Dear Fellow End-of-Year Celebrants:
We went needless and needle-less this season in the Christmas tree department, foregoing messy tradition for the sleek modernity of a grid-dimming outdoor glade of pre-fabricated light-bulb blooms, all carefully timed to illuminate coincident with the onset of peak-power hours.
On the subject of circuitry, we announce with great pride, after 20 years in situ, the shocking ability to close the cover to the circuit breaker box in the garage, the result of a wiring modification that allows activation of the basement lights with a handy wall switch, thus launching us unsteadily into the 19th century. The electrical upgrade accompanied the installation of a couple clay-baking, glass-fusing kilns, new components of JoAnn’s continuing efforts to beautify and calm the world through art.
In support of those tasteful endeavors, JoAnn recently partnered with a group of other fine artists at nearby Blue Moose Art Gallery, Northern Colorado’s Best Art Gallery, Gift Store, and home to several Best Local Artists. Check out their beautiful inventory, classes, events, and awesome atmosphere in person or at BlueMooseArtGallery.com. JoAnn has participated in almost every available class at her new non-workplace while producing some award-winning work. She eventually chose to specialize in fused-glass clocks, a number of which dwell in The Moose for sale, display, and refined chronology. The resultant shard collection at home inspired a re-badging of the upstairs craft room to “Cutfoot Corners.”
Uncharacteristically inspired by the up-”tick” in creativity, Tom crashed a clay bird sculpting class at The Moose, where he artlessly clumped together a misshapen insult to goldfinch lovers everywhere. Despite that abomination, we have found great solace in the addition of more art and artists to our surroundings, as well as a respite from our respective work lives, where we bear increasingly frequent witness to human behavior that defies understanding. For example(s): why would a hospital patient curse their nurse; why would a traveler rebuke a bus driver over a bumpy ride? The perpetrators of such misconduct clearly suffer from artlessness. JoAnn vows to carry on the fight against this defect, while Tom will gradually transition the infliction of his infuriating runway imperfections to simulated airspace and passengers.
Our Christmas gift to each other this year consisted of the inimitable Instant Pot®. No, not the pot that one might associate with Colorado’s overly sought homeless, jobless, transient, entitled lifestyle. Our favored Pot® strain comprises America’s #1 most loved multi-cooker, a device that allows a pressurized and much quicker chicken-breast transition from store to kitchen floor when Tom loses his ever-weakening elder-grip on the serving tong. Feline Team Nelson and Clem, who cost more to feed per pound than we, have taken to gathering round the Instant Pot® in anticipation of the hopeless cook-room hacky-sacking of heated meat that occurs each time Tom attempts to retrieve slippery provisions from the vessel. Such artless performances seem likely to trigger the unhinged, so we pledge to share that unfortunate vision with none other than our most dear and stable friends.
Thank you all and Merry Christmas.
