Keep It Simple

Time for an update on the graffiti-covered Chinese restaurant. After I last blogged it, graffiti continued to accumulate and it was looking pretty scroungy. But I walked by the other day and saw that it has been stripped of all identity, with the signs and even the pink stone facing removed, and the window covered with sheet metal. A few tags remain here and there. I wonder if it's about to gain new life as a different business?

Remember how I said we weren't going to have a Christmas tree in the library this year? We'd all discussed it with the maintenance department and that was the decision. None of us want one -- expensive, messy and wasteful was the consensus.

Well, yesterday, one of the school's maintenance supervisors took it upon themselves to order one -- especially strange considering there are only about ten days of school left. Someone from that department came to let me know, and we leaped into action to belay the order.

I don't know how or why the tree idea got revived, but we compromised by agreeing to put up a small artificial tree that we had in a storage closet, so that has been installed atop one of the bookcases. Hopefully that will satisfy any perceived need for a tree. It is admittedly more modest than usual, but I always wind up having to decorate the big trees and keep them watered, and picking up the ornaments that inevitably get knocked off by carelessly wielded book bags, and the maintenance people have to clean up around them and take them down -- and it's such a hassle.

I am a Christmas minimalist -- as you can tell from our flat, with its single strand of colored lights on a houseplant! I even objected when the librarian came up with an idea to make little tags with the names of books on them to use as ornaments (something we did years ago). We already have boxes of ready-to-use ornaments, so I put some of those on the tree and hopefully that will be the end of it. We have Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa book displays, and some other seasonal decorations like snowflakes and little winter trees. Enough already!

Hunter

I found dewy frost on this car window yesterday morning while walking the dog, but it really wasn't very cold. Certainly not freezing. The avocado is still holding its own, as are the other tender plants. Tomorrow night it's supposed to get down to almost freezing, about 34º F, but I'm going to let everything take its chances.

The dog had us up at 4 a.m. this morning, who knows why. She suddenly insisted on going out, and when she did, she just ran around the yard. She seems mostly deaf these days so if she heard foxes I'd be amazed. Maybe she just thinks she heard them.

How do we feel about Hunter Biden? The pardon doesn't bother me at all, to be honest. Hunter has been a right-wing scapegoat for years despite holding no public office, and I'm glad to see him protected from further persecution. There are complaints that Biden somehow violated the public trust by pardoning a relative (although Clinton pardoned his brother, and Trump pardoned his son-in-law's father) and that the pardon is wildly broad, covering not only the paltry charges Hunter already faces but pretty much anything the feds could dream up. Obviously Biden had to make it broad, because otherwise Trump's minions would gin up more offenses.

People act like this is a dramatic strike against good government. I don't see how it's worse than many previous pardons, like Trump's pardons of Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon and Roger Stone. In fact those are arguably much worse, because those people had a direct hand in government. (Stone from an advisory perspective, admittedly.)

I'm sick of the right's fixation on Hunter Biden and his stupid laptop. The guy was an addict with a messy life and yes, he benefitted from the Biden name, but that's hardly unusual for the child of a politician. (What's that line from Creedence Clearwater Revival? "I ain't no senator's son, no, no...") I say we leave him alone. His life is hard enough. I wouldn't want to be Hunter Biden for anything in this world.

Here's Olga scratching around on the artificial grass in front of the swank furniture store around the corner. Some of that furniture is so high-style that it barely seems functional. We could use some new furniture -- we're still sitting on the living room set that we bought from the previous occupants of this flat back in 2014 -- but when the time comes, we probably won't be getting it here.

Two Foxes

I spent yesterday catching up on stuff around the house. It was rainy and there wasn't much opportunity to go outside, so I dealt with things like submitting medical invoices for reimbursement from our insurance (fun!) and paying my UK tax preparer (fun!).

I also did some reading. I started a murder thriller called "Black Thorn" by Sarah Hilary that I picked up in a bookstore on a whim. It's pretty good so far -- I'm about 100 pages in. And I'm almost caught up on all my New Yorkers. I think I'm two issues behind.

One of the New Yorker articles I read was about Tucker Carlson and his "road show." Apparently Tucker's idea of the pinnacle of American greatness and decency was the year 1985, and he says this over and over again -- " I liked America in 1985." I find that perplexing. I don't remember 1985 being a particularly great time, with AIDS ravaging the gay community (granted, Tucker may not have minded) and the military tangled up in foreign conflicts in Lebanon and Nicaragua. It's an odd year to choose. But then, it was Reagan's Morning in America, which I suppose appeals to conservative sensibilities. It was a relatively stable time, I'll give it that, even if to me and many of my college-age friends it felt stifling.

Funny how we mythologize the past. I suspect Tucker thinks 1985 was better than it really was, even for him. Nostalgia is powerful and deceptive.

I checked the garden cam to see what went on in our garden during our absence in Bray. Turns out, not much -- but we did get an answer to a lingering question regarding the neighborhood foxes. Some of you wondered whether the fox I've been catching on video is one animal or more than one, and I've been curious about the same thing. Well, the short video above isn't very good, partly because I had the camera positioned badly, but it definitely shows two foxes -- so there are at least a pair of them. One runs by at the very beginning of the clip, near the shed, and another one follows a few moments later.

(Added clarification on the foxes for those of you missing one: The first fox runs through from :00 to :01, in the far back by the shed. The second runs through from :07 to :10 and is much more visible.)

(Top photo: A fallen maple leaf on one of next year's teasels.)

Home Again

We made our way back from Bray yesterday morning on the train. By the time I'd walked the dog, had breakfast and packed everything up, it was somehow 11 a.m. -- checkout time. So there wasn't much opportunity to do anything else but get to the train station.

Once again we had a terrible time finding an Uber to carry us and the dog. We were rejected by five drivers, one of whom told Dave we had to order an "Uber Pet." If you can figure out what this is you're a step ahead of me. There's nothing on the app that specifies pets (we always put in notes that we have a dog) and there is no such separate app as "Uber Pet," at least not that I can find.

We called the people who booked us the cottage and they got us a ride with a local car service. All's well that ends well.

The train from Maidenhead was surprisingly crowded and Olga got lots of pats, even when she mysteriously began licking some poor man's pristine white trainers. I apologized but he didn't seem to mind. He must clean those shoes with something that appealed to her.

Since then she's been pretty much sound asleep in her familiar surroundings, as you can see above. (Notice that she has a bed on the floor -- but she always opts for the couch.)

And I've done laundry and we had take-away Chinese for dinner, so we're pretty much back in our groove. I know I'm behind on answering comments but I hope to get to that today!