December

Dance with your demons !

it's now or never, kid

get in shape to skate or (gasp) hang up your skates

r u kidney me ?

with all these cute skating clothes ?

if i hang up my skates will i feel as bad about it as i still do about giving away my dolls 49 years ago ?

at least i wont have 49 more years to feel bad / i'll just feel stupid and wimpy today and tomorrow and the day after that . . . . . .

i got out my cold weather duds from Vermont / the lovely chenille scarf and hat made by Maggie the Weaver / my warm gloves from the skating rink / and then my old University of Virginia jacket that i found in a thrift shop about 15 years ago

this jacket is not an athletic jacket / when i went to the University of Virginia the "uniform" for men students was coat and tie / the official jacket is a kind of herringbone tweed with the colours of the school (navy and orange) gently woven in to the weave / The University was founded by Thomas Jefferson / it was an all male school and the men were expected to behave like Virginia gentlemen

(smile)

the liberal arts college for women was in another part of the state / a few women were at the University in nursing and education / there was one woman in the law school / it was the 50's

i took the dogs and went up to the Slick Rock / snowy high desert / a wandering stroll took me over the rocks and down to the sandy track / i went to visit "the button" : the baby cactus button i discovered several years ago in an area with several mature barrels / i had placed a rock next to her the last time / oh, she is covered with snow and ice / i carefully uncover her with a thin stick, wondering if maybe she needs the protection and i should leave her be

it is bright and sunny and cold / the temperature is 25' / when it the sun is out in the drop dead blue cloudless sky its doesnt feel all that cold

i wondered if i were having "symptoms" of "the silent killer" and would i drop dead on the ice this year

i remember hiking all over the Santa Monica Mountains in Topanga canyon when my grandson was a baby with him in my back pack and it would be one hundred degrees at high noon in July and the track would be sandy and hot and i would be barefoot and high on 'shrooms

i used to imagine falling over in a heap and dying on the track with the kid on my back

and now later this month i will rack up my 71st year / sure is a bummer that it takes 70 years to get to where you want to be

oh yeah ? where's that ?

oh Ice Skating on a beautiful lake in SE Utah wearing my snazzy black cashmere skating skirts

boom / splat