Every muscle is sore from swimming, dog walking, and raking leaves. I'm making Irish oatmeal cooked with raisins and declaring today a snow day. Sometimes the body needs a rest.

“I continually get told by everybody from 90-year-olds down to nine-year-olds that the sharing part of my experience, sharing part of my story, has helped them,” Harry said. “And as long as that’s the case, then I’m always going to try and make it easier for other people. It doesn’t matter whether it’s one or a million.” Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex

Raking leaves in the sunshine

I love to be outside when it's quiet. Usually it has to be predawn but today I got lucky and nobody was around  at 3:30 PM and so I raked the leaves in the sunshine. The wind had done most of the work blowing the leaves to one side of the yard so I stepped in and gathered them before the wind changed direction.

 Traditionally, Matt and I get Chinese takeout for Thanksgiving, a holiday I actively dislike. Despite its name, Thanksgiving is really the Family Holiday. Even Christmas pales beside it: that day's focus is on giving and receiving even more than togetherness. Strangely though, being alone on Christmas is to be almost hauntingly empty; you feel like a ghost. But being alone on Thanksgiving is rather wonderful, like not attending a party that you didn't want to go to and where no one will realize you're not there. At Thanksgiving, you gather with your family and stuff yourself with food as if it were love—or the next best thing —then stagger back to your regular life, oversatiated and wrung out. Christmas, however, creates expectations that are never met, so you leave hungry and depressed, with an armload of things you didn't want and can't imagine why anyone would think you did.
-John Thorne

Bored Lifeguard

Hiding a cell phone behind a rescue tube or flotation device while on duty is a serious violation of lifeguarding safety protocols. According to major organizations like the American Red Cross, lifeguards must remain completely free from digital distractions while actively scanning their zone. Because drowning is often silent and can happen in less than 60 seconds, looking down at a hidden screen—even briefly—can result in catastrophic oversight.

Calcium Tips

My doc told me to take calcium and vitamin D supplement and the huge pill was making me nauseous even with food so I cut the tablet in half. I have half with one meal and the other half with another meal and now there's no more nausea. Guess what I discovered cuts the pills in half? Our old cat claw trimmers! Yes, I washed them before using.

Split the Doses

Cap single doses at 500 mg or less: Your body cannot absorb more than 500 mg of elemental calcium at one time. Taking a large dose all at once causes unabsorbed minerals to sit in your gut, leading to gas, bloating, and constipation. [1, 2, 3]
Start low and build up: If you are new to supplements, start with a small dose (such as 200 mg to 300 mg daily) for a week and slowly increase. [1]

The Future

by Billy Collins

When I finally arrive there—
And it will take many days and nights—
I would like to believe others will be waiting
and might even want to know how it was.

So I will reminisce about a particular sky
or a woman in a white bathrobe
or the time I visited a narrow strait
where a famous naval battle had taken place.

Then I will spread out on a table
a large map of my world
and explain to the people of the future
in their pale garments what it was like—

how mountains rose between the valleys
and this was called geography,
how boats loaded with cargo plied the rivers
and this was known as commerce,

how the people from this pink area
crossed over into this light-green area
and set fires and killed whoever they found
and this was called history—

and they will listen, mild-eyed and silent,
as more of them arrive to join the circle,
like ripples moving toward,
not away from, a stone tossed into a pond.
 

“The Future” by Billy Collins from Aimless Love. © Random House, 2013. 

Language is the ticket to plot and character, after all, because both are built out of language. If you write a page a day for 30 days, and you pick the parts where the language is working, plot and character will start to emerge organically. For me, plot and character emerge directly from the word—as opposed to having a light-bulb about a character or event. I just don’t work like that. Though I know some writers do, I can’t. I’ll think, oh I have an insight about the character, and when I’ll sit down to write, it feels extremely imposed and lasts for two minutes. I find I can write for two lines and then I have nothing else to say. For me, the only way to find something comes through the sentence level, and sticking with the sentences that give a subtle feeling that there’s something more to say. This means I’ve hit on something unconscious enough to write about—something with enough unknown in there to be brought out. On some level I can sense that, and it keeps me going.

AIMEE BENDER

Bohemian Twilight Czech Style Polotmavý Lager made by Jack's Abby in Framingham

 Amazing.

Colorful German Potato Salad with sauteed Red Onion and Red Bell Pepper

I couldn't resist a bargain so I bought a 5 pound bag of Yukon Gold potatoes for a couple of dollars and made my pressure cooked German potato salad using olive oil, red wine vinegar, mustard, Adobo, honey, salt and no bacon. I also added a huge freshly-chopped red onion.

Then my five red bell peppers were asking to be chopped today and I complied. I also chopped two more huge red onions and sauteed them with the bell peppers in olive oil. Then I sprinkled balsamic vinegar over the mix. Later I decided to add it all to the cooked potato salad.

It's delicious! The Yukon Gold potatoes held up, mixed in with the sauteed red onion and bell peppers. 

Great Northern Bean Vegetable Soup

I had no idea I was going to make a soup but I cooked the beans and went from there. It was so good I am writing it down.

1 pound  dry Great Northern beans rinsed, soaked and cooked. 

3 large cans of plum tomatoes (you can cut them later but they are more flavorful than pre-chopped).

1 pound carrots (peeled if skin is bitter), chopped.

1 pound frozen spinach.

Serious bloop of jug Chianti (Carlo Rossi).

Olive oil 

Homemade cilantro pesto .

Adobo

salt 

Simmer it all in the soup pot! 

Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes.

John le Carré 

The fact that you can only do a little is no excuse for doing nothing.

― John le Carré, A Most Wanted Man

In chaos, there is fertility. 

Anaïs Nin

I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live.

 Anaïs Nin

Write. Write until it stops hurting.

 Anaïs Nin

Passion gives me moments of wholeness. 

Anaïs Nin

You cannot save people you can only love them. 

Anaïs Nin

Our culture made a virtue of living only as extroverts. We discouraged the inner journey, the quest for a center. So we lost our center and have to find it again. Anaïs Nin

Keep on writing, no matter what! That’s the most important thing. As long as you have a job on hand that absorbs all your mental energy, you haven’t much worry to spare over other things. It serves as a suit of armor. 

Eugene O'Neill