Dear Reader, This column is dedicated to the intrepid, creative staff of The Canyon Chronicle. I thank Publisher/Editor, Flavia Potenza; Creative Director, Nira Lichten; Associate Editor, Kait Leonard; Senior Reporter, Annemarie Donkin; Creative Consultant, Eiffel Nazaryan; Contributors, Linda Ballou, Joel Bellman, Kathie Gibboney, Paula LaBrot; Amy Weisberg, Pablo Capra, Eric Fitzgerald, and Copy Editor/Distribution, Ellie Carroll. Thank you for keeping us current. 11/3/20 Colonoscopy on Election Day! My dear friend, Karla, drove us up Santa Monica Boulevard. Door fronts and windows were boarded up as if we were in a third world country. My 10 a.m. appointment was delayed two hours as the office was overwhelmed with patients and only one anesthesiologist. When it was finally my turn, I found out from a caring Filipina nurse that people weren’t coming because they were afraid of angry protestors. An emergency, second anesthesiologist arrived whom I called my fairy godmother when she sent me into a lovely, dreamless sleep. Later Sheila said the drug they used was the one Michael Jackson was addicted to. 11/4/20 Chicago: Last week, my daughter was walking in the neighborhood with a friend. They bumped into a friend of her friend—all were masked—and chatted for a bit. Today Sarah went to a new dermatologist and when the doctor walked in, it struck her there was something familiar about the woman. Then she laughed. She was the masked woman Sarah met on her walk. 11/6/20 Corona virus record day with 122,000 covid-19 cases. 11/7/20 Because it was such a blessed moment when at 9:47 PT, Joe Biden was declared the 46th President and Kamala Harris became the first woman, South Asian and African-American to be the Vice President, I asked some family and friends where they were when the Democrats’ victory was declared. Sarah, IL: “We heard about it in the car going to Millennium park. It was a bright, sunny day and Lou said, ‘There’s warmth again in the world.’� Karen, MD: “I was out walking…My daughter texted me in the middle of this beautiful park.� Me, CA: “I was in my kitchen listening to MSNBC and burst into tears.� Lindsay, CA: “I was watching CNN and crying. Reporter Van Jones was crying too.� 11/10/20 Lynn, Diesel, Brentwood: “How are Trump books selling?� I asked. She indicated a table full and said, “They’re on sale but no one’s buying.� Yves, Paris: On the phone, I told him about my colonoscopy. “I’m going to tell you a funny story about mine I had years ago,� he said. “I was traumatized as a six-year-old when I had to be anesthetized. From that time, I couldn’t be put out. There was a doctor friend in Le Havre who was an anesthetist and I asked if he would put me under. I stayed at his house and when it came time to drink each concoction that would help elimination, he ordered, ‘You’ll drink one glass and then take a shot of whiskey.’ The colonoscopy came out fine and back at his house my friend said, ‘Now one more whiskey.’� I sent my grandkids the book, “The Soul of an Octopus� as they’d liked the movie, “The Octopus Teacher.� When eight-year-old William looked puzzled, my daughter asked if he knew what soul meant. He responded, “The soul is the ghost form of you.� 11/12/20 “What if the moon said the night will tell you secrets if you listen to the music inside of stones?� from “Turtle Island,� by poet Diane Frank, Author of While Listening to the Enigma Variations.  11/17/20 Bloomsbury Books, Sheila on Obama’s book release. We received 107 copies and many were spoken for.� In 24 hours, over 890,000 copies of “A Promised Land� were sold. Uncle Red: “I was inspired by Yves and his colonoscopy story when he took a shot of whiskey after drinking each laxative. I was in a new Hollywood restaurant and the manager asked if I’d like a shot of Japanese whiskey. I thought of Yves and downed the shot.� 11/18/20 Pfizer announced it has a corona virus vaccine that’s 90% effective. 11/20/20 “Wintering,� In British Kathryn May’s memoir, with her young son she visited Stonehenge, a pre-Christian site where the Druids worshipped. Their belief system, rooted in nature, is based on the four solstices and the four equinoxes. They see Dec. 21 as the birth of the New Year of the world. It’s also my daughter’s birthday. 11/26/20 Epilogue: “A Turn Toward Red� Cherries burn in their green nests/windows to a red world/ Tiny finches steal them and so do we/a wilderness of bees in the garden/ Flesh rose, guilder rose, hawthorn/and holly, the cardinal’s racket/ Red Tide, the color of deep adobe/rolls relentlessly toward shore/ Red weather in the heart/ Unhindered red/a quick bright tongue lick/ Unending flow of red/in blood we came/ In blood we will to/ a scaffold of stone/ Crimson center of corona virus/ being here is everything From Nocturnes: Between Flesh and Stone by poet Mary Kay Rummel, published by Blue Light Press. Happy Holidays, Everyone!