Decorations and Farewells

The Front Door

The great Christmas decoration exercise was not finished, much to my surprise. My wife didn’t like one whole side of her Sunday front yard creation and spent most of the afternoon yesterday rearranging it. She claimed on Sunday that there was no way she could reach the highest point and therefore my attendance/slave labor was required. Somehow she managed to do it without assistance yesterday. There was also the annual wrapping of the front door which greeted me upon my return. She’s nothing if not energetic, especially when the December temperatures are nearing sixty. I’m more than certain my assistance will become integral once again as the temperatures head south.

1980's Musqueteras

My favorite Panamanian herself is heading north today. The Maine Musquetera’s mother passed away on Sunday and she’s hurting a lot. She’s Venezuelan and because of the tumultuous political environment she couldn’t get home in time. Since one of her closest friends is in pain my wife immediately overcame her aversion to long distance solo driving. She’s on her way to Maine to provide what comfort she can during this painful time. If I take nothing else from my existence on earth it will be the importance of friends and what being around them means. The three musqueteras have been like sisters and the closest friends since meeting in the early 1980s. Seeing the three of them together has always been a very entertaining spectator sport; good friends are like that.

My Wife in Middle, Maine on Left, Virginia Right

A Few years Later But Still Hot

Maine Musquetera and Wife Earlier This Year

Speaking of good friends, this really is my farewell to good ole Matthew Scudder, the peerless hero of so many taut NYC detective novels authored by Lawrence Block. I thought I was finished last week when I knocked off his last novel but then Amazon, as it is wont to do, informed me that Block had published a collection of Scudder short stories collected into one book. Thirty seconds later The Night and the Music was downloaded onto the Kindle.

There’s no common thread to the stories other than Block excellent prose as the stories follow Scudder from his time on the NYPD through his drinking days to sobriety and happiness with Elaine. The last story was most poignant and, if this is the last I read of Scudder, a fitting farewell to the old warhorse (or bear as Elaine would say). In that ultimate story Scudder joins his old friend and career criminal Mick Ballou on the final night at Grogan’s, Ballou’s’ Hell’s Kitchen bar, before it’s closed. It was a warm gathering of old friends which I’ve been lucky enough to vicariously experience over the past few months. As I stated above, there’s nothing more important than time with friends. Here are some of the parting words by Mick Ballou from the short story collection called The Night and the Music, by Lawrence Block:

“In the bar business there’s no end of men looking to cheat you. Suppliers billing you for undelivered goods, bartenders making themselves your silent partners, hard men practicing extortion and calling it advertising or charity. But I always had a pass, you know, because they knew to be afraid of me. Who’d try to get over on a man with my reputation? Who’d dare steal from me, or cheat me, or put pressure on me?” 

“Whoever did would be taking his life in his hands.”

“Once,” he said. “Once that was true. Now the lion’s old and toothless and wants only to lie by the fire. And sooner or later some lad would make his move, and I’d have to do something about it, something I’d not care to do, something I’m past doing. No I’m well out of the game.” He sighed. “Will I miss it? There are parts of the old life I miss, and it’s no shame to admit it. I wouldn’t care to have it back, but there’s times when I miss it.” His eyes found mine. “And you? Is it not the same for you?”

Today’s selection of perfection photographed in California:

Go Patriots!

Grandpa - Aren't You Going a Little Overboard on These Photos

Let Me Think About It

No I Guess Not

But It Is Tiring Being So Cute