Frigid Sunday! I'm not waiting for measurable snow. My thermal underwear are back in use. The wind whistled all night long. The mixture of rain and snow fell steadily at an angle. Didn't want to get out of bed but had promised Tim and Joe (Joaquim) my new neighbors that I would show them around town this morning and especially get an early start at the flea market (7:30).

They still technically live in San Francisco and only visit their new house on their time off work to work on projects. They hope to be settled in before Christmas. They are lovely, lovely people and a one in a million chance that one of them would be Portuguese. I actually think they have been sent to me as an apology from the former owners, also a gay couple who for a year and half terrorized the neighborhood while living here.

I have enjoyed watching them make the house their own. Painting, etc. It's nice to see young people appreciate beautiful old houses like this. Works of art. The craftsmanship...oh! If I get started, I will never stop.

In the afternoon, I partook in something that was very difficult for me. During my absence to Arizona, my mother, who hangs on to broken garden tools, decided to give away my father's old sports car that had been parked in the garage for 25 years. A collectors item. It's not the monetary value of the car, but I was crushed because that car was my father's love. It was beautiful! Just beautiful! My nephews had wanted it but since they lived cross country and never followed through, my mother disposed of the car. This is the same person who will not allow me to throw away old string!

I hated to see that car hauled away! I know that it is just a thing, an object, but it was like there was no longer any room for my father in our lives.

Perhaps this is a crossroad. If we can dispose of something so meaningful, it is time to let go of so much more. Time to release not just things, but emotions, feelings and so much grief that I thought was already resolved.

A new beginning. This time for real.