Dear William,

 Hello and Happy Christmas Writing to you this year from Cheltenham via Avebury were in addition to the largest megalithic stone circle in the world the pagans were out in force playing drums and praying to stones it was in the local parlance(probably not)-massive! Topping off the trip, nearby Silbury Hill stands as the largest man-made mound in Europe comparative in height and volume to the roughly contemporary Egyptian pyramids-in England! Speaking of piles of ummm dirt, 2017 was once again full of them in the news. Still despite the many backward, ill informed, neonationalist, greedy, intolerant, misogynist types in the world, plenty of progress was apparent. Even in Saudi Arabia, were in addition to other reforms, women can now drive cars by themselves-how 21st century! While the public policy response to the real eminent threats from climate related disasters like hurricanes, forest fires and drought serve as reminder that we are all sharing the same planet and need to do bett...

July 28, 2009 Vacation day #2 On my to do list for this week to begin and maintain a journal that I am committed to regardless of the peaks and troughs that time allows. In preparation I have been especially interested in reading entries deposited in varies places, notebooks, napkins, etc. earlier that communicate the mundane daily events and hope to stick to that recipe. The actual accounting of time provides for memory maintenance and proper placing of things. Otherwise, I have always thought or debated what the goal of an exercise like this should be and having not too many important things to say I will stick to the mundane time keeping with respect to personal matters. Furthermore, I don't have a particular audience that I am shooting for so I will pick one and who better to write to or about than the particular growth and development of William Van Namen-chief cat annoyance officer. This is perhaps too harsh a title, although Marian wouldn't disagree, the better qu...