red

Initials, two or three initials, yesterday I woke up with the start of a cold - - which I’ve scrupulously tried to avoid by staying out of stores and when can’t be helped, by taking one of those alcohol hand wipes at the door. Evidently somehow I missed, or perhaps touched the handrail in the elevators here at Harbour Village. So, initials, Linda is plying me with cold capsules, they come in daytime and nighttime, that ID themselves by two or three initials or something. Intial capsules to swallow and zinc hard candy to suck. The cold’s still here, settling in firmly, but the symptoms are suppressed. Don’t get close to me. Don't mess with me.

This morning, “Sir Banana” in my coffee. Joe brought a qyart of it, real bananas and reduced fat milk. Delicious if one likes bananas, I do. This concoction makes an interesting coffee whitener. 

In about an hour Joe is going to take Linda to the church so she can set up her arrangement on the chest in the foyer (in the church it’s called the narthex for some reason that I know but am not about to bother remembering this morning), while I get ready for the day, then Joe and I are to drive out to Laguna Beach in his red Volvo sedan to get the beef tenderloin for Xmas dinner. Big change this year. Beef on Xmas Day, the turkey on Boxing Day, which you Americans call the Feast of Stephen. Ha, you Americans never even heard of Stephen. Old Saint Winceslas looked down On the Feast of Stephen While the snow lay on the ground Deep and thick and even. Does that ring a bell? No? I thought not.

We have arrived at that Time in the Advent Season when we’ve heard all the Christmas Carols we want to hear and it’s not even Christmas yet; we get to sing them tomorrow evening at the Christmas Eve services, then Christmas Season goes to January 6, Epiphany, and we want to move on but there are all these carols and Christmas hymns yet to sing. Somehow, clinging to some semblance of Advent tradition (i.e., not singing Christmas carols overagainst their blaring across the culture anyway) mars Christmas itself when it finally arrives to stay for a couple weeks. Fish and company.

Assuming the morning’s Time accommodates, Joe and I will have lunch at the beach. Maybe Sandbar, IDK. My favorite there: a pound of royal reds, steamed, and with the cajun butter sauce. They are large and red, and their texture and taste reminds me more of lobster than of shrimp.

DThos+