Tonight was the extended family Xmas dinner. About 45 people showed up. Its difficult to remember them all.  I know all of the cousins, a quarter of their spouses and none of there kids.

It was good to catch up with everybody. Even though I share nothing in common with them, I enjoyed it very much.

At my parents, it's snowy and frozen. 10F if you'd like to know. Back home it's 55F.

Mom is in the hospital. Her heart was racing this morning. It does that from time to time. She will be OK.

She is supposed to rest more, but she's not good at that. Yesterday was the Family XMAS dinner. Rather than making Dad and I do most of the work. She pitched in and worked hard. Now she's paying for it today.

Dad said, that when her heart races, all she is supposed to do is to lay down and rest. However she is so high strung, that she can't rest. She has to go to the hospital, or the thought of it makes it worse.

Am visiting my parents now. I took a red eye into Toronto, spent the day with a few friends, and there kids, then drove up to my parents. The weather is very plesant here, though plesant for the Ottawa Valley means snow and just a little below freezing.

It's almost Christmas. The weather is very warm here. I've been taking the motorcycle out every weekend.

The fall leaves have washed away. Now the forests are green again with sword ferns and fir trees.

I've been feeling something new lately-- moments of peace or calm. Sometimes it happens on the motorcycle. Other times it happens when I'm walking along a stream, or just sitting and listening to good music. I haven't felt that for a long time.

The Uninvited...A few weeks back Sandy threw a pre-Thanksgiving party. We were invited and accepted. But then I got a call from Sandy. He Uninvited us! He was very apologetic but told me he needed the party to be very calm and RO was not a calm man.

I blew him off.

Then, weeks later, BIB and I were talking. BIB mentioned that Sandy invited him over for the pre-Thanksgiving party, but then called him up and uninvited him. An ex of BIB's would be there and Sandy needed the party to be calm, so rather than risk the drama, he un-invited BIB.

It was very weird.