TODAY the light starts turning around. By sunset at 4:15 p.m., we here in southern New England will have gained .03 seconds of daylight over yesterday.
To acknowledge the passing of the darkest time of the year, here are five dark photos.
Iron piggy’s had a hard life but doesn’t mind wintering outdoors, gives her character. Here she is on the front walk in a slushy rain.
She’s under cover now. Last week, Kim and Ray across the street offered that they had just enough room in their garage for the old hog, so I wheeled her over.
The ’49 truck donned its holiday cheer in time for the recent nor’easter.
Not much else going on, really… just keeping the home fires burning.
D1D1 and I roasted hot dogs on a stick last Friday. She turns 6 this week.
Good thing this photo is dark, obscures how messy I keep the place. Ever since the house emptied out over the summer, the downstairs downstairs has de-evolved into my lair.
I feed the stove, scribble a bit, read a fair amount. This week it’s The Passion According to G.H., Clarice Lispector, next up, J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace. Between books I make an effort to stack motorcycle parts in all available empty spaces.
Right now I’m running an experiment: How long can I store this tire in the kitchen and not hear about it? A week in, so far so good.
Tony DePaul, December 22, 2020, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA
oh Tony don’t be sad. I have been lax in everything except eating. this has been a terrible time and its not over, I have not been out and about. i have asthma and doc said if i get this i will end up in hospital. ugh
I have my dog (12yrs old) and i love her dearly . she is my salvation. not making light of your situation. it is what it is. right. happy new year. post when u can. brenda
Please do be safe out there, Brenda. Thanks for reading.
She found the tire yet? Happy anniversary!
Thanks, Vincent. It turned into two tires for a while, now they and all the rest of my stuff is out in the shed. But hey, at least I’m not out there.
Hello Tony,
As many others commented, I like the Christmas Truck (she puts a smile on your face, even when she is parked). While I never used the oven to bake any parts, I did use my mom and dad’s bathtub to rebuild a TorqueFlite trans:>)
Hahaha! Classic…
I love your Christmas truck display, I bet it’s the outdoor decoration your neighbors will drive by to see. Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year to you, Pam and your family.
Thanks, Ellie. Newcomers to the neighborhood assume the old truck is a lawn ornament, until one day they see it drive by loaded with lumber, scrap steel, a motorcycle on the back… I always get a chuckle out of the funny looks on their faces.
A Merry Christmas to you, Pam and all the rest of those in your family Tony. Let’s hope 2021 will be a better year than this one was. Then you can get back on the Iron Piggy and explore more of this continent. Places you haven’t been to or want to visit again. I can pop the tent trailer up for you if you don’t want to stay inside on your trip past here to there.
Thank you, Bill. It’s a pleasure knowing there’s always a place of warm hospitality awaiting on my next ride through Calgary. We’re overdue for another geocaching expedition! Lead the way.
Tony, that truck is beautiful, now that’s what Christmas is all about, and it really is the most wonderful time of the year, and my favorite time. A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your whole family. Even though there is distancing, this year you can still stay in touch. A whole new year with wonderful stories from your keyboard on the man in the purple suit.
Thanks, Terry. Merry Christmas to you.
Funny, you made me think of Sloan Wilson, one of my fellow ink-stained wretches at the Providence Journal, albeit before my time there. His place in the annals of writing is, um, slightly more notable than mine, color-wise. I write the man in the purple suit, he wrote The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit.
A very Merry Christmas to you and yours Tony. What I would give to have that truck all lit up on my front lawn, lovin’ it !!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you & yours, Tony. Come visit us on the mighty Wing in 2021!
(see Pam’s comment, the guest suite is projected to be available, i.e., vacated by me.)
It’s the Covid-19 space now so I’m giving him a break, but once the porches are built the walkout basement will be changed back to a guest space rather than a garage-like space with tools, tires and stacks of who knows what.
Plan to come visit us post-Covid. We do want visitors! And I’ll probably be retired by then!
Yes, dear. (Learned response, basic survival technique)
Heating the part in the oven set her off, then she opened the freezer to find the other greasy half chilling, waiting to be fitted…. now says she wants a new kitchen… wrapped in a new house.
Explained it’s green just like avocado oil, all natural too. hmmm, no go.
Happy Holidays y’all
Major miscalculation on my part. But not as bad as the guy on our vintage Ford listserv who ran his F-1 bellhousing through the dishwasher. That’s officially beyond the pale, egregious even.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and the family. Haven’t written a response to your notes but I am always happy when I see them pop up in my inbox. I relocated to eastern TN the first of the year to get ready for retirement and be closer to D1 and S1 and their kids. Great area for a lot of things. Have a big garage now for the scooters and cars so stop by whenever you want.
Jeff
Gonna, next ride through TN! Wish I knew when that might be.
Merry Christmas and a Happy 2021 to you & yours, Jeff.
Merry Christmas to you and yours, Tony, from the land of no seasons. My wife thinks Pam is eligible for sainthood. Hard to believe D1D1 is 6 already, but then I remember my 2 sons are 20 and 18, and I wonder when the heck that happened. May ’21 be filled with health and road trips.
Thanks, Dave. Time certainly does speed by at an alarming rate. Our home improvement project had to be put off this year because of pandemic-related slowdowns in the supply chain. It was just about impossible to buy treated lumber around here over the summer. So, next building season we’ll be busy, and I suspect the bikes will just sit as a result but… hard to say what’ll happen five seconds from now let alone five months.
Happy holidays to you & the family! Thanks for following the scribble.
Hey Tony, always nice to see your scribbles. A very Merry Christmas 🎄 to you and your entire family from your friends in snowy Alberta (25+ cm and still coming down). And an oven should only be used to bake cookies and roast the turkey 🤣.
I believe it, Gerrie, that’s been expressed to me locally, and emphatically. Hi to Bill & the lad, and enjoy the white Christmas out there on the great Canadian prairie.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you, Pam, and your clan.
Thanks, Brad. Merry Christmas to you and a best-ever 2021.
Love the truck!
It’s a good old bomb. The only thing different this year, we didn’t use it to haul home a Christmas tree. Since the house will be empty for social distancing we’re just doing a Charlie Brown tree this year.
D1D1 is 6? Man time flies for other peoples kids! Have you noticed that your kids grow slowly and friend’s kids are up and out of the house before you could blink?
Haha! It’s an unexplained phenomenon.
Tony, your old pickup looks great.
I ran a test this year with an elk rack in the living area on the floor. After a month I started to get some flack about it not going up on the wall with the others. I left it there for a couple more weeks then put it on the wall, in the shop. Happy wife, happy life……Bob
So true.
Here’s hoping the McLennan freezes over soon, Bob. Be safe out there on the hunt.
Pam is tired enough in the kitchen. Be a gentleman and roll it into the living room, then dress it up with some holly and candles. Or wrap it up and leave it under the tree, and tag it, “To Pam, From Santa.”
God Jul fra Norge
Got caught some years ago using the oven to heat-cure a paint job on the exhaust headers for my truck. That went over poorly.
Saw a dark comedy recently from just east of Norge, A Man Called Ove, funny funny funny…