Happy New Year to everyone! I haven’t posted for a while. Life is like that. The kids were here Christmas Eve. We went to church together. Brian thought there was a lot of singing. If you wanted a service with lots of singing, this was it. A very good service for people who are not necessarily “into” church or who may think differently than you about church. It had singing, candle lighting, kids and the Christmas story as well as a play about how the Christmas story characters were just ordinary people like us. ...

The groceries arrived today. They could not be delivered yesterday because of the snowstorm. It is snowing again today and is supposed to get very, very cold. A young man came and was very helpful. The woman at the coop was also very helpful. She is sensible. When one kind of potatoes was not available, she substituted another working under the assumption I would need them. If I did’t want these more expensive potatoes, I could return them. I had asked that one kind of soy milk be separated in a different bag from the other kind of soy milk. That was done. Of course one always has to figure out the bulk items and which bottle is which–salsa or salad dressing? The salad dressing came in a bottle I would have identified as Worcestershire sauce or the like but since I didn’t order that, it must be the salad dressing. I’m still guessing with items like garlic and celery–how many pounds or ounces to order. The powdered vanilla has that slightly metallic smell to it. ...

Sunday we went Christmas caroling. It was a lot of driving as we visited shut-ins. It was fun singing. Also, I made a pit stop and was told it was just a room. I thought it was your typical unisex bathroom. No. It turned out this room led into another and then from there into another hallway. Elwood left and was returned. If one had wanted privacy, both doors needed to be closed? ...

I am credited with initiating the First Annual Cookie Bake of Melanie’s relatives. A good time was had by all and we also made it a cookie exchange. I baked bread now that I have mastered the bread machine and made the chicken stock for the soup we had for lunch. Elwood and the house’s dog are not on good terms, but they managed to survive each other. Elwood lost his bone at J.’s and of curse, he couldn’t find it and neither could we. It will surface and be brought back Christmas Eve–I hope. when we arrived back here in Madison, we went to the local taqueria, a word meaning taco shop or restaurant. The kids were very pleased and ordered all sorts of things including a cactus casserole. The cactus was pickled. I had a dish served on a hominy-based tortilla with vegetables and cheese. Tomorrow is church and Christmas caroling in the afternoon.

I’m writing this from Glendale having come here on the bus yesterday. Tomorrow is our cookie bake. It turns out I am making the base for the Italian wedding soup for lunch. I also have to see if I can still make cookies. I understand there is a big snowstorm on the east coast. We have had snow, too and it is very, very cold. Wednesday we went to the library. It was the first clear day in a while. I wanted to get a book before it got sent back to its originating library and I had several to return. I also thought it would get us out. ...

I was working on my lap top and it was literally in my lap. Along came Elwood. He started to climb onto my lap, bone and all. “Hey,” I said, “there’s no room. I can’t have a dog and a computer on my lap.” He kept coming, proving that indeed I could have both a dog and a computer on my lap. I explained that the object was not to push the laptop off my lap. I think Elwood disagreed. ...

There is a hotel on Washington Island, Wisconsin. You can only get onto the island by ferry. Why am I telling you thiss? Because I went with melanie and J. to the Washington Island Coffee Shop which is a few blocks from my house. I didn’t know it was there until recently. The office manager clued me into this and we will be going over the route on Monday. However, today Melanie and J. came to Madison on their way to a “romantic” weekend in Dodgeville. I think this is where land’s End is located. If not, the town has a similar name. The coffee shop adjoins a knitting store. The restaurant is large and airy and in good weather, you can sit outside overlooking a park. Today it was sleeting when we went there and we were all quite cold and wet. I didn’t have gloves. Melanie didn’t have a scarf. We had lunch–pheasant quiche, broccoli and cheese soup, an autumn salad with apples and pumpkin seeds, a pickle and such sandwich. Those were our choices along with some other things. And of course, coffee. Just wonderful and delicious and a great beginning to a get-away weekend. The food is from the Washington island Hotel and Culinary School–fresh baked bread and locally grown produce where available and Fair Trade coffee. Pricey, too, but well worth it. ...

Well, I’m over my cold. it was certainly nasty. Elwood was irritated that we didn’t go anywhere. We’ve had 2 mobility lessons and we’ll be having our final lesson next week. Elwood is still resisting the library run but I have a much better feel for it. I’ve been picking up cassette books, not my favorite way of reading anymore, but the library has a lot of books on cassette. i have my bom box and the player from the library for the blind. Unfortunately, the tapes have a lot of background noise on them, the book itself either slightly ahead of slightly behind which makes listening a challenge though doable. I just finished a biography ofDorothy L. Sayers which was supposed to be complimentary but I decided she wasn’t terribly likable though her friends found her generous and funny. It is so easy to request books, now that I know how to do the search, that I’m afraid I will always have stacks and stacks of books. Today we did some fun. We learned where several cool eateries in our area are. I had breakfast at Curve. Curve is about six or seven blocks away, with a major street crossing and the only audible signal in my area. We traipsed off and found the place all right. When I walked in, I realized the joint was jumping. I had gone after what I judged to be prime breakfast time. But then again, today and tomorrow is teacher’s convention and school is closed. The women and children were at the tables. The men and I sat at the counter. I walked in and stood against the wall, not sure how to proceed. A man at the counter directed me to a seat. The counter man, and wait staff, cashier, et al asked if I wanted coffee. There was a great place for Elwood under the counter. I ordered eggs. “Wheat toast?” the man asked. It must be Madison. And that’s what came, just 2 eggs and two pieces of toast. The hard part was getting him to slow down enough to pay. The man to my left ate and left and another man came who didn’t even realize he was sitting next to a dog. He flagged the counter man down and eventually, I paid and could leave. I’lll definitely go back. There’s a crew of regulars. We also stopped at the hardware store to pick up some CFL light bulbs. The counter is at the door so you just say what you want and that’s that. I worked with Melanie and with the office manager here at the apartment to learn the way to the polls. It’s across the audible signal street and down 3 blocks. I can’t get inside the building to scope it out but assume building will be open on Tuesday and that there’ll be enough people around that I will get to where I’m going. I had a great visit with J. and Melanie. We went to Lazy Jane’s which is downtown. It’s in a house. You walk in, give your order, lots of tofu stuff and then wait for your name to be bawled throughout the house. it must be madison–cream, 2% milk or soy milk for your coffee. We sat upstairs and Melanie fetched our food when called. You stack your tray and leave when done. We stopped by the coop and St. Vinnie’s. They were having their bicycle clearance sale. The bikes are in the basement and apparently at the end of October they close it for the winter. The bikes were 75% off. it turns out my storm windows were put on backwards, but that has been fixed. A warm day today. Don’t know how long this will last. It was freezing cold Monday with a few snow flurries. I haven’t been to the Wednesday night group for 2 weeks. I was sick the first week and my driver was sick yesterday. To be continued. Tomorrow Elwood and I need to go back to the library and hopefully I have the documentation to get him a bath. They needed his medical records, well, the rabies shot info. His tag says 20 04 which doesn’t mean he got the shot in 2004. He wasn’t born until 2005. Nanowrimo starts Saturday.

On Friday I was able to go to an apple orchard which had many varieties of airloom apples. I bought some Harolds and Prairie Spy. I wondered if Prairie Spy are related to Northern Spy, but the woman didn’t know. We talked about how people from new jersey long for Stamin Winesap apples but no one outside of new Jersey has ever heard of them. I also bought a pumpkin with a very nice stem to sit on the table. ...

Someone asked about Pacifica Radio. I would characterize it as leftist. What interests me about Madison’s station is that it is mostly volunteer and has lots of local programming and announcements. The Socialists are having a pot luck and a program. Radio shows are developed by collectives. Want to join? Here are the openings we have. One of the premiums for their pledge drives is Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, about disasterous capitalism. I checked. It’s over 500 pages and available in audio in an abridged format–9 hours. The local library has 2 copies of the cd set. I thought I would check it out. I’m patron 34 on the waiting list. This doesn’t include who’s reading the printed text. ...