Solstice

The particulates that clogged the air yesterday fell out of the atmosphere as snowflake nuclei today. It was pretty enough to photograph. This particular branch belongs to a tree in my backyard. In a sense, it is my tree, unless I fail to pay my real estate taxes, in which case it will be clear who really owns the backyard.



Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, a full 4 seconds shorter than yesterday and also tomorrow - a good example of nature's symmetry. Thankfully the days start to lengthen, and the lengthening accelerates for a while, until the vernal equinox when the change here in the Saintly City is 3 minutes and 9 seconds each day. On the equinox the length of the day is slightly longer than the length of the night. Wikipedia will explain why. I've gone on long enough in this vein.

There was a gathering of tennis playing oldsters this morning. It was a bit of a test to drive on St Paul streets on the way over there, but only because of the ice on the pavement. The tennis was spirited. Jerry and I had a chance to redeem ourselves from the bad loss last week to our friendly rivals and played well enough to prevail. There are times when no matter what you do, the result is positive, the territory known as "the zone." Jerry and I visited the zone this morning for a while. I think that I'd like to live there. We won 6-1 and separated and each took one of the opponents as partners for the next set. The result was a more balanced 6-4.

After playing we hang around and chat. Today the subject was Jerry's hobby: buying and selling on eBay. He has been doing pretty well this Christmas season by purchasing old ugly sweaters at thrift shops and reselling them on eBay for "ugly sweater parties", which seem to be popular in some parts. He buys for a couple of bucks and sells for 15 to 20 dollars and makes a few dollars on each transaction. He says that he has a pretty good eye for ugly and hasn't had many complaints about the quality of merchandise. He says that he buys women's sweaters because they are more garish and sells them as men's sweaters. The gall of the guy. The entrepreneurial spirit.

The Christmas holiday will be cutting into my tennis addiction. No Monday night tennis for the next two weeks as we try to finish out the year. The club closes for Christmas and New Year's Eves. So it goes.

The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Pacers last night to improve to 4-21, still the worst record in the NBA. I watched some of the action on the local sports channel, just by chance. It wasn't as ugly as it usually is, but they sure miss their recently traded superstar, Kevin Garnett.