CHRISTMAS

The Winter Solstice, Christmas, and soon the new year....and as I grow older, ellusive time flies by with an impossible pace.

A Christmas sentiment?

All I can wish for you and your loved ones are

BLESSINGS, PEACE, AND CONTENTMENT.

As if you hadn't already been assaulted with enough holiday music, I'm offering more. Nothing special, just two of my humble musical Christmas cards. I post these every year.

 I recorded White Christmas long ago on a cassette tape, that was eventually moldy and rotting in the garage. I repaired the tape, edited it and transferred it to a mp3 file simply to save it. Then I made the video.

The second video ( Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas)  was filmed on an ancient Sony camcorder when I lived in Texas. The camera was much too close to the piano, which distorted the audio.

Fascinating information for Christmas, huh?

What could be more exciting than my music and AI pictures? Please don't throw your fruitcakes at me!

My Christmas Eve was far less than magical, it's rather too unnerving to discuss.

After a few more AIs, I'll quietly take my leave.

Jon  🌲⛄️❤️⛄️🌲

with peppermint kisses to all

WHITE CHRISTMAS

My latest video posted on YouTube. It's my piano arrangement of Irving Berlin's White Christmas. This song evokes many bittersweet long-ago memories.

Ironically, I wrote this arrangement when I lived in balmy California. Here in the wilds of Tennessee, there's a possibility of a white Christmas this year. Winter storms are pummeling much of the country. The temperature here is supposed to drop near ZERO by Thursday night with possible snow.

If I had a snug, warm house with a working furnace I wouldn't be worried. Unfortunately I'm in an incredibly cold,  extremely drafty, impossibly damp house with a dead furnace. My apprehension concerning the up-coming frigid weather is intense.

Am I complaining? Naw. Not at all. I'm just shivering in fear. If I ever knew Tennessee had six month winters with ice floes and penguins, I would have never come here.

On the positive side (I have to search damn hard to find one) I just ordered a lot of supplies from Walmart, which should arrive on Wednesday (before the Big Cold Front).

Unfortunately, Walmart doesn't ship perishable items to my rural area - - which means I can't get things like milk, cheese, eggs, butter, and frozen food. I've been living on evaporated milk and goat milk.

I wanted to get a ham, so I switched to another company (that delivers to my rural area) - - but their hams were pathetically small and outrageously priced.  So I ordered some German sausage instead - which will be delivered on Thursday.

I'm sure this is of absolutely no interest to anyone. I'm merely documenting the pathetic remnants of my wretched, mundane existence.

As always, I'm just talking to myself.

My piano videos are precious to me, because they remind me of a time when I was alive, healthy, creative, optimistic, with a life filled with incredible adventures.
In stark contrast, I'm presently nothing more than a weary, disillusioned, sickly, crippled, impoverished, empty shell.
I no longer have the strength to care.

But I'm plodding on, through the depressing death-path of winter - -
hoping that salvation, optimism, warmth, and sunlight await........

somewhere

somewhere.........             Jon

(do I use too many dots.......and dashes - - -??)

.

WIND-SWEPT CHRISTMAS EVE

Strong southern winds blew into rural Tennessee, bringing unseasonable warmth and a surrealistic aura which expunges the traditional essence of Christmas Eve.

The day was balmy, hazy, overcast, with feeble glimpses of dusty amber light that could have been sunshine. The wind was intense and persistent, and is still whining and moaning late at night as I'm writing this. My only concern is that more nearby trees might topple, like they did during the tornado warning two weeks ago.

In mid-afternoon the forest looked ghostly, with dark shadows of gnarled naked trees and haphazard piles of trees that were broken and toppled in recent storms. Bleak. Desolate.

My day was completely uneventful. The ceaseless wind was an appropriate accompaniment to the mournful elegy of my weary soul.

I had roasted lemon pepper chicken with wild rice for dinner. Pecan pie for dessert. Tomorrow I'll have leftovers.

Tonight I lighted candles to evoke the spirits of past memories. ...to resurrect distant echoes of what was once my life....

Sentimentality runs rampant in the custody of potent wine and the delicious danger of rural isolation.

These photos were taken at mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve. Believe it or not, they're in color but look black and white.

My recent forest photos all look alike because I've been taking the pictures from the back porch. Too lazy to venture away from the house.
 

The winter sun looks so remote and far away - even at noon. It seems to linger tauntingly near the horizon.

I bought some new candles the other day (how exciting!). This one has the rare and heavenly scent of amaretto and blood orange. I love it.
Blood oranges were always abundant in Texas around the holiday season. I haven't seen any here in TN.

This "tree" is a European Cypress. The candle is cinnamon and cloves (I'm sure your excitement knows no bounds).
 

A warm and aromatic array of candles on Christmas Eve......accompanied by potent homemade cranberry wine and the phantom sound of howling winds in the forest.
 

May poetic dreams always sustain you and may all good and positive things continually infiltrate your journey through life.     

 With love, Jon

Was that a strange sentiment? Heck, I thought it was better than "Happy Holidays".

I made this video last year and didn't like it. So, I revised it yesterday with some new visuals. I'm still not satisfied, but what the heck - it's not too bad.

P.S.  I'm STILL having lots of trouble trying to leave comments on your blogs.
A pox on Blogger!

WHITE CHRISTMAS

 

 

 On Christmas Eve the temperature dropped drastically but the predicted snow didn't materialize. I had to settle for icy fog and sporadic flurries.

Due to the intense cold, I stayed up all night - making sure the water pipes didn't freeze, keeping a check on the temperamental furnace, and thanking God that we didn't have a power outage.

I occupied the dark frozen hours by drinking tea and hot chocolate, eating all the goodies I could find, and watching videos  on YouTube and movies on TCM.

Just before dawn the wind began to howl and it started to snow! Just like a Christmas miracle in a Hallmark movie! 

Instinctively, I grabbed my El Cheapo camera and went outside. It was a bone-chilling 10 degrees (Fahrenheit) and still nearly dark, so I didn't stay out long - but at least I captured a few haphazard glimpses of the snow.

When daylight finally came I decided not to take any more photos, but I did toss out a supply of stale bread for the birds. 

Back yard

 

Front yard

 My piano arrangement of White Christmas

 And since I almost never post videos of myself at the keyboard, here's an old unedited VHS clip of me rehearsing the Pas de Deux from The Nutcracker ballet (recorded in Texas).

Video and audio are poor quality - and I had the light purposely focused on my hands - not my lovely face (lol)