NEW YEAR

Today is the first day of 2018; we enjoyed a quiet weekend, mostly at home, but did see dear friends, take a couple of pleasant walks, and float into the New Year on a wave of bubbles. Major changes are under way, but we're still at the beginning, where everything feels slow and rather forbidding. This past Friday was my last day of work. We fly to Vienna on February 11th. Between now and then we have to shed and/or pack all our possessions, and drive from California to Maryland.

It is not an insurmountable task, by any means! However, the to-do list looms over my head in a way that stymies productive work. One of my professors, in the fall of my freshman year in college, told us to put our heads down and concentrate on taking one step at a time. That it would all get better and we’d come out the other side fine before we even realized it. It was good, true advice then, and it still is now. This is my plan for the next two months, and I’m very interested to see what the other side looks like! Hopefully like an old apartment with herringbone floors (my dream), and sipping posh coffees at Viennese coffeehouses :)

In the meantime, the sky over the trees is a beautiful striated purple-blue-pink-orange. The bare orchard looks winterish in a chill, affecting manner. Tonight I will box up our wedding china. Tomorrow I will box up other things. And so on.

Cheers for now,

Renn

A PICTURE IS WORTH 1000 WORDS

TOWER THEATRE

We met friends here for lunch and a matinee of “Lady Bird” on Saturday. Actually the first time we’d been to the Tower (shameful!). Very neat to go to this Sacramento landmark to see a movie about the city just before we leave. Critically speaking, I think people have liked how this movie resonates with different people on different levels. For me, the whole film revolves around place, especially where a person grows up, and the sometimes complicated relationship of self and hometown.

COUNTY ROAD 29

I forced Conrad to take a New Year’s Eve walk with me along our road. Although it can be annoying not to be able to walk around outside after dark without risking life and limb, I will miss the sunset over the Mayacama mountains.

ROCKVILLE HILLS REGIONAL PARK

I met a Georgetown friend here for a New Year’s Day walk. We tramped around the gnarled trees and saw the very low “lake.”

My long-sleeved shirt was ill-considered in the 65 degree weather, but the sun’s slanting rays through the twisty manzanita made up for it.