It’s Me Again (Part 3)

January 12

We are all shitty little snowflakes dancing in the universe. ~ Lewis Black

People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy. ~ Anton Chekhov

December was cold and snowy. Appropriately, we only did a couple things a day.

[This will also be the last photo of the post . . . ]

No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place. ~ Zen Proverb

December 12

I meet people at book signings. My record now, for signing, is ten and a half hours in one sitting. ~ David Sedaris

[Although we have been Facebook and email friends with Jess Lourey for many years (begining with her early Murder-By-Month mystery novels), we hadn’t been together in person for a few years. This get together was at Cherry Street Books (after they had been at the library) and was great fun. She thinks “The Quarry Girls” is her best book yet. After reading it, I had to agree with her . . . ]

I’ve learned at the book signings that everyone has obstacles. ~ Greg Louganis

[We had never met Sarah Stonich before but had a nice visit with her as well. We bought her novel “Vacationland” as an introduction to her work . . . ]

I meet people on the street or at book signings and they tend to treat me as if they know me, as if we’re connected. It’s great. ~ Judy Blume

[The authors discussed their books, how they write, their publishers, and all kinds of stuff related . . . ]

I’ve had people turn up to book signings with knives, with guns. ~ Patricia Cornwell

There comes a point in your life when you need to stop reading other people’s book and write your own. ~ Albert Einstein

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. ~ Ray Bradbury

[Jess was next off the Costa Rica for I believe 5 months to write in the total absence of snow . . . ]

December 12

Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through snow. ~ Jeff Valdez

[I awoke in the middle of the night and discovered their penthouse bedroom . . . ]

Snow flurries began to fall and they swirled around people’s legs like house cats. It was magical, this snow globe world. ~ Sarah Addison Allen

[Get back here, sis. I don’t want to get cold. ~ Laddie]

I know now, I know a little more how much a simple thing like a snowfall can mean to a person. ~ Sylvia Plath

[The weather was such we felt we did not need to appoint a special prosecutor to determine the construction of a pot of chili was a necessity . . . ]

December 14

The snow doesn’t give a soft white damn whom it touches. ~ E.E. Cummings

A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky unbidden and seems like a thing of wonder. ~ Susan Orlean

This crisp winter air is full of it. ~ John Burroughs

[Why yes, some degree of the usual Wednesday night fine dining group eventually appeared . . . ]

December 15

To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake it is necessary to stand out in the cold. ~ Aristotle

[And the snow kept rolling in . . . ]

You can’t get too much winter in the winter. ~ Robert Frost

There’s just something beautiful about walking on snow that nobody else has walked on. ~ Carol Rifka Brunt

Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories. ~ Deborah Kerr

They say that there can never be two snowflakes that are exactly alike, but has anyone checked lately? ~ Terry Pratchett

I love snow for the same reason I love Christmas. It brings people together whilst time stands still. ~ Rachel Cohn

The most delightful advantage of being bald—one can hear snowflakes. ~ R. G. Daniels

It’s Christmas time in the city . . . ~ Jay Livingston & Ray Evans

December 17

The shortest day has passed, and whatever nastiness of weather we may look forward to in January and February, at least we notice that the days are getting longer. ~ Vita Sackville-West

[This was one full day. Saturday mornings, as now even Al Jazeera has picked up on, are for doughnut runs to Roers Family Bakery, and neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays this courier from the swift completion of my appointed rounds . . . ]

February is for curmudgeons, whinge-bags, and misanthropes. You can’t begrudge us one month of the year or blame us for being even crabbier, it’s so short. There is nothing good about it, which is why it’s so great. ~ Lionel Shriver

[Big Ole stands tall, still in his summer shorts (or tunic, whatever) . . . ]

It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it. ~ John Burroughs

Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever. ~ George R.R. Martin

[Broadway, Alexandria’s main street, at c. 6:15 am . . . ]

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful. And since we’ve no place to go, Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! ~ Sammy Cahn

Despite all I have seen and experienced, I still get the same simple thrill out of glimpsing a tiny patch of snow. ~ Edmund Hillary

The optimist sees the donut, the pessimist sees the hole. ~ Oscar Wilde

[Roers Family Bakery, home of the plain old-fashioned doughnut . . . ]

Mmm… donuts. ~ Homer Simpson

[Said doughnuts safely arrived at home . . . ]

Onward we climb. The upper slope is a crust of friable lava. It crunches like peanut brittle beneath our steps. ~ David Quammen

[Roers also produces peanut brittle during the holiday season – a special treat for me . . . ]

It’s cold and cruel to begin with, but it’s somehow beautiful, and you miss it when it’s not there. And if you hold it in your hands close enough and long enough, it changes. It melts. ~ Bex-chan

[At Carlos Creek Winery for an afternoon of music with Elsa Lee . . . ]

Are ye the ghosts of fallen leaves, O flakes of snow, For which, through naked trees, the winds A-mourning go? ~ John Banister Tabb

[The summer time performance area . . . ]

And so, I’m offering this simple phrase to kids from one to 92. Although it’s been said many times, many ways, Merry Christmas to you. ~ The Christmas Song 

[The Super taking her “missing you at” Facebook photo of Elsa . . . ]

Holidays are joyful, there’s always something new. But ev’ryday’s a holiday, when I’m near to you. ~ Merry Christmas, Darling

Christmas Eve will find me, where the lovelight gleams. I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams. ~ I’ll be Home for Christmas

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know. Where the treetops glisten and children listen, to hear sleigh bells in the snow. ~ White Christmas

Oh the fire is slowly dying. And, my dear, were still good-bye-ing. But as long as you love me so, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. ~ Let it Snow

Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Let your heart be light. From now on your troubles will be out of sight. ~ Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Rocking around the Christmas tree, have a happy holiday. Everyone dancing merrily, in a new old-fashioned way. ~ Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

Good tidings we bring to you and your kin. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. ~ We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the lane, snow is glistening. A beautiful sight, we’re happy tonight. Walking in a winter wonderland. ~ Winter Wonderland

The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different. ~ J.B. Priestley

May the force be with you . . . ~ Obi-Wan Kenobi

[Wine barrel Christmas tree . . . ]

It takes a snowflake two hours to fall from cloud to earth. Can’t you just see its slow, peaceful decent? ~ Amy Krouse Rosenthal 

If snow melts down to water, does it still remember being snow? ~ Jennifer McMahon

[And finishing along the street where we live . . . ]

The snow was endless, a heavy blanket on the outdoors; it had a way about it. A beauty. But I knew that, like many things, beauty could be deceiving. ~ Cambria Hebert

Lights from across the bay twinkled in the night and Christmas carols played softly in the background. She wished for snow to fall to add to the season. ~ Sharon Brubaker

To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold. ~ Aristotle

Morning comes whether you set an alarm clock or not. ~ Ursala K. Le Quin

Life is infinitely stranger than anything the mind of man could invent. ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. ~ James Baldwin

The worst part of success is trying to find someone who is happy for you. ~ Bette Midler

Up Next: Still more of the same . . .