cheerfulmonk.com

I’m impressed! I was never good at jumping rope, and never even tried Double Dutch. Click on the picture for the video.

December 10, 2025

This was taken by the Valles Caldera webcam last Thursday:

This was taken yesterday morning:

And this one yesterday afternoon:

The temperature was in the low 40’s F up there, so the remaining snow was still melting.

Down here the temperature was around 47°F, so most of the snow is gone. They’re not predicting more precipitation for a couple of weeks — it will be fun to see.

December 9, 2025

Andy wrote the annual Christmas letter when he stayed down here Thursday:

Dear Family;
Well yet another year has passed. I hope all is well with you and we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Here in Los Alamos things are going well (for our age) but we are slowing down! No big health problems. We both have driver’s license and so far no tickets or accidents.

I am still going regularly up to the land and working hard trying to keep up with problems as they arise. For example a few days ago the control panel and the charge controller of our photovoltaic system stopped talking to each other. This means the data about the batteries (state of charge, solar panel output, etc.) are no longer available. The charger is still working OK so once I can use the backup motor generator set things can be repaired and still keep the lights on. Of course when I tried to use the backup it didn’t work because a battery had failed. I have replaced the battery so we’ll see what next!

The good news is that the solar heater on the roof has been replaced and I can turn it on to help heat the house (sun permitting).

Last summer Kaitlin and Torben came up for a month and placed metal roofing material on the shed. This was a good thing for fire protection! You may ask— why not have a contractor do it? The problem is that the Lab has doubled in size lately and contractors are all busy working on expensive houses and apartments down in the valley.

Jean is working in the apartment trying to keep up with the never-ending updates so she can keep software working! And still posting on her blog every day. As you can see retirement does not mean leisure!!!

Again, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Early Merry Christmas, everyone!

December 8, 2025

Only one of the bean plants has died so far. The others are trying to put out new growth.

I don’t know how long that will last, but right now they’re taking advantage of the light coming through the window. (There’s more in the winter than in the summer because of the angle of sun.) I’ll let you know what happens.

We humans are also enjoying the sunny days.

December 7, 2025

In the cartoon below, the airline is Poor People on Discount. Franco is talking about the apparatus being wheeled toward the plane.

Justo y Franco

It’s not an escape slide, it’s a gigantic shoehorn.

In the cartoon below, Jon says,

Look, Garfield! A turtledove!
I love those birds.

Garfield says,

Meh! I’ve tasted better.

Garfield

December 6, 2025

Andy stayed down here yesterday because of the snow. It wasn’t that deep here, but there’s usually more up in the mountains so better safe than sorry.

It was sunny down here in the morning:

Then it was overcast for a few hours and partly sunny in the afternoon.

Here’s a picture taken by the Valles Caldera webcam (a few miles away from our land) yesterday morning:

It doesn’t look like they had much snow, so Andy will try going up today. He’s being super careful nowadays, which we’re all happy about.

December 5, 2026

The last picture above shows our laundry room. I did my laundry this morning to avoid the snow, and I’m still thrilled by this little diagonal piece of sidewalk they added a few months ago.

We no longer have to walk through a little ditch (or go around the back of the cars) to get from our sidewalk to the one in front of the laundry room. We don’t take that for granted. It’s one of the little joys in life.

December 4. 2025

In her comment to yesterday’s post, Kaitlin wrote:

We got so lucky driving back!!! The snow is beautiful when sitting at home looking out the windows!

And today I received an email with the subject line,

Tempi enjoying the snow starting

and these two pictures:

Yep, I’m sticking with the meteorological seasons. That sure looks like winter to me.

December 3, 2025

To parts of the U.S., at least. The Weather Channel yesterday wrote,

The first full week of meteorological winter is here, living up to its name.

I was looking to see what the weather was like because Kaitlin, Torben, and the pups were driving home from seeing Torben’s family in Ann Arbor, MI. They were trying to avoid being stranded by a snow storm.

It turned out fine. Yesterday afternoon I received an email with the subject line,

Getting closer!

With this picture attached.

They were home a couple of hours later.

I wasn’t worried, but I was watching. And happy when they were safely home.

December 2, 2025

latestly.com

Goodbye, Fall. This was one of the best autumns of my life, and I’m grateful for it. But it’s time to start enjoying the coziness of winter. I sympathize with the people trying to travel home in the post-Thanksgiving storms, but they’re not predicting much snow here. What is it like where you are?

December 1, 2025