Lots of good stuff happening here.

In case you forgot (I almost did, since the snow came and shifted my focus away from the high winds we had) — a man from a small Amish roofing company stopped by this morning to give me an estimate on that piece of my gutter that’s dangling off the side of my roof.

And they’re also going to fix a couple other (small) things that were damaged by the winds. And it is only going to cost me a couple hundred dollars for the whole thing — labor + materials. Yay!! What a relief.

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And this is out today!!

You can also get the digital version, at your preferred music-listening site!!

And here’s this! From the new album.

“Joy (Live God Version)” by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds:

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I thought this was extremely interesting, gang. (One of those “Hmmmm….” moments.)

From Variety just now:

Netflix to Buy Warner Bros. and HBO Max in $82.7 Billion Deal

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Back to Nick Cave!!

From Ross A Waterman on Instagram–

More Nick Cave in 1996!

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And here’s this!

Another stunning photo of Keith. I don’t know where, when, or who took the photo:

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From James Tabor. (And I believe his new course on Christianity before Paul, goes on sale Monday at Myth Vision. I’ll keep you posted.)

My Slide Show on A Quest for the Historical Mary (39 mins):

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And of course, some of the more important stuff!

I finally got the Christmas tree up, and got the house decorated yesterday. But I decided not to tempt fate too much, and I didn’t put any ornaments on the tree, only lights. I also didn’t put out most of the decorations that I usually put out — I only put out stuff that’s not too easy to bat around the house and destroy.

The kittens did indeed attempt to climb the tree many times yesterday evening, but when I came downstairs at 4:15AM this morning, absolutely everything was exactly as I’d left it when I went upstairs last night!!

So — yay!! Christmas has arrived at my house. Finally.

AND–

Wow, gang. What an incredible time I had at my breakfast yesterday with my new friend, Johnny. Truly one of the nicest men I have ever met.

I don’t want to invade his privacy here on the blog, so I can’t go into too many details here (yet — I have to wait until he says, “sure, go ahead and invade my privacy!”).

But we had breakfast & chatted for 2 hours (fantastic food at the Big Apple Cafe), and our table was directly next to an enormous black & white photo of lower Manhattan in the 1980s. (!!)

[Quite a good omen, don’t you think??]

He is considerably older than me and retired, so as soon as I retire also (right around the corner, gang), we are planning to do a bunch of fun stuff together. Locally, mostly — but also not-so-locally.

For instance, here — a road trip to West Virginia:

Anyway. I really wish I could tell you more right now, but I just can’t. I can only say that he is really kind and sort of shy and just so nice. I will keep you posted!! (But, yes!! of course, I did go on & on about him on the phone with Valerie last night. She was alone in her house up in Haverstraw! But I told him at breakfast that I was going to do that….)

Anyway, since he is a lot older than me, his taste in music is right up my alley!! Yesterday afternoon, he sent me this!

I absolutely loved this song as a little girl, gang. It’s from the Broadway musical ,”The King & I.” But I never heard this version by Bing Crosby, until Johnny sent this to me yesterday afternoon. It just made my whole heart smile.

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Other than that, I am just feeling really happy about so many things right now. My writing, my finances, the future, and Christmas!!

I hope things are going just as well for all of you, wherever you are in the world!!

I’m gonna get ready to head to town now and see my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man. (Okay, I will say that Johnny is not 95! He’s a couple years younger than my birth dad was, which means he is from the whole Vietnam, rock & roll, surf’s up era!!)

Okay. Have a great day out there.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I leave you with this!!

From that playlist that, thankfully, I recovered! (The playlist from when I was always driving down to see my dad before he died.)

The stunning Voces8 version of “Underneath the Stars”. 2013. Enjoy, gang!

“Underneath the Stars”

Underneath the stars I’ll meet you
Underneath the stars I’ll greet you
And there beneath the stars I’ll leave you
Before you go of your own free will

Go gently

Underneath the stars you met me
Underneath the stars you left me
I wonder if the stars regret me
At least you’ll go of your own free will

Go gently

Here beneath the stars I’m landing
I’m here beneath the stars not ending
Why on earth am I pretending?
I’m here again, the stars befriending
They come and go of their own free will

Go gently
Go gently

Underneath the stars you met me
And underneath the stars you left me
I wonder if the stars regret me
I’m sure they’d like me if they only met me
They come and go of their own free will

Go gently
Go gently
Go gently

c – 2003 Kate Rusby