Winter Solstice: Shortest Day, Longest Night

7:20

8:11

It's another mostly gray morning at the lake, with brushes of pink at the horizon, light above some of the trees.  The silence of winter mornings on the lake is deafening.  No lawn mowers, leaf blowers, weed whackers, in fact, no bird songs, no people talking.

Yesterday was a day of decision, whether we felt energetic and healthy enough, to go to my daughter Jill's for Christmas.  I had another doctor's appointment at 1:30 and if I got the ok from the doctor, we were going, which I did.  So by 2:30, when I returned, chaos returned to our house as we had literally a day to get ready for our trip to Virginia.  Maybe it's a good thing that we only have a day; at least we don't have to worry about what to bring, what to pack, etc, for a week, just a day.  And we decided to just enjoy the afternoon and evening, not worry about our packing until today.  And we had dinner already made, the leftover Indian chicken from Monday, so we lounged most of the afternoon.

At dusk, being the Christmas Scrooge's that were are, we  had our first modest cocktail hour in a month in an unusual way,  by listening to many versions of my favorite Christmas song, "I'll Be Home for Christmas," first popularized by Bing Crosby in 1943, supposedly about a a soldier writing a letter home during WW II.  We listened to various versions on Apple music, from the best, by Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, or Perry Como, the worst by moderns like Kelly Clarkson, Whitney Houston, Blue Grass bands, et al. We ended with a Dixie Land version which my Dad would have loved but then took it one step too far, listening to a dog and cat version. Yep.  We ended the evening listening to Jingle Bell Rock, another favorite, a song Evie's majorettes used to dance to during the half time of a Euclid basketball game. Of course, I was in the locker room at half time so I couldn't watch.  With our miniature wooden Christmas trees, garlanded with tiny lights, we has a very Christmasy evening.
We ate dinner around 7:00 and watched the last two episodes of HBO's DIVORCE, with Sarah Jessica Parker.  It has its moments but overall, it is disappointing.  I wonder if it will have a second season.

We ended the evening watching another VICE news but we are beginning to realize that though its quite different from the 6:30 news, it's also very depressing, as it looks at all that's wrong with much of the world, not just the U.S.