The Burrow

I'm going to pretend that I have a real job and I'm taking a real vacation.  There will be pictures, though, so you don't forget me. ***** As Queen T noted, it looks better the further away you step.

This was first posted in 2009, when The Burrow was eight months old.  I still haven't found anything I like better to replace it. I give you, today, my all-time favorite Xmas carol, courtesy of Walt Kelly and Pogo. Sing loudly and lustily to the tune of  Deck the Halls..... Deck us all with Boston Charlie, Walla Walla, Wash., an' Kalamazoo! Nora's freezin' on the trolley, Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo! Don't we know archaic barrel Lullaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou? Trolley Molly don't love Harold, Boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo! Bark us all bow-wows of folly,   Polly wolly cracker 'n' too-da-loo!   Donkey Bonny brays a carol,   Antelope Cantaloupe, 'lope with you! Hunky Dory's pop is lolly gaggin' on the wagon, Willy, folly go through! Chollie's collie barks at Barrow, Harum scarum five alarm bung-a-loo! Dunk us all in bowls of barley,   Hinky dinky dink an' polly voo!   Chilly Filly's name is Chollie,   Chollie Filly...

  Updated from 2009   My paragraphs were longer, then. Today, October 10, is Columbus Day. Not Amerigo Vespucci Day. Not Leif Ericson Day. Columbus Day. It was certainly not Indigenous People's Day... unless you want to celebrate the beginning of the end. But, I digress.  Today is Columbus Day, although Chris and his fleet landed at a place he named San Salvador on October 12, 1492. Of course, that was according to the Julian Calendar. In 1582, a papal bull (and what an image  that  conjures in the brain) restructured the concept of the leap year and named the new calendar after the Pope himself. Suddenly, La Nina and La Pinta and La Santa Maria had landed 9 days later, on October 21st, Gregorian time. Adding 3 days every 4 centuries doesn't seem like a big difference, but try telling that to Columbus. Someone must have agreed with me on this, since we celebrate his arrival on the Julian date. I love it when things that shouldn't change don't change. And th...

There was a new bike and horseback riding lessons and a hoverboard. There were matching polo shirts.... more than once. There were crossword puzzles and jigsaw puzzles and math games via a shared screen (thanks, Mom). All COVID tests came back negative; medicine was prescribed as needed. There were appropriate t-shirts in all sizes and colors.  Most of them fit perfectly.   There were socks.  Many, many, many socks. The weather enticed everyone outdoors, once it stopped raining. There were some disagreements and some fussing but mostly there was fun and food and smiling. I hope your weekend was as nice as the one I shared, in person and over the internet, with the ones I love the most.

Among many other wonderful celebratory interactions, I kept coming back to Giblet's video message. Dressed in his just-like-daddy outfit, his opening comment was Happy Mother's Day, Grampa! Much hilarity ensued, as he was prompted and failed to say what everyone expected him to say.  Instead, it was a word salad, created by a young brain that's just learning to put thoughts together in paragraphs, that's working overtime to keep up with what's churning, that sometimes just has to smile and say all the loving words he knows. Thus, it was happy everyone day, with our names mixed together, our genders confused, and all of us smiling and laughing and loving. Happy Mother's Day, indeed.

I'm sending lots of   to all of you. Here's to  and and Is it joy, or good health, or feeling free? May it be all that you want it to be,  and then some! HAPPY NEW YEAR! Wishing all good things to all of you in the new year.