as the tinycars distribution countdown continued downtown,

some with corresponding real world analogs.

Meanwhile another Project – the reconstitution of four missing sections from a 1976 polyptych

[not shown] finally got underway and while the geese, oldsters and young alike, frequented the

marina the moisture relented,

bringing occasional clarity

which allowed a person to discover how truly diminished those cycling muscles have become.

Meanwhile life, despite

Radical Tree Eradication on First,

brought hopeful signs

of new growth safely offshore

as the Project Progressed gradually and

last days unspooled, bright and shiny

without,

punctuated by a quick trip to Seaport Stainless for Linda’s latest lasercut steel [not shown],

a late December lunch in the warmth of the industrial luncheonette’s patinaville and a last trip

down by the water…

The actual last day’s morning walk was followed by an early lunch and trip

to the Vallejo Cinemark cineplex where we arrived in plenty of time for a disturbingly dispiriting and unrelenting barrage of LCD* ads up to showtime and at least forty minutes beyond before they and an equally assaultive barrage of coming attractions’ trailers finally relented to allow us

to experience “A Complete Unknown”…most wonderful compression of those few intense years, 1962-65, marvelously done.  Timothée Chalamet was magnificent at being [without imitating] a very stoned very driven young Dylan.  And so many telling details crammed in there!  I was particularly happy to see the Al Kooper organ audition so well played…hope the other eight people in the theatre got as much out of it as we did. We went home, to wrap up 2024

with homemade pizza and some Veuve Clicquot Rosé Bryan had given us after which which we adjourned to the library where I put “Bringing it all Back Home” and “Highway 61” into the mix, creating a lot of memorable nostalgia on both our parts as we finished off the rest of the Veuve with some limoncello panettone** and were abed shortly after 2025 rolled through Omaha, half an hour before it hit Denver and that was…that.

*Lowest Common Denominator, and quite alarming to realize how low that denomination has fallen.  No wonder we have Trump, again.

[Photo by Alcides Antunes for The Verge; would make a great T-shirt image, no?]

**Which spelchek dutifully rendered as “panatella” when Linda was texting Luz.  Chowing down on a cigar while imbibing champagne?  I don’t think so.  Happy New Year with all Hope for the Future…[see above]