Winter came in at 4:38 PM today, but you’d have a hard time believing it here in Gilbert, Arizona. Right now it’s quite pleasant here, in the mid-’60s as I type this, with a freshening breeze from the Southwest heralding the big rains to the west of us. We’ll be getting some of that over the next couple of days, but nothing to write home about. We don’t feel too anxious about the lack of rain down here, however, because they’re getting pounded big time where it needs to be to satisfy the thirsty desert Southwest.

There’s something incredibly peaceful about sitting out on the patio, the newly-re-hung wind chimes softly a-tinkling under soft pineapple lights, the palm trees stirring beneath leaden skies. As they say in the coarse verancular of today’s culture, it doesn’t suck.

Hard to believe Christmas is just days away.

Still, there’s a restlessness in my soul as I ponder the sights and sounds of this pleasant night. It’s not that I don’t feel incredibly blessed for so many of the things people take so much for granted – one’s health and well-being, having a roof over your head with plenty of food to eat and clean water to drink, for example. Perhaps it’s just the Christmas season and there’s really nothing around to make it feel like Christmas. But then again, it’s freezing cold and dreary back home and my skin in lounge pajamas and a t-shirt undoubtedly prefer this to that. So I’ll just leave it to the sense of displacement, albeit in a pleasant way, for Christmas.

A great night for a great Christmas tune, courtesy of the Eagles. Enjoy!

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P.S. to Cubby – you thought yesterday’s golf video was pretty good? Check the same crowd trying to hit a gong 200 yards away in the middle of a lake. Equally incredible. Those guys are good.