Friday, February 2, 2024 (Imbolc, Groundhog’s Day); from Jinny in San Diego, CA to Sally in Taneytown, MD
Dear Sal,
The cooler weather months here seem to be when I “feel my age” more intensely. This year’s rains so far have come in spurts. The days when I’m stuck indoors because of the weather feel longer somehow. Still, here on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the weather was pleasant enough for an outdoor Thanksgiving feast at son Jason and Kelly’s. They had pushed together a set of tables to accommodate Jason, Kelly, Parker, Ada, and all four grandparents plus J&K’s next door neighbors, whose son Sander is about Parker’s age and one of his best friends. It was a special occasion, with the option of eating outdoors a plus.
The one year there had been an “extended Batterson family” Thanksgiving at our house, I remember having been quite nervous. It was a couple of years after Jim’s father died. Both Jason and Scott were home from college. Our initial “Japanese daughter,” business intern Eiko, was part of the household, too. Jim’s brother Paul and sister-in-law Vivian came down from Connecticut, picking up Jim’s mom in New Jersey on their way. I’d gotten a special “organic” turkey that took much longer than expected to cook. I eventually wound up having Jim carve parts of it and then microwaving the meat so we could eat before the rest of the meal got stone cold.
I don’t know if you’ve had access to coverage of the late November Rosalynn Carter funeral—a partial respite from some of our political slug-fest. All of the living former First Ladies showed up. There seemed to me to be less feigned camaraderie or blatant bullying than usual. The ladies, at least, seem to have managed a temporary “truce.”
I’ve heard you have a good acupuncturist friend. Mostly to calm myself down, I’ve been going to an acupuncturist in a different part of San Diego on a fairly regular basis. She works at an alternative health clinic along one of the public bus lines across Mission Valley from where we live in Tierrasanta. The sessions seem to help, especially now that being indoors for a treatment doesn’t pose quite so much covid risk. Watching too much media coverage of all the current global armed conflicts can wear me down emotionally. Sometimes, even after a good acupuncture session, I have to take a “media sabbath,” not that it makes the conflicts go away.
The longer evening intervals after sundown this time of year provide good times for reading. I’ve gone through Heather McGhee’s The Sum of Us, Madeline Ostrander’s At Home on an Unruly Planet, and David Brooks’ How to Know a Person in fairly quick succession. None discount the difficulties our societies and natural world are going through, but all seem at least somewhat hopeful that humanity can craft better survival tools for ourselves and for the planet.
This year was a “no travel” Christmas for Jim and me. Early in December, I wrote out a holiday letter and sent it to most family members and friends the old-fashioned way, via postal mail. I still enjoy buying holiday cards. I find the “peace on earth, goodwill toward all” sentiments in my favorite designs uplifting. Hope they can spread just a little holiday cheer to others. Hope you got yours.
The Saturday before Christmas, Jason, Parker and Ada went with me to a “camel dairy” in a rural part of San Diego County about 15 miles east of here. It sounds as if the dairy owners had previously been employees at the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park and had branched out to run the dairy. They sell camel rides plus toiletries and small “camel milk” gifts. They also give educational presentations about camels to visitors for a fee. I think the grandkids enjoyed it. They got to feed some goats in a separate pen from the large camel enclosure. Neither opted for a camel ride. Jason graciously agreed to drive for an excursion back and forth on roads I was unfamiliar with.
Because of advances in video conferencing technology, we can arrange calls with the rest of the family that are “almost as good as being there.” We saw a little of the holiday celebrations in Ohio and in Connecticut. Granddaughter Kenley is quite mobile by now and is starting to have more words. She’s a big fan of an Australia-based cartoon show called “Bluey,” sort of the Aesop’s fables for this generation, from the little I’ve seen of it. Paul and Vivian were having a fairly quiet Christmas. Vivian has an artificial tree that looks almost real. She decorates it beautifully every year. We exchanged greetings briefly with brothers Bruce and Jim V. and their wives. All seem to be doing well.
We celebrated this year’s Groundhog Day twice —in the morning with Villagers at the clubhouse we rent in one of the surrounding condo communities, then in late afternoon here in our alleyway for neighbors and family. Jason came with the grandkids. Half a dozen neighbors showed up to munch cookies, drink cider, and share weather stories. We’d earlier gone online and purchased a groundhog inflatable—yard-sized inflatables seem to be the latest decorating fad in this part of the country. If I remember, I’ll put in a snapshot of family posed around the 7-foot groundhog, which a built-in motor keeps upright once you plug him in.
Enough for now. Please take good care. Hugs all round!
Love, Jin
