means...
We are either Capricorns or Aquariuses (Aquarii? Aquarians? Aquariums?) and we share the lucky numbers 4 and 22...
Our birth flowers are either carnations or snowdrops but we all share the garnet as a birthstone...
We're creative problem solvers and we tended to be the most mature and athletic people in our classes... hmm...
We tend to be doctors or accountants... hmm... that doesn't seem to have happened...
But whatever else it might mean, at least we don't call it "Wulfmonath" as the Anglo-Saxons called it... because it was the month hungry wolves came scavenging at people's doors... What would you call it because it was the month self-aggrandizing orangutans brag to civil servants...?
Welcome to 2018.