Well, dear readers, we’re having ourselves a rainy little Christmas night here in the Oaks of Sherman. Steady rain, some thunder – I like it and it likes me and I don’t care who knows it. And whilst I write and whilst it rains, I am listening to Ned Rorem’s strange and somewhat haunting piece Concerto for Organ and Orchestra. I’m enjoying it. Unfortunately, it’s never been recorded professionally. I found it on YouTube – maybe a radio broadcast or someone just recording, but the copy on YouTube is horribly distorted and unpleasant to the ear. Maybe someday someone will record it properly. Prior to that, I took a ride in the rain in the motor car because I didn’t want to go two days without starting the motor. I drove to the mail place and picked up the mail that had arrived on Friday when I was here preparing the Do. A couple of nice envelopes and a DGA screener. Then I came right home and began watching the screener, which I’d heard good things about – a motion picture entitled Coda. It didn’t really sound that interesting to me – a deaf family with one hearing teenager who wants to sing. But the actors are wonderful, there’s a surprising amount of really funny stuff in it and I’m enjoying it thoroughly. I’ll finish it after posting these here notes.
Yesterday was, of course, Christmas. I only got about four hours of sleep at the most, got up, answered e-mails, took a shower, and then the Darling Daughter arrived at noon o’clock. She came bearing gifts. We sat and yakked for a while, remembering amusing things from her growing up. Then she had some spaghetti with the heated-up sauce and some tuna pasta salad. There were a lot of laughs, we railed on about a few things that bug us, and then I opened her gifts. First was a mat – you know, like a mat you’d put outside the door or somewhere, although this is too nice and fun to do that. I’ll find somewhere fun to put it for sure. It’s a Walk of Fame Hollywood star with my name on it. That was a treat. Then there were her homemade cookies, cherry loaf, and another loaf of something that will not come into my head right now. A something loaf. Also, some homemade caramels. Good eatin’ ahead. And two scratcher cards, which we scratched. The first one was a no-go, but the second one had a match, and the prize was another ticket, so I’ll get a new ticket but after the first of the New Year – that’s what I did last year and I won thirty bucks. She got money, Some Days Are Murder, the Tonight’s the Night Blu-ray, and this thing called Past Book – it’s photos I’ve posted on Facebook, beautifully assembled in a really nice, large (wide) book. She’s not really on Facebook, so a lot of these photos were new to her. They did a great job with it – the photos look incredible. I also told her she could no longer call me father or dad – she has to now call me Lord because I am officially a Lord in Scotland, having purchased a tiny square of land and getting a proclamation – another thing that I came across on Facebook. So, if you’re ever in Scotland you must visit my tiny square of land. Lord BK. I like it.
Then we looked through old photos on the computer and I showed her some of those incredible driving videos of old LA and she loved that. She left around four o’clock to pick up her friend Skye at LAX.
I had some tuna pasta salad – well, a LOT of tuna pasta salad but no spaghetti. I cleaned up the few things I needed to, I had a piece of the cherry loaf, then a piece of pumpkin cream pie that Amy and Mark brought from the House of Pies. That was good, too. Then I wrote for an hour on the project with David Wechter and now I’m up to the two big scenes I have to do, which I’ll at least dig into today.
After that, I took the drive, came home, and the rest you know.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll write, I’ll finish the tuna pasta salad, and then I’ll just do whatever I feel like, and I don’t care who knows it.
Tomorrow and the rest of the week will be writing, some meetings and meals, more writing, more notes on the new book, then we have our annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Bash right here at haineshisway.com, the best place to celebrate the ringing in of the New Year – 2022. We’ll have fun, we’ll watch our various and sundried balls drop on both coasts, so you won’t want to miss that. And then on the first day of the New Year I begin writing my new book, which I’m looking forward to.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, write, finish the tuna pasta salad, eat some loaf and other treats, do whatever I feel like, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall be known far and wide as Lord BK.