January, continued

I'm trying to remember whether I have ever liked this month, and I don't think so, not really. In high school I kind of liked going back to classes after the Christmas break -- there was always someone I was in love with who I would have missed seeing. But other than that, nothing much good comes to mind. Growing up in the Bay Area, January meant rain, which I did like, so there's a positive. In Michigan and Colorado, January meant snow and ice and cold. In Ridgecrest so far this year, weirdly, January has meant snow and ice and cold. At least the wind hasn't been blowing.

I am not doing well with my resolutions, and already there is that temptation to chuck them all. But I must not do that. Not writing every day in January doesn't mean that I might not write every day in February. And planning to quit Weight Watchers is just silly, since I know I will go back. Today I spent $118 at the grocery store and did not buy any chocolate. Gotta be a record, for me. It was mostly fruits and vegetables. I may not eat any of them, but I bought them.

January also seems to be the time when people die. Sometimes people who are very ill hang on until Christmas and then they let go. Other people catch pneumonia from their relatives at Christmas and die from it in January. My little mother died of pneumonia in January, three years ago.

Today we found out that Rocket Boy's cousin in Germany has a tumor on his thyroid. He is having an operation on Wednesday to determine whether or not it is cancer. Since he is a ferocious smoker, I am not looking forward to the results, though I know that thyroid tumors can be benign. We both really like this particular cousin. Baby B is named for him, just as Rocket Boy was named for the cousin's father. He is younger than I am. We are not ready for him to be sick or dying. Yes, I know I always kill everyone off before I even know they're sick.

On a more cheerful note, we are watching the movie "Just Add Water," which is set in Trona. Note to anyone thinking of renting this movie: eh, maybe not worth it. It is quite a ridiculous story, not to mention just simply wrong about Trona -- they pretend it is in the Owens Valley and has no water because Los Angeles stole it -- sorry, folks, wrong valley, wrong story. But the movie has an unexpected pleasure: the main character has a tortoise! I wonder how many movies feature tortoises. I would happily rent them all.

It's a short movie but we only watched half of it tonight because Rocket Boy has a mild flu, so he couldn't even sit through an hour of it. Another thing to love about January: the flu.

So as not to end on a low note, I will include a photo of our trip to Death Valley yesterday. There's one good thing about January: Death Valley is cool and nearly empty of visitors. Here we are taking a GPS reading at Zabriskie Point -- such a nice father-son activity.

Note to anyone trying to decide whether or not to rent the movie "Zabriskie Point": skip it. OK, the scenery is nice, but the real thing is much better.