• Sat, 09:10: OH at our house: What’s your schedule for getting that done? Me: Before you and Housepet get back with clean dishes. Laundry. Groceries.

• Sat, 14:14: National Poetry Month: Thanks by W. S. Merwin https://t.co/FNVZiCWlpL

Thanks
BY W. S. MERWIN

• Wed, 17:15: Castro Valley: Redwood Road closed by rupture near Lake Chabot https://t.co/1BRdWmoXns. One of my favorite local drives.

• Mon, 19:38: OH at home: She's on time delay and she can't hear. This makes her very entertaining. #yesthatsme

• Mon, 12:49: Thunder in Castro Valley. Rain, too, but that's a lot more common these days.

• Sat, 17:23: RT @RozKaveney: It is the essence of patriarchy to set and maintain a canon of rules for the recognition/ regulation of female identity, &…
• Sat, 17:24: RT @Ted_Underwood: Man. Arguing against feeding kids while you golf at government expense is up there on the Marie Antoinette list of Not a…

• Fri, 14:01: I'm here at the 7th @fogconvention. Tonight at 8pm I'm doing a reading with @Vylar_Kaftan and 2 other excellent writers. Come join us!
• Fri, 15:55: OH at @fogconvention: "I'm an engineer. Everything bothers me."

• Wed, 20:23: Fun fact: Quentin Tarantino's first acting role was as an Elvis impersonator on GOLDEN GIRLS. Reading Rebels on the Backlot, Sharon Waxman.

• Sun, 18:15: OH at home: @NotIMnotAndrei says: Religion is the ISO-9000 of spirituality. @_housepet and @gramina in chorus: No, it's not.

• Sun, 14:11: Sunday 2pm, and half a dozen cars are circling the library parking lot looking for people pulling out. Took me 10 minutes to find a spot.

• Sat, 23:54: Jane Austen bingo. https://t.co/Tw8UoKAX8y

• Sun, 16:32: How do owls rotate their heads so far? https://t.co/S5HCY8NJg6
• Sun, 18:57: OH in SF: There but for the grace of Browning motion and random quantum effects go I. #dinnerwithgeeks
• Sun, 19:54: At the newly renovated #Curran theater in SF to see FUN HOME. Interior spectacular, seats are surprisingly comfy for this short fat person.

• Sat, 09:18: OH in Hayward: "If you're going to non sequitur, at least leave us a trail of breadcrumbs." (Yes, that was said to me.)

• Sun, 16:26: Well, you have to die of something. https://t.co/wioBLB92LZ

• Fri, 12:07: Thunder!

• Fri, 08:50: Things to Do Instead of Watch the Inauguration https://t.co/QsvrmQQSMg

• Wed, 10:32: 100 years overdue book is returned to San Francisco library https://t.co/3c7yaikLtX

• Sat, 15:13: Me: So they've shut down the Twilight Zone ride at #Disneyland. @_housepet: Why, were people disappearing? #lifeatmyhouse

• Tue, 10:52: Rest in peace, dear Carrie Fisher.

• Sun, 19:44: The Annual Christmas Poem https://t.co/CWVVUGejiV

This year's Christmas poem was written by our own dichroic. The original is here.</user>

It's not just about Christmas.

Diwali has come and gone –
any light it left behind has dimmed,
lost in the shadow of later events –
darkness, division, disenchantment
and encroaching despair.

But this is the seasons of lights in the darkness,
and the calling of bells –
the rebellious candles of Chanukah
and the innocent ones of Saint Lucia,
the warm hearthfires of Sinterklaasdag,
the conscience-fires of Kwanzaa,
the peals for every earthly desire of Omisoka,
and those for peace at CHristmas.

This year,
can we kindle enough flames,
can we keep the bells ringing
to call us together
to do whatever is needed:
to resist, to protect, to stand forth
or to heal?

• Mon, 15:05: We want @RobertDowneyJr to play Richard III. Cartoonish villain in first 4 acts, tormented human in the last. He'd be perfect.
• Mon, 19:25: OH in Hayward: I'm going to go vacuum the oven now. #nocontextforyou

• Sat, 13:36: I just saw lightning over Castro Valley. Not unprecedented, but rare and special.

• Tue, 21:02: OH in San Francisco: I want to think in multicursal fashion, but I was warped by a pre-Internet childhood.

• Fri, 22:18: SF Bay Area Peeps https://t.co/O0nTR8Fs6y

• Tue, 20:59: OH while watching the Cubs/Giants game: What better way to end a curse than to break someone else's streak? #baseball

• Thu, 09:02: How to tell I'm not in California any more: I'm getting gas for $1.99 a gallon, and an attendant is pumping it for me.