Best wishes for a joyful Yule, a return to normalcy in the coming New Year. - Larry Edwards

Góður Yule
Waes Hael! — Drinc Hael!

Those aren't masks; they are face warmers. Birding at 6,000 feet,
looking for the elusive White-headed Woodpecker.

Best wishes for a joyful Yule
and a return to normalcy in the coming New Year.

♩ ♫ ♩ ♫ ♩ ♫ ♩

Larry and Janis
"Pandemic Partners"

2021 Highlights

• Birding Limited

Janis had all of her bird trips postponed yet again, but hopes to be able to resume her travels, rather than travails, in 2022, including a trip to Antarctica.

Consequently, our "big" outing/vacation of the year consisted of two (long story) all-too-brief trips to Idyllwild (Thank you, Dennis and Diane Christian), a small community in the San Jacinto Mountains (elevation: 6,000 feet), about a two-hour drive north of San Diego. There we spent much of our time at the Idyllwild Nature Center, binoculars in hand, while the termites in our newly painted house were terminated. Fortunately, it did not snow while we were there.

We got lucky with the top bird on our wish list, the White-headed Woodpecker, and saw at least six of them, and seven species of woodpecker in all, not to mention the usual mountain-area suspects.

White-head Woodpecker, male and female.

More photos: Macaulay Library, Cornell University

• Fresh Paint
We (finally) got the house painted, a soft green, cream trim, and a red front door. Best paint job the house has ever had. (Property values on the cul-de-sac have already gone up.)

Thank you, Fernando Luna and sidekick Fred.

And thank you next-door neighbor Courtney Mayer, who helped us select the complementary colors.

• Frosty

Winter arrived a few days early for us, first with record rainfall, followed by four days of frost as of Solstice Eve (Dec. 20), covering our roof and vehicles with a thick coating of ice. If memory serves, this is a record for Chez Corsica in Sun Diego. (Must be the global warming.) We'll be burning a Yule log for sure.

→ Book / Writing News:

I have tried to retire, but I keep getting phone calls and emails from authors in need of an editor, so I ended up editing several book manuscripts and seeing some of them published. You may find one or two of interest.

I mentioned this book last year as Coming Soon: She's So Cold: The Stephanie Crowe Murder Case — A Defense Attorney's Inside Story (nonfiction, true crime).
Released in February, defense attorney Donald E. McInnis lays out the unjust prosecution of three teenage boys, exposing the horror police officers and prosecutors can inflict upon easily manipulated youths.

Midwest Book Review says: "A powerful read. No reader of true crime or juvenile rights should be without this outstanding book. Law professors will find She’s So Cold holds much fodder for classroom discussion and debate, as well."

The book received front-page coverage in the San Diego Union-Tribune on March 6, 2021: "‘Haunted’ by the Crowe murder case, defense attorney proposes Children’s Bill of Rights"

Early next year, Don will release his first novel, a legal-themed mystery: A. J. Hawke, Attorney at Law: The Sphynx Murder Case. (Yes, "Sphynx" is spelled correctly. No, the story does not take place in Egypt.)

The Devil Buys a Convent (nonfiction, memoir)
Author Kathy Foley tells a heartfelt story of love and faith, tragedy and survival, and ultimately of acceptance and forgiveness between a mother and a daughter. With a degree in psychology, a career as a flight attendant and a side career as a stand-up comic, Foley’s sharp sense of humor and insights into the complexities of human relationships come through clearly.

Thank God I Got Polio: A Life of Adventure and the Adventure of Life (nonfiction, memoir)
Raconteur Wayne Raffesberger's reflections oo contracting polio as a young boy and vowing to surmount his physical and emotional challenges by living a life of adventure, which leads him back to faith, after a lifetime of denial.

Guía Fácil y Rápida de Campos Electromagnéticos: 99 Consejos para Reducir la Exposición a Radiación Electromagnética Dañina (nonfiction, health & safety)
I assisted Lois Cadwallader with the publication of a Spanish edition (translated by Nelda Cantú, EMRS) of her 2020 book, Quick & Easy EMF Guide: 99 Tips to Lower Exposure to Harmful Electromagnetic Radiation.

Chimera Island (fiction, thriller)
Award-winning novelist Martin Roy Hill's latest work. For more than a century, the tiny atoll has been the subject of legend, rumors, and unexplained disappearances. A transport plane sent to Chimera to evacuate frightened scientists disappears. The U.S. Coast Guard sends its most secret team to investigate. DSF-Papa discovers there is more to the legend than rumors and folklore. The team must discover the secret of Chimera Island, or become part of its legend.

→ Music Arena: Another year of not much fiddling around, but it gave me the time to finish and publish The Pandemic Sessions — New Tunes in the Old-time Style (mostly).

The Pandemic Sessions comprises a series of recordings of compositions by yours truly. This volume contains the sheet music of these compositions, as well as explanatory notes.

The companion CD features each of the tunes, or the tracks may be downloaded individually.
♫ YouTube Channel
♫ YouTube Playlist

If you want a copy, get me your snail mail address and I will send you the book and CD.

Meanwhile, Dodging the Delta (and Omicron).
♩ ♫ ♩ ♫ ♩ ♫ ♩ Dodging the Delta, it's the new thing.
Dodging the Delta, doing the Delta Dodge Swing. ♩ ♫ ♩ ♫ ♩ ♫ ♩