Happy Holidays! (2024 Edition)

 

by Pa Rock

Merrymaker

Christmas Eve.  Rain off-and-on in the Ozarks today,  a forecast of rain off-and-on for Christmas Day and the rest of the week.  "I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas!"

2024 has been my year of travel.   The sojourns began in June with a very long drive from my home in southern Missouri, north to Winnipeg, Manitoba, across Canada to British Columbia, south to Sandpoint, Idaho (one of the most scenic communities in America), west to Salem, Oregon, to see grandchildren, and back to Missouri across the western and central US.  Highlights included getting hopelessly lost in Calgary, Alberta, during evening rush hour, visiting with Cousin Joyce in a beautiful spot overlooking Lake Pend Orielle in Sandpoint, visiting with five of my six grandchildren, driving around and across Yellowstone National Park on a very stormy afternoon, traveling through the Wind River Canyon in Wyoming, and getting home to my little dog Rosie.

The second trip was a train excursion from Kansas City to Chicago in July to attend a workshop of a new musical stage production that involved  the writing talent of my youngest son, Tim.   It is based on the film, "The Brass Teapot" starring Juno Temple and Michael Angarano, which Tim wrote.  I stayed at the historic Drake Hotel in Chicago where mobster Frank Nitti once had his office and where Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe spent part of their honeymoon.  My niece, Heidi, who lives in Chicago, showed me around the Windy City like I was a visiting VIP!

By October I was back into the American travel rut of flying.  Late that month my college friend from the 1960's, Carla, and I went to New York City where we saw several Broadway shows in just a very few days, and I was in the audience for part of New York's 36th Annual Festival of New Musicals where I saw another performance of a segment of "The Brass Teapot" - on a real New York stage!  Tim's family was in town for the big event, and my grand-niece Lauren, who is a student at Barnard College of Columbia University, was there, too.  Lauren is involved in theatre at Columbia.

My final trip was another flight, this time from Kansas City to Salt Lake City where I spent a week doing some family research at the renowned Mormon Library.  It was a productive trip, and I managed to catch up on some much needed sleep.  Made it home yesterday, just in time for the holidays!

Travel by planes, trains, and automobiles.  There ought to be a movie in all of that someplace.

Right now my only travel plan for the upcoming year is a car excursion to Oregon sometime in the spring.  Forewarned is forearmed, Molly!  If anything big happens in Tim's professional career - and several things could this year - I will be there for those also.  I don't need an invitation - I just push my way in!

"Pa Rock's Ramble," (pa-rocks-ramble.blogspot.com), my daily blog which turned seventeen last month, still limps along.  I had always promoted it on Twitter, but withdrew from that platform when it was taken over by a billionaire who seemed intent on making it a refuge for right-wing nut jobs and Nazi wannabes.  The blog readership dropped precipitously after I left Twitter, but I recently joined Bluesky (@parock23.bsky.social) and it is once again starting to climb.  Bluesky is a much better neighborhood than what's left of Twitter.

Rosie is doing well, but getting older.  She turned ten last July and now is about my age in dog years.  Rosie has some serious clouding of the eyes and vision issues, but she can still hear a mouse fart in a thunderstorm.  We also have another canine in our lives now, too.  Gypsy, a very large pitbull/bulldog cross, showed up at our house last December and decided to stay.  She is the sweetest dog ever, and is always happy to share anything that he has with little Rosie - even her food bowl!  Our household is rounded out by my oldest son, Nick, who lives here and works in town.  Over the past few years Nick has taken over much of the mowing and the labor involved in living on a large rural acreage.

I'm fine, too, even if my vision is going the way of Rosie's, getting up and down and walking is a lot harder, breathing takes more effort, and my old ticker seems to beat to its own out-of-sync rap song.  The upside is that I didn't break a single bone this year, and my hearing is fine when people speak up and don't mumble!

But age infirmities aside, I'm still here and kicking.  My life is going well, and I hope that yours is, too. Have a very merry Christmas and and a wonderful New Year!

Much love from

Pa Rock  

(and Rosie - and Gypsy - snd Nick)