Reading Thankful Stockings While Walking an Octopus
As you can undoubtedly imagine, 2020 will not make The Martin Family list of favorite years. However, we are thankful that we’re healthy, that all of our children are healthy and that none of us worked in businesses that had to shutter because of the pandemic. All of our grandchildren are healthy, growing, learning and happy. Because Nazy and I live close to Melika and her family, we’re in a big bubble and we’re not isolated. We’ve been able to make one visit to see Darius and Christiane and the girls. Mitra has been able to visit. So, although we won’t all be able to get together in person on Thanksgiving, we are lucky and thankful. This pandemic will end — not because “like a miracle it’s gone”, but because of science and scientists — and people listening to them.
Being a grandfather means you get a chance to read (and memorize) books to young children. When we visited Washington State, I read to Leandra and Auriane. When we returned to Santa Barbara, I continued to read to Leandra over Zoom and to Azelle in person. After finishing ‘Great Day for Up’, I asked …
“Can you find another book for us to read, Azelle?”
“Of course I can, Dan.” Azelle responded.
Azelle is very talkative and articulate. During her visit, she found a plastic egg that had broken into two parts. She brought them to me..
“Fix it, Dan.” She said.
“I don’t know if I can,” I replied. “Can you fix it Azelle?”
“I am little, Dan. You are a grown-up, you can fix it.”
As noted earlier, we are being very careful — especially as national, state and local events on the pandemic front are not looking good. More ominously, an excellent predictor of disaster has recently appeared in Santa Barbara:
“The toilet paper and paper towel aisle of the grocery store is empty!” I exclaimed. “I hope Nazy stocked up before those hoarders swept in,” I thought.
With Thanksgiving on the horizon, Christmas can’t be far behind. And, at our home, this means that Nazy will pull out the needlepoint Christmas stocking. She’s made one for Mitra, Darius, Melika, me and Tiger. She’s been working on one for Arrow since he was one year old. And..
“… it’s finished!” Nazy announced.
“It’s beautiful!” I replied. “Arrow will..”
“Arrow has been asking about it every day,” Nazy interrupted.
Arrow was thrilled when he saw the finished product. Nazy basked in admiration for a few minutes before beginning work on a Christmas stocking for Leandra.
“And, after that’s finished,” I said, “you have Azelle and Auriane waiting in the wings. By the time you finish..”
“Dan!” Nazy interjected.
“You’ll be ready to work on stockings for Stefan and Tom.”
“Dan!”
“We’ll be nonagenarians by the time you’re done. We may even be great grandparents and a whole new generation..”
“Dan!”
“Yes, dear?”
“Enough.”
“Of course,” I replied. “There will never be enough stockings,” I thought.
As autumn deepens, families in Santa Barbara and Bellingham took good weather opportunities to commune with nature. The Adams Family hit the beach and created a sand sculpture octopus. The Bellingham Family Martin strolled through one of the beautiful forests in Washington State.
Nazy (when she’s not needlepointing) and I take frequent walks by the ocean ..
“… which, conveniently following convention, is usually located at sea level.” I noted.
“Conveniently? Usually?” Nazy replied.
“You have a point, Nazy,” I noted. “Since we moved from The Netherlands, we’ve always lived in houses that are above sea level.”
Astute readers will accurately conclude that a trek to the beach will be downhill, but the return…”
“The stairs from the sand to the bluff are as steep as an exponential graph of the current covid case count.” I thought.
And, finally, we look forward to the arrival of a new, eh better, eh real President — one who actually cares about the country and the job. I think that …
“…everyone can agree that Trump is a jerk,” Nazy observed. “So why do they…”
“They say that they support his policies.”
“Which policies,Dan?”
“Exploding the deficit by increasing spending while decreasing revenue (a tactic borrowed from Trump’s actual business practices), shunning responsibility, suppressing voters, refusing to accept election results, marginalizing immigrants (and minorities), promoting disunity, refusing to cooperate, promoting corruption, abandoning science, emphasizing vengeance, demanding (one-way) loyalty, embracing falsehood while supporting people who have no backbone.
For last week's letter, please click here
The Mesa Steps to the Ocean (down and up)