THE REAL NEWS

The Mostly Pictorial Holiday Letter for 2022

For whatever Holy Day works for you! (Or none at all.)

Our view on December 17

Friends and family are coming from far and wide. We’ve been looking forward to a far and Wide Christmas.

A recently received holiday letter contained book recommendations. What a great idea! Thanks, Pat.

Randy recommends a re-read of “Slaughterhouse 5” by Kurt Vonnegut for still-relevant social commentary disguised as science fiction, “The Appeal” by Janice Hallett for a mystery in a unique style, “The Fifth Season” by N.K. Jemisin for those of us who have lost track of where Sci-Fi and Fantasy have gotten to, “How Fascism Works” by Jason Stanley if you want to understand current politics, and of course, “A Field Guide to Tracking Mammals in the Northeast” by Linda J. Spielman.

Mary has enjoyed “The Lincoln Highway” by Amor Towles, “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus, “Code Name Helene” and “The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress” by Ariel Lawhon, and “A Woman of No Importance” by Sonia Purnell. Mary’s recommendations are always good reading and more interesting than the books Randy recommends, with the exception of “The Appeal,” which Mary recommended to Randy.

And both recommend Mark Seal’s “Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli.”

We’ve been going to concerts again!

Daryl Hall (Must have had work done)

with Todd Rundgren (hit all the notes, but looks like death warmed over…maybe he’s related to Alice Cooper)

King Crimson (So nice that Mary, who was unfamiliar, enjoyed Robert Fripp and Co.)

Rod Stewart (though he did not appear at Stewarts Landing),

Steel Wheels (How can a band that good still be playing tiny venues)

There were many wonderful performers at the Caroga Lake Music Festival including:

The Bacon Brothers (surprisingly entertaining)

Eddie Barbash (Sweet sax playing updated arrangements of old standards) with the KASA Quartet

Matthew Whitaker (the Jazz answer to Stevie Wonder)

…and Sting. (Mary, how can you look at me and call Sting the sexiest man alive? His photo is left out.)

As usual, we enjoyed watching the Loons on the lake.

Unfortunately, this loon egg did not hatch, so it was delivered to the Loon Center for study.

We still have not gone to a movie theater since 2019. But now that the great state of NY has prompted and bribed Verizon to get fiber up into our neck of the woods, we stream a bunch of them. Mostly ones that no one has ever heard of, but hey, Avatar proves that hype does not a good movie make. Randy would have recommendations if he could remember the titles. Regardless, don’t see The Gray Man with Ryan Gosling unless you like senseless violence.

There was a lot of paddling and hiking and some camping.

Award-winning photo by Russell Hamilton. The award was a beer.

We said, “Goodbye,” to our little dog. 😞

A shed was added to our garage so we could get all the junk out and the cars in for the winter. Thanks again to all who helped.

With all the stuff in the shed, we now have a 4 car garage.

We did some traveling. Hooray! Texas and Florida and California and Tennessee. See if you can guess which is which.

We celebrated 40 years!

Photo by Hine Photos, Ltd.

And we moved.

Beethoven crawled out of the dumpster and is still with us.

Almost all photos are by the author.