Well. I didn't expect to write again before landing back in my hometown, but here I am. The family's all gone away--pops and Shawn and silent Oliver to the annual extended horror of a family bash, mutti and Dan back to Tallahassee, and me, here, all alone. It's heaven. I've got five gorgeous cats and Basho and Penelope to keep me company. Penelope, the great beast, is on my list of top five dogs of all time. She's enormous (about 150 lbs) and snowy white and pure love. Bash loves to run circles around her and leap over her and she loves to watch him do it.

I've been trying to get all my gift-making finished. I gave incomplete gifts to nearly one and all this year (exception: Shawn--he doesn't seem all that appreciative of homemade gifts, seeing as he's 13, I'm all right with that). I have only Joe's and Oliver's to finish.

Every venture down this way Basho becomes more firmly my dog. He stays with me wherever I go here, even on our long rambling walks. Stays right by my side. And the days, just bliss. The weather has been cool and sunny and each time I walk over the sandy roads and through the scrub palmetto, I feel like a kid. This is the Florida I remember from when I was little. Not the strip mall hell this state has become.

I've been reading fast and furiously--started and completed five books so far in my stay. I'm working on number 6 now. I read, I eat (my mom can cook, y'all, yeehaw), I walk, I make books. This, really, is all I want from life.

And, with the exception of silent Oliver, my family makes for grand company. My dad and Shawn and Dan are hilarious, my mom and Joe are good and kind. We've had fun.

Tomorrow I head for Blythe. We spoke earlier today and, when I said I was going to stop home before driving to her (about 6 hours out of my way), she told me how wacko I was, and so, I'm going straight to Blythe. Then onward to DC to see Sue and Jess and to usher in the new year. Good times ahead.

What I am not, not even close, looking forward to: teaching. It's coming close, the teaching time. Ugh.

I will be terribly sad to leave here. I love this house, with doors to the lush outside in every room. I love my wild and rambunctious family. I love being outside for hours with my book and my dog and the wild wild land, that nobody will ever tame, all about me. Can this week really be over so fast? Sigh sigh sigh. But sighs of renewal and peace, this time, my friends. I've not a grouchy hair on my ever-grumpy head.