Here is E’s new Subaru on its first official Yellow Springs outing, where we toasted it with a Dayton Lock 27 Brewing Dirty Bean (coffee) stout.  (We also got some hardware and some books for the car’s first “haul”.)

We enjoyed a brief but very pleasant overnight visit by my son and my oldest grandson K, on their way back from PA to MO.    I haven’t seen K in a very long time.  He’s the one I was with before, during, and after his birth, so we have a special bond.  He’s taller than me, very intelligent and personable, and I was quite impressed with his progress.  Misu took to him right away.  It was a real bonus to get to see my son again and a grandkid.  We just hung out and did a mini-MST3K marathon, like old times.

Here are a few candid shots, not the best quality, but they capture the happy occasion.  I’ve even included a rare sighting of K’s grandmom (Nomi).

Well, this is it–today we traded in my faithful old Subaru (’04) toward E’s shiny new Subaru.  As of today I am carless for the first time in decades, and possibly for the duration.  I will miss her, but she served me/us well for 17 years.  Long may she run for her new owners (or as parts!).

In lieu of typical xmas scenery, on this strangely 60º rainy day, here are:

E’s excellent blueberry pie–

A weird dissected overripe artichoke–

A sparkly earring tree for E–

Our Shabbat table awaiting the meal–

Yesterday we set out in the afternoon for our customary Chinese xmas eve, expecting it to be pleasantly quiet and empty as in the past.

Instead, it seems every hillbilly in Ohio has discovered our Jewish “tradition”, that is, Chinese restaurants are open after last-minute shopping, while everything else is closing (or closed for COVID).  It looked like a hairy bigfoot convention.  The poor little Chinese ladies were working their asses off trying to cram and herd the bearded goat people in and out.  A couple of seven+ foot giants rumbled passed us, literally shaking the floor.  We huddled in our corner amid the racket, trying to eat, not get COVID, and make it out alive!

On the way home, we noticed a tiny Vietnamese mom&pop place that was open.  Next year may be the start of a “new tradition”!  It would definitely be an improvement.

On a saner note, here are E’s latest Challot–after all, it was Erev Shabbat as well as erev xmas.  These came out really well.

My son spent the night with us on his way to PA to spend the holiday with the kids.  I was so intent on the short precious time we had, I forgot to take a photo!  Instead, here’s a rare shot of my office straightened up after his stay.  He and my grandson K. will spend a night here next week on their way back to MO, an extra bonus.  We’re conveniently located about halfway, which works for me!

It’s been too cold to think, so with frozen brains comes writer’s freeze, I guess!  Actually, it’s too cold to go anywhere photogenic.  The combination of the more contagious omicron variant plus the pre-xmas insanity of mobs ignoring it provides even less incentive to go out for any reason other than necessities.  We’re stocked up and ready to watch the virus-fest from a warm, safe distance through New Year’s.  Apparently 2020 hindsight doesn’t apply to 2021 or ’22.

Misu concurs, from the highest, warmest perch she can find.  The good news is, after today (Winter Solstice) the days get longer, if not warmer.

“Female”.  Just a word on a document, but in our case the final vital step in E’s long, arduous struggle to be officially, legally recognized for who she has always been.

It seemed so anticlimactic, just filling out one final form in a health dept. office, to finally obtain the accurate birth certificate with her true gender marker.  Something most of us take for granted.  It took eight years of expensive medical procedures, discrimination, harassment (including by doctors), and perseverance, not to mention dealing with backward bureaucracy, to get to today.  Not an ordeal anyone would take on lightly or recommend.  It’s a major milestone which took much of a lifetime and a lot of pain and loss to achieve.

So where else would we go to commemorate this moment?  HQ, of course.  With a Yellow Springs Magical Moments Winter Warmer spiced brew (9.5!).

Aside from high winds, heavy rain like waterfalls, and extreme temp changes, so far we’ve dodged the catastrophic devastation of last night’s attack of the killer tornadoes.  This was an historic freak event that killed many people and destroyed large areas of several states in one night.  We narrowly escaped this time, but with climate change there’s no longer any way to predict where and when major unprecedented disasters will hit.  Way to go, stupid humans.

At any rate, my son in MO and we in OH are OK for now.  But so many people’s lives have been destroyed overnight.  It’s hard not to feel insecure and a little fatalistic.

It’s been extremely cold here, with some snow, yet here we were back at HQ, which has taken on a more festive look.

Before that, we dropped in to Dark Star Books to visit Spooky, the current bookstore cat, catch up with the humans, and actually buy books!   I acquired some old and newer classics to read that were absent from my library.