Poor AEK cannot get home from NYC so might spend Christmas with friends in Chicago; Maven's sister was supposed to arrive yesterday and now will not come at all; Kal's aunt and uncle were supposed to have left today for her parents' house and, for missing Christmas with their family, at least are safely in their own home; Kal and Neal are supposed to fly to her parents' on Saturday but that's up in the air, except not in the air but rather grounded. Again, they're also safe at home. If Scarf, Drums, and Monkey succeed in flying to his family tomorrow I get Mia for five whole days! My most worrisome personal connection is my mother's first cousin and husband who drove to DIA from Laramie and have been in DIA since Wednesday, and the man needs dialysis. I am hopeful that this puts them in some sort of priority standing as far as evacuation goes. They are welcome here, and a good thing, since intra-city travel might be possible before either Monument Hill (on I-25 between here and Colorado Springs, where a son lives) or 25 from here to Cheyenne (or 80 between Cheyenne and Laramie) is passable.
Meanwhile, the Solstice party was sweet. London played carols and we sang, and Neal knows the second verse (both that there is one, and its words) to "Frosty the Snowman," and I sang "I Wonder as I Wander" even though I am not Caroline Bradshaw. Stick unwrapped both his and Twig's stockings and though his mother was pleased, he is old enough to know that anything that looks like clothing is not a good present. So he asked what the other bag was (Monkey's stocking).
The Botanic Gardens was closed yesterday and is likely closed today, but perhaps by tomorrow it will be open. We can snowshoe thither.
Most of my block was out in the street today, shoveling and pulling kids in sleds and romping with dogs in the snow and even the reclusive non-Babushka elderly neighbor emerged to thank me for shoveling. One is having an impromptu party this afternoon. Mentioning the evacuation of people from DIA by caravan (buses immediately behind snowplows), another asked, "Where will they bring them? The convention center?" because we are all about the gallows humor here. Of course people who travel by air tend to be better off than people who have no means of leaving a city and are unlikely to be as ignored and maltreated. But I hope one of those buses goes to a dialysis center.
Its full name is American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century, and the sections on religion and oil were interesting (devastating, disheartening) but the bit on money went on forever. Also, narrator Scott Brick was less emotive than in Influenz but Richard Simmons is less emotive than that: still not un-emotive enough. I doubt I'll listen to any more of Brick's narrations but I'll read more Kevin Philips.
And do I have good timing or what? The next book I started was Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival, because I am all about the cheerful.