Random bits of light

A coupla few things wandering around on my laptop...

BELOW: Donations at work with old television references.
"Just the facts/VAX, ma'am": Dragnet was before my time. But my parents liked The Avengers when I was little.
Memories of Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) surfaced when I first watched Detectorists in 2014, with Rigg's daughter, Rachael Stirling, in it. She looks and sounds so much like her mother--and Rigg appears briefly in it later, too.

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R.i.p. Bob Janssen (photo below from his Strib obit)
I worked with Bob at Steeple People thrift store for three years--my mending friend Julia-happify and he were good friends.
He was an expert on birds, author of Birds of Minnesota and other bird books.
I asked him how he was once, and he said, fine.
"How are the birds?" I continued.
"Things are not good for the birds," he said.
No doubt, no doubt. But not for the lack of his efforts. A good guy.

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BELOW: I'd come across this old photo recently and sent it to my sister--our father and me at my apartment at Christmastime, 2013, when he was 82. (He died four years later.)
He'd brought me wine and Grand Marnier as a present. 
No one in my family was a big drinker--I've been thinking how little I know of alcoholism from direct experience.

We weren't close, but I suppose we were fond of each other. At any rate, we're alike in many ways. He was playful, and he loved toys! He could be broody & touchy though, and so can I.

My father loved Christmas, which he spent alone, by choice. (My mother had left the family when he was forty-three and I was thirteen. Both of them had other relationships but never remarried.)

He always decorated a live tree, and he made himself roast beef with Yorkshire pudding for Christmas Eve.
He would approve of my Christmas Fern, below.

I know Boston ferns are sensitive to touch, but mine has thrived despite a lot of jostling over the past couple years... I'm hoping the lightweight garland of silver stars won't make it unhappy.
The glass tree topper is mounted on a stake.

I've been sad and slow lately. In my emotional lethargy, I have to sort of force myself to do them, but making these little lightful efforts does bring cheer up alongside the sadness.

Oh--a bit of good news:
Yesterday bink FINALLY tested negative for Covid, after two weeks. She still feels a little gunky but is overall well.