I have lots of blogs lined up but my brain has congealed. I'm on the north side of the west wing of my building and it has had a boiler problem for the last five days. The heat is minimal - about 15 degrees Celsius. I made bone broth soup and muffins for the young weekend concierge who lent me a heater. Sitting close in front of it, better, heat up to 67 Fahrenheit - I can't translate). Cooking warmed up the kitchen for a bit. But he is allergic to nuts so I'll have to cook something else.

I was brought up being taught that it was good luck to finish your Xmas thank you letters before the new year - by hand. Mailed. Did not make it this year. Hands too cold. Feet too. And brain. Just shows I am not very disciplined. I still swim every morning because the water in the pool is warmer than my apartment.

I keep thinking of the refugees with no heat whatsoever, or food or water or safety or shelter. I have no business complaining about cold feet.

Hygge anyone?

Not the very end. Perhaps a summary, a wind-up, but not a conclusion. Not yet.

The end of days. Those days. Latter days.

xenophobia noun, mass noun: intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries. racism and xenophobia are steadily growing in Europe

But not only in Europe. I bet a lot of people never even heard the word, let alone knew what it meant, before Trump. We'll see what happens in 2018.

yabber verb [ no obj.: informal chatter. What's he yabbering about? ORIGIN probably from Wuywurung (an Aboriginal language).

Spel-Chek doesn't like that one. It keeps trying to change it to jabber. More like Twitter, I think, the way Twitter is being used these days. We'll see what happens in 2018.

Z - doesn't exist in one family any more, and maybe not for a lot of us. Sue Grafton, the author of the A-to-Z detective stories, died this week at the age of 77. Her last book was Y is for Yesterday.

I found this in a recent letter she wrote to her fans when Y was published:

"Y IS FOR… is slated for publication in the fall of 2017 with Z IS FOR ZERO following in the fall of 2019. Many of you are asking (some quite plaintively) what I intend to do when I get to ‘the end’ of the alphabet. I’ve been consistent in my response which is “no clue.” I want to see what kind of shape I’m in mentally and physically. I don’t want to keep on writing if the juice is gone. These novels about Ms. Millhone take incredible focus, ingenuity, energy, and imagination. If I have the wherewithal, I may write a Kinsey Millhone stand-alone or two. If I feel I’ve lost my touch, I’ll retire with grace."

R I P

Tomorrow is another year.