Diary #494

I’ve been busy with Christmas preparations lately, not the least of which is preparing as many columns as I can in advance so there’s no pressure on me to do so during the holidays.  Normally I have about ten columns “in the pipe” at any given time, though it often drops a bit lower when I travel; right now I’m at 18, and hope to keep it there until I head to Sunset on Monday.  I plan to stay there until January 2^nd, and to be fairly lazy while there except for cooking and helping Grace to build the bookshelves for my living room.  It will be nice to have some time alone with her; we haven’t really had much of that over the past five years.  But Jae left for a vacation with a friend in Australia yesterday, and Chekhov is leaving to visit family on the 27^th, so Grace and I will have the days leading up to the New Year for the bookcase project, talking, and getting stoned together.  That may not sound very exciting to you, but as I wrote a few weeks ago, I have learned to appreciate the quiet times in my life.  And time spent with a good and beloved friend has a special joy all its own.