Ho Ho Ho

Well, twas the week before Christmas, and, for those of us who don't decorate, and wouldn't be caught dead in a mall any time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it was business as usual.  Well, almost.  I played bridge five times this week - twice with Art at the Duncan Bridge Center, twice at Mizell Senior Center (two different partners, Tuesday with new acquaintance Dru and Friday with club leader Jane), and once on Thursday at the Heart and Stroke Center with a new partner, Claire.  (really, you could play bridge 24/7 in this town) And, of course, the ever present Santa and his baking elves.....

On Tuesday, I had breakfast at friend Howard's, who was the only one (so far) who considered that a meal made for me might be nice, seeing as I have no kitchen!  He's a good cook, too, and it was nice to see his place all unpacked and organized, and looking like he's been there forever (it's been 3 weeks!).

After bridge on Tuesday, Dru and I tried out a little Italian dive (near Mizell and near my gym as well), known for its cheap prices, huge portions, and humongous glasses of wine.  Another example of "you get what you pay for"; enough said.  However, the company was great.  Dru is a friend of a friend from Vancouver, I am enjoying getting to know her better.

On that note, there seems to be a quantum leap in new acquaintances this year.  I don't know whether it is just that I have been here for long enough, or the plethora of new bridge partners, or the classes; in any event, I like the broadening of my horizons.  Now, when I start to play golf......

Wednesday night was another Metropolitan Opera in the Movies encore night.  This is the Met's first new production of Verdi's Falstaff in almost 50 years, and it is worth the wait!  Admittedly, it is a farce, not my favourite, but the director got it just right, it was hugely funny without being over the top, and all the characters - even (or especially) Falstaff were very human.  The setting was the 50's, so you can just imagine the props (fabulous, as only the Met) can do, the singing and the music were glorious, and noone dies. What could be better?  I went with friend Howard, after dinner at Sherman's Deli (right down the street from the movie theater, and it was wonderful to have an enthusiastic companion to share it all with!

What else can I tell you?  More fauna and flora, of course....

I'm not sure whether this is Fred or Ethel, but he (she) definitely wants food....

The grapefruit and starting to get ripe ....

...and I learned about a new Palm Springs "thing", a drink called the Arnie Palmer, a combination of lemonade and iced tea.  Could that exist any where else but here?

The mornings are cool, and the pool is heated.  It was neat to see the steam rising from the pool on the way to the gym.....

(By the way, the chicken wire, a new addition, is to keep the rabbits from pooping on the pool deck!)

I am still reading trash, in all media.  In actual paperback (hey, I needed something I could take to the pool, which I was also able to do this week, as it was warm enough in the afternoon), one of Robert Crais' LA crime novels, a la Philip Marlow but with more psychology.  This was actually a pleasant surprise, as it is not the type of thing I usually like.  However, friend Art highly recommended this author, and I found 10 of his books on my bookshelf when I went looking. Art trying to encourage me, no doubt.  This is the first I have read, but I finished it in one day, and I will certainly continue the series.

On the Kindle, another Barbara Pym, this one called No Fond Return of Love, which takes her characters from the country vicarage to the university campuses and city of London.  Such gentle books (totally different from the Crais book, I can assure you), but quite charming.  Finally, I found my long lost IPod, charged it, downloaded some new books, and went for a long walk listening to the beginning of Amy Tan's new(ish) book, The Valley of Amazement.  And I did make some progress on Flight of the Eagle, although, admittedly, not much.  So, if you are being kind, you could call my reading habits eclectic; if you are now feeling quite so charitable, you might call it haphazard.  It more or less keeps me out of mischief, though, and it is one of the great joys of retirement to have the time and ability to do it.

What else?  Well, the renovations are proceeding apace.  My contractor is very fastidious, and careful cleans up at the end of each day.  Nonetheless, it is unsettling to come home to a changing landscape every day (what first-world problems we all have!).  I will be happy, I think, to leave for Vancouver for the month of January, and come back on February 1 to see the final result.  (I'm not one of these people who needs to see the sausage being made, so to speak....)

Finally, tis the season to remember friends and family, to remember blessings of same (of which I am hugely aware), and to wish you all a happy non-denominational (or all denominational, if you will) holiday, and all my best wishes for a happy, healthy, prosperous, and loving new year, from my house to yours.

As always, I hope to see you all in my house (one or the other, or both) in 2014.

Did and Didn't

So, here's what I didn't do this week, for one reason or another.

I didn't go to the Christmas tree decorating party at our club house (just wasn't in the mood).

I didn't go to the Festival of Lights parade in down town Palm Springs (the parade grand marshal was Suzanne Sommers, by the way).  It was too cold to sit for hours waiting for the oh-so-long parade to pass by.  It was lots of fun last year, when I went last year with neighbor Michael.  But he and some of the boys had rented a hotel room on the parade route, women weren't welcome, and, well, it is not really the kind of thing that I like to do alone.

I didn't go to the Tamale Festival in Indio (one of the "other" Desert Cities); wasn't in the mood for all those people and children (Fran Leibowitz:  Children are always sticky.  This is no doubt because they don't smoke enough,).

Finally, I didn't go to the opera in LA today to see Mozart's Magic Flute.  I was going to go on spec to try to get a rush ticket.  They were sold out, but often tickets become available at the last minute, and rush tickets are $30, versus $100 plus at full retail.  Plan B, if I really couldn't get a ticket, was to have a nice lunch in LA, spend the afternoon at the L.A. Country Museum of Art, and drive home.  But I had a sleepless night, and just wasn't up for it.

(And this was just a short list. Who says there is nothing to do in the Desert?)

What did I do, you might ask?  (You are reading this after all; I assume you're interested!)

I did toast Davie at dinner on Monday December 9th,  to celebrate his birthday - he would have been 80 this year!

It didn't come off exactly as planned.  As previously posted, my traditional restaurant for these tet-a-tets was Davie's Hideaway, which has closed, so I went to Shame on the Moon, another favourite.  Lo and behold, they no longer have prime rib on the menu!  Well, we mustn't get fixated, and Davie liked filet mignon too, so filet mignon it was.  The bourbon was Knob Creek, and it went down very nicely, thank you very much.

These evenings remind me how much I wanted to die of a broken heart.  I didn't though (and Davie certainly wouldn't have wanted me to), and I did live to see yet another glorious desert sunrise.

I did continue to stress out over my kitchen reno, but did see a lot of progress

I did add two names to my list to Palm Springs time-warp street names (Ginger Rogers and Fred Waring).

I did get tired of reading Flight of the Eagle; a bit too depressing for my mood this week.  (I'm up to the Civil War and Reconstruction, so you can see why it would be depressing.)  So I switched to Barbara Pym's novel, Jane and Prudence.  For those of you who don't know Barbara Pym, she is Britain's post-war Jane Austin.  It was a lovely change.

I did get an annual physical, the first ever.  All results are not in, but it looks like, barring unforeseeable accidents, I will be around to annoy you all for several years yet!  By the way, the health care system in the States works very well for seniors, I am here to tell you.  They are very much into prevention, and (at least my doctor, who was recommended to me by friend Art and much to my surprise I really like) not pushing pills as much as they used to, and totally free - for seniors!  Anyway, those of you who know me know that I hate dealing with all that stuff, so I'm glad it is done and over with for now.

I did manage to get some photos of the local fauna....

If you look closely at the top picture, you can see our local hawk (who dines on the local rabbits in the wash in front of the house) sitting and washing down dinner at neighbor Don's fountain.  The next picture is one of many road runners who inhabit my "lawn". They are all brazen, but this one is particularly cheeky - he has just hopped off my table where he joined me for lunch!  All that rustling of the Sunday New York Times didn't bother him a bit!

And, finally, I did play bridge six times this week, at the Palm Springs Regional Bridge Tournament, five times with Art and once with friend Robin.

Top left is Jane, the leader of one of our local bridge clubs.  Notice the sign on the (unknown) lady on the right; it says Miss Information!  Well, I thought it was funny.  Below left, Peter (Art's partner when he is not playing with me) and Art himself, having a good time, as always.  We made a few points, although probably not as many as we should have, and did learn a lot, and had a wonderful time.

So, that was the week that was.  As you can see from the "didn't s, I was a bit cranky and not on my game, so to speak.  I'll try for more variety and sparkle next week!

Lists, Existential Angst, and other Stuff.

Let's start with the lists.  When I left you, I was reading Dirty Love by Andre Dubus III.  I do love reading beautiful stories.  Also just completed, or still on my nightstand in progress, or just waiting to be read are:

1. Martin Cruz Smith's newest Renko mystery Tatiana (those of you of a certain age will remember Gorky Park);
2. From Doon with Death, Ruth Rendell's first Inspector Wexford mystery (written in 1964, can you believe?);
3. and No Man's Nightingale, her most recent, written this year;
4. Telegraph Avenue, the (reasonably) new book by Michael Chabon, who wrote Cavelier and Klay, and the Yiddish Policeman's Union;
5. Flight of the Eagle, Conrad Black's history of America (yes, I'm still reading it, it is another doorstopper, it will take me a while!);
6. Jung Chang's new book on the Empress Dowager Cixi (she also wrote Wild Swans, which I have not yet read - I'll wait to see if I like her writing style before I order it - I swear Amazon is like crack cocaine!);
7. The Bully Pulpit, Doris Kearns Goodwin's Pulitzer Prize winning book about Teddy Roosevelt, Taft, and "the Bully Years of Journalism".  She's the one who wrote Team of Rivals, about Lincoln's cabinet, on which the recent movie Lincoln was based (great book too!);
8. A new biography of the composer Benjamin Britten;
9. Oh, and there's a biography of Bruce Springsteen kicking around here somewhere, waiting to be read.

It's one of the greatest thing about technology; you can see a book review, or get a recommendation from a friend, or just find an author you like and want to read more, or develop an interest in one topic or another, and presto, it can be instantly downloaded to your Kindle to read, or IPod to listen to, or arrive via Amazon in your mailbox in one or two days.  I love it.

Okay, next list.  This one is a vocabulary list.  How many of these words do you know the meaning of?

1. hecatomb;
2. exiguous;
3. perfervidly;
4. asceverating;
5. fissiporous;
6. contumely;
7. jejune;
8. condign;
9. coruscation;
10. febrile;
11. revenant;
12. pelagic;
13. acidulous;
14. redomontade

Okay, I confess.  I had to look them all up.  They all came from Conrad Black's biography of Nixon.  It is certainly true that Black never uses a $5 word when there is a $10 one available, but the writing is certainly memorable.

Okay, this one is more fun, and is one of the reasons I love Palm Springs:

1. East Buddy Holly
2. West Buddy Holly
3. Dinah Shore
4. Bob Hope
5. Frank Sinatra
6. Kirk Douglas
7. Gerald Ford

What do these things have in common?  They are all the names of streets in my every day drives from here to there, and it is not an exhaustive list either.  No wonder I feel as though I were in a time warp!

All right, enough of that.  What else is going on, I hear you ask.  Well, aside from the usual bridge, and the last of the classes for this quarter (see previous post), I did help friend Howard unpack from his second move in two months, courtesy of a break-up (after a 28 year relationship) and some bad decisions.  I like doing those kinds of things, partially because it brings you closer to people (an explanation of where that chatchka came from often leads to further relevations), and, let's be honest here, because I may have to cash in some of these "good will" chips some where down the road.  (Some of you know my Lucy Pschological Quote #37: cast your bread upon the water, and they shall return as sandwiches!) Anyway, it really was a lovely day, and let no-one say that I never do any physical labour.  It is rare, but not unheard of.

I also had a lovely lunch on Wednesday with friend Laurel.  She has been mentioned in these pages most recently on the death of her husband and resulting memorial service in Vancouver.  She lives close to me here in Palm Springs, at a lovely resort, where she invites me (and others) for the occasional lovely and classy lunch.

(from left to right, the above-mentioned Howard, yours truly, Laurel's daughter Erica, visiting from Vancouver, hostess Laurel, and mutual friend Terry).

It really was very "ladies (and one gentleman) who lunch" kind of an affair, with good food, good service, and good conversation; I loved it!

Today, I just got home from the movies, where neighbor Michael and I saw Philomena (at a local, independently owned theater, I might add, where you can get beer and wine to go with your popcorn!).  It is a splendid movie.  Of course, Judi Dench is generally splendid, but this was smart and funny and sad and thought-provoking, and, I am betting, Oscar-worthy.  No spoiler here; see it for yourself!

So, what has caused the existential angst, you might ask?  Well, I am having my kitchen redone.  (I guess this is the time for the "before" photos....)

and although I am thrilled and excited, it is also a lot of money, and a lot of decision making.  I can make decisions, all right (it is what I get paid to do, after all), but it is still anxious-making, even for me.

And it reminds me that I am by myself and have no one to help me with those decisions.  I read recently, in a book review in the New York Times I think, that self-pity has no shame.  I think it's a great line.  She has enough money re-do her kitchen, in her second home no less, and she's feeling sorry for herself because she is on her own with noone to challenge her decisions.  Get real!

Which brings me to what is probably the real reason for the existential angst.  It is Davie's birthday tomorrow (and the anniversary of his death on February 6).  I always get anxious now, and miss him, and remember what it was like to make decisions together!

I'll celebrate his birthday tomorrow night with the usual dinner out for prime rib and bourbon, his two favourite food groups.  (Although Davie's Hideway, the preferred restaurant for this ritual, has closed, so another had to be carefully chosen).    So, those of you who knew Davie, lift a glass for him tomorrow, and remember......