It’s been a hectic November and December. It seems as if yesterday it was the beginning of November, but now Christmas is just a few days away. We’ve traveled to Upper Michigan, spent a week in a class in Berkeley, baptized the baby, completed the capital budget, and now are almost at the end of the year.

I haven’t had a chance to do much astronomy, I haven’t had the chance to get the observatory up or put the new drive motors on the C-8 out here in Lake Riverside. Sigh.

But today has been productive. I washed all the windows, finally getting the grime from the wind storm in October off. Washing windows can be very satisfying. I use an Ettore washer and squeegee with a strong ammonia and hot water solution. I believe the key is the scrubbing action of the washer to loosen the dirt, then the squeegee takes it all away. And nice clean windows look very good. The whole view outside looks much sharper.

I learned my technique at the Grand Carnot, on Avenue Carnot in Paris. John Stubbs and I would have breakfast their each day on our way out to EuroDisney. Once every couple of weeks the owner would have the glass in the cafe cleaned. The cleaners would SOAP up the window and squeegee it off in a continuous sweep. I’m not that good, but I try.

I also took the first attack at the gophers who have returned to the yard. They filled the sprinkler cut-off valve area again, and started a mound next to the house. The valve area is clear again, and full of gopher pellets. The area near the house has been gassed. I’ll make another attack tomorrow. We’ll also pick up some hay to put over the pipes near the pump. Hopefully prevent freezing. Although the thermometer didn’t show below freezing last night, standing water outside did freeze, and it will be colder tonight.