This is a lovely post, lis.  Your descriptions are so tender, and convey the sense of the impressions you choose to share simply and with no fuss, but very beautifully.  For one who also loves the the way night turns to day in the sky and the hush of libraries, I can only say you got it right.  And your measured quiet tone conveys nothing but peace. 

I worked with GOTV in this last election and since then I have been cleaning out the house.  Getting rid of things that I don't need.  It is a real project and it keeps me from being depressed with all the ranting and chest pounding the crazy right is doing now.  I don't expect much from the next 2 years of congress.  I think the time will go real slow waiting for the next election.  I am not very happy with some of the stuff I am reading in the blogs and comments it just makes me too sad.   I want hope back and my son back to work. 

I take my grand kids to the library every two weeks.  They love it.  We go on Wednesday because the kids only have a half day on Wednesday.  This state don't like schools and teachers.   They are still talking about cutting more funds out of it.  I can't wait to see what the far right has in mind now .  Maybe they will cut the school week down to 4 days in this county.  You know it is important for the uber wealthy to keep all that money and the retirees just can't stand to educate any one elses kids. 

I will do Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.  I am a very good baker so there will be goodies.  The kids don't mind the lack of expensive toys.  We do lots of free things and play together alot.  The difference between me and the professor with 450,000 dollar a year income is,  I know how to be poor with grace and class.  I know how to educate my grandkids on a shoe string.  The oldest is in his last year of school and is studying Manderan Chinese in a Urban public school.  We are already working on grants for college. He will do fine at State.  The next one is being tested to skip a grade.  All those trips to the library and hours of reading to him. His little sister in Kindergarden is just as bright.  Again they are in Urban school with minorities.   I see them both going on to college because education is a priority not something I am buying for my kids.  Education is a group effort and the way we play. 

I live in a trailer and drive a car that is 15 years old.  But if you would ask my grandkids they would tell you that they are not poor, they are middle class.    We are just doing it gracefully while watching the sun rise and set on each other.        

I second what Anna wrote. A lovely piece of writing, LisB. I will think about it and try to post a response later.

On how I spend my quiet time, I used to run until I had done enough damage to my back to have to stop.  These days, one thing I do for relaxation is watch movies, sometimes even comedies, and ballgames on the tube.  Unfortunately, when I am not overseeing kids' homework production or attending to household chores, for "relaxation" I am also as voracious a reader as someone who is as slow a reader as I am can be, with a high proportion of current affairs and history, alas.  Which helps explain why I am so crabby these days.   But I can't seem to stop.

Good idea to try to get folks to do this.  Temperatures running a little high lately.

I read in my quiet time and walk FDRdog.  We go out three times a day, my favorite of which is the dawn walk.  The sun comes up over the wildlife refuge across the way and paints the sky the most incredible shades of purple and peach I've ever seen, except maybe for the sunsets over the front range in the evening.  I worked on the GOTV for Senator Bennet, which was very satisfying since we eked out a win.  And I have been going to school - an "enrichment" course at DU to fill in one of the many holes in my education.  There are no papers to write, but the experience gives me plenty to think about in my quiet times.  I confess that I could go to school for the rest of my days.

And, Lis, about those whispering librarians - speaking as one, I have to tell you they aren't always talking about books. 

How do I spend my quiet time?  I follow in a long held liberal tradition of brooding on the moor, a tradition these days that has one on one's knees in the rain, tearing at one's shirt, yelling up at the windows of the tenement halls "Obama! Obama!" like some liberal on a hot tin roof.

When I was in the military, I was stationed at a small radar site south of Ramstein AB up in the hills amongst the farm fields. We had a sprawling, unobstructed view to all points of the compass. The site was manned 24/7 and during the summer when I was the night CQ, I'd open the doors by the phone to hangout on the radar antenna deck to watch sun rise. You'd be amased at the widlife that being to stir as the dawn approaches...I had no idea of the numbers of rabbits, deer and wild pig roamed freely around the field and our site. What was particularly amazing was the landscape just prior to the sun cresting the horizon...very surreal as if Dali was painting it.

On the flipside, in Nevada, I noted if I was in a canyon facing away from Las vegas and the moon was new you got a double event.

First was after the sunset, there's still light. If you took the time to kick back, relax and just watch the sky to see if you could catch the first starlight, you could see the edge of night. There really is one! You can see the subtle darkening blue abruptly change to black as is God drew the line in the sky.

The second was in the Colorado river canyon at Willow beach about 10 miles or so south of Hoover dam. While sitting on the east bank of the river once the sun goes down and the sky is completely dark, the Milky Way is right there in your face. You can see tons of details almost as if you were looking at a picture taken from Hubble! All because being down inside the canyon blocks all the side scatter light that robs your eyes of the finer details.