Another Ruby

Well, what you know, after I showed the Ruby song by David Rowling and Gillian Welch,  to KDM, and it's connection to Jan, he informed of this other Ruby by Waylon Jennings. So here it is, Jan, double-dip:

Random Update

These are just some of the happenings with me (us), in no particular order:

• Checked off a few more names on my Christmas shopping list today. Wrapping, is another story. I'm not going there. 
• I've been officially inducted to the social network used by nearly all of China's internet denizens, called QQ, so that my family can get in touch with me easier - back home they aren't too fond of Skype.
• Our four dogs have been put under new management, well, sort of. No personnel change, just different routines. In fact, radically different routines. The reason? I'll just say that it had something to do with the neighbor's cats. 
• We've had at least three sightings of bald eagles in the sky over the homestead. 
• KDM sold two bulls last Thursday.
• Don't ask why this, I'm under an impulse to share a favorite drawing by Paul Klee:

• We don't have a Christmas tree yet. 
• It's too cold to climb into the attic, so our Christmas decorations remain up there. 
• We nearly messed up every "And with your spirit" response at Mass this morning. Father spoke too fast and too smooth, we got all cozy and dozy. And you know what happens when you get cozy and dozy, you get ambushed by old habits.
• When ordering the Magic Tree House books on Amazon for a little girl, I sneaked in one for myself: Being Logical: a Guide to Good Thinking. (You can see why I need it, right?)
• I heard this singer on Garrison Keillor again today; I tracked her down, and discovered a new favorite: Gillian Welch:

And this one's for my pal Jan (Jan, you see why it's for you. All in the name, wink, wink):

look what it has done to me

Done been to Confession.
And feeling light.
And feeling avian.
And feeling canine.
And feeling expansive.
And feeling hydrated.
And feeling nourished.
And feeling shampooed.
And feeling coddled.
And feeling indulged.
And feeling like this man:

Love to you all, you know who you are.

Last Year's Poinsettia

Just trying to get in "the spirit:"

Degas and Heart

Yesterday, I had an e-mail exchange with someone I've met via the internet, a person of courage and formidable intellect for which I have great admiration and respect. Relating the grave personal trial she found herself in recently, she quoted the artist Edgar Degas:

"There is art and there is life; and we have but one heart. We think we have two until it breaks. Then we know there was only one."

I can sit on that quote and think about it forever.