Underground Books -- I love independent bookstores

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

Thursday my Uber driver told me he’s new to town. He also said he writes poetry and plays guitar. I told him about a bookstore where poets hang out — actually, I’ve never been there myself, just heard of it. He wanted to know more, so this morning I visited; it was closed, but I sent him the info and acquainted myself with the place -- Underground Books -- as well. 

Love,

k

Window at Underground Books, with 35th Street (and Rosa!) reflected

Sacramento looks good!

Jerry, light the Christmas tree!

Written last night:
Dear Friends,

This afternoon Zing and I walked to the Capitol to see the big Christmas tree. Although it was only 4:45 p.m., it was getting dark. (In winter it gets dark early here.) But the tree wasn’t lit! I asked two women who were taking pictures of each other in front of the tree if the state was saving power. No, they said; it should be lit. “We’ll go tell Jerry to light the tree!” one woman joked. “Yeah, you go do that!” challenged her friend. I gathered they work at the Capitol and everybody there slyly calls Governor Brown by his first name when he's not listening. I turned my back to pick something up off the grass (Thanks, Zing!), and when I turned around again the tree was lit. Soon there were lots more people gathering to take photos of themselves and our big California Christmas tree.

Love,

k

Filling the dome with music

Written last night:
Dear Friends,

I just came back from Chanticleer Christmas concert at the Cathedral, which is nearby — a block from the Capitol. The ticket says Chanticleer is “an orchestra of voices” -- 12 men singing a cappella. Clark loved to both listen and sing like this. I love it too, and this night was heavenly, a medieval oasis where troubles near and far just disappeared. 

I drew the cathedral dome while waiting for the concert to begin. It does no justice to the soaring sound that soon filled this space.

Hope you have Christmas music of your own!

Love,

k

Christmas juggling act

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

I’m not good at organizing. This time of year I juggle airplane trips and party dates and Zing care and getting to the post office … It might seem easy to you, but I’m swamped!

Luckily, each day I find a person who inspires me. Saturday at the post office on Alhambra it was the postal worker who maintained his cool, even as as the line got longer and people were pressing at his counter and it was closing time. “How do you do it?” I asked him. “I pray a lot,” he said. 

And my neighbor, who spoke to the City Council last week, calm and composed, while he is usually electric with energy. "How does he do it?” I asked his wife. “Practice,” she said.

And this evening at the CVS Zing and I ran into a woman and her small dog. The woman was 101% gracious, talking kindly as our dogs collided. She did not ooze; she was just naturally fine. “Have a wonderful holiday!” is the last thing she said to me.

Who knows who I’ll meet tomorrow?!

Here’s the home where I went to the poetry party last week. 

Love,

k

Christmas in the kitchen

Written last night:

Dear Friends

And today — 

I hung ornaments over the sink. 

Love,

k

Christmas party

Written last night:
Dear Friends,

We’re deep in Christmas preparations. At the end of a busy day there was tonight's HOA holiday party.

Love,

k

Christmas oranges

Ukulele Holiday

Dear Friends,

It would have been so easy to skip the ukulele lesson tonight …  Christmas traffic and everything … But I went and I loved it. Wish you could hear Mele Kalikimaka, a Hawai’ian Christmas song. I’ll play it for you … next year. 

Until then, I want to draw something every day, or mostly, and now it’s all about Christmas.

Love,

k

Sailing across a bridge

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

Yesterday  Kate and I drove to the Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA — it was on my must-see/must-cross list. Redding is 2+ hours north of here, where the mountains begin, and it was a beautiful drive. On the way I kept asking Kate, “What’s that?” and she kept saying, “Huh?” because she has often made this trip to visit family, and everything looks normal to her. But we passed the Sutter Buttes, a heap of rocks that used to be a volcano; here, she said, a community of Sikhs, among others, has settled. And up ahead, just beyond Redding, is Lassen Peak  a volcano.(You might remember its sister (brother?) volcano, Mount Shasta, which is a bit farther north.)

Oh, and the bridge! It’s in a park, and it’s for pedestrians and bikes, across the Sacramento River, which is blue here. The architect Santiago Calatrava designed it with a glass floor, and a cantilevered, cable-stay form — although it's a real sundial, to me it resembles a sailboat, which makes me love it already. To see it is to sail it. Unlike a boat, the bridge is landlocked, stable. But it soars, and I love every inch of it. 

Then, beyond, there’s a simple little wooden bridge crossing a creek. And I love it too.

Love,

k

Sacramento River from the Sundial Bridge

That snowy white peak is the volcano