the new year so far

The first thing that happened on New Year's Eve was that the Sacramento NPR station couldn't get the opera. Some sort of "technical difficulties." I probably could have searched around for another station somewhere that was up and running but I decided that was too much trouble. So I broke with tradition and played dominoes instead. In the evening I was vaguely planning on going down to watch the bonfire although when I heard it wouldn't be lit until around 1:30 I knew I wouldn't make it, even though it was just down at the end of the block. Here's what it looked like in the afternoon (that you, Neighbor Nelson, for sending this photo).

I read my blog of last year's New Year's Eve festivities and it said there was much more noise, music, party-goers. It was all pretty quiet this year. Even Fernando said there weren't as many people in town for the New Year's Eve dance on the malecón this holiday, although the puestos were doing a brisk business on Sunday. Mostly day-trippers.

Monday's tianguis yielded these treasures.

Also a fabulous pair of sofa pants. I'll tell you about them tomorrow.

Meanwhile, it's gotten hot here; it was 90º yesterday with no breeze. We were expecting the same today, although so far it's quite lovely with a nice sea breeze. Preparing for the worst, I put together a big vat of gazpacho to keep the heat at bay. Lunch in an hour.