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Tag Archives: Christmas
Black Friday
McDonnell Planetarium’s Christmas Ribbon
Thanksgiving’s frenetic feasting is behind us now. All that’s left are the leftovers. So, with a clear conscience, we can dive into the Christmas season. Today, Black Friday is the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season. Since Thanksgiving came as early as it can this year, we will have a longer than usual holiday season. Still, it was not long enough for some merchants. Both Walmart and Target led the charge on so-called Grey Thursday. No longer content to incite to riot in the wee hours of Black Friday’s morning, they simply jumped the shark and opened on Thanksgiving. Christmas creep has gobbled up the turkey. Starbucks rolled out their holiday decorations the day after Halloween. Sears had artificial Christmas trees for sale on Labor Day. ‘Tis the season for run amok marketing and consumerism.
Today, all these excesses are in the past. Let the cash registers ring. Every time a cash register rings, an angle gets its wings. Shop ‘til you drop. Buy! Buy! Buy! Ignore the mutterings of a stingy old Ebenezer like me. You’re doing the patriotic thing. You are restoring our economy. Just beware of the rum-pum-pum-pum of the little drummer boy. He’s waiting for you out there. He may be right around the next corner, or maybe he’ll wait. He can afford to be patient this year. He has lot’s of time to get you.
I elected to eschew the holiday season, at least for one more day. Maybe it was my inner Scrooge, but no, it is still too early for me. I went for another bicycle ride in the park, hence the planetarium picture. The park was much quieter than yesterday. A stiff north wind stirred up the leaves and drove everyone else to the malls.
Rejoice!
Be Joyce, Be Joyce greatly,
O daughter of Inez
Shout, O daughter of Harry!
Behold thy Name cometh unto thee!
She is the righteous Sister,
and she shall speak not Jay unto the heathen.
– Music by Handel, Lyrics by Pooh & I
I shouldn’t be irreverent, when it comes to other people’s religion. I’m not speaking of Christianity. I still count myself a Christian, no matter what some other people might think, and the above little ditty aside. No, I shouldn’t be irreverent about the Church of Baseball.
Carl wrote me a great letter about Tony LaRussa, the Cardinal Manager that led his team to this year’s World Series championship. It was a nice personal touch, as was the plate. Not that the rest of you didn’t do good too. Don’t you just love my mastery of the colloquial English? Jane’s presents were spot on, except that Dave’s ear buds should have been for me. Thank you Frank and Kathy for the pasta dinner, we will be taking you up on your offer to come visit, next year. Chris, thank you for the gift of wine, it came in handy when Bob, et al visited us last week. Jeremiah was a bullfrog; he was a good friend of mine. I never understood a single word he said but I helped him drink his whine. Bubs always buys me the best shirts for work. They never last a year, because I wear them almost every day. To our twin sugar daddies, thank you. I would like to be able to say that we invested or saved wisely your collective presents, instead, we cashed the checks and then threw the money into our new furnace. 😉
“Persephone’s Pomegranate” was our Christmas dinner cooking/art project. See, I helped Anne in the kitchen. The pomegranate seeds were sprinkled in out dinner salad. It is a stop action animation. I made it look like a cartoon to cover-up a focusing issue with the original photography. I think that it turned out pretty well. If you look closely, at the end of the movie, Anne picks six pomegranate seeds out, per Persephone. We were going to have Dan do this, because he lives in La-La land, where six more months of winter is no big deal, but we ate them ourselves. Sorry, northern friends, but the best art is derived from suffering, in this case yours.
Merry Christmas!
Wishing You a Merry Christmas!
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, well that’s not going to happen, at least not here in Saint Louis this year. The above photograph aside, it is supposed to hit fifty degrees today. We posed for the picture, in front of one of the piles of Zamboni tailings, by Steinberg Rink, in the park. We got 15 miles. We saw Santa riding a bicycle, but I did not get a picture of him. And yes, we both did properly wear our helmets, when we were on the bike.
The Christmas crèche header was my little holiday art project for this year. It features our family crèche, and tells the story of Christmas in animated GIF form. It was a fun little project and came together without a hitch. I’ll run this header until New Years Eve. Come the new year, I’ll need another new header. so I better start thinking of one.
We met and made peace with representatives of Davey Tree Service. Even though our architect neighbors had told us that tree service companies carry lots of liability insurance and then joked about us getting a whole new driveway that didn’t feel right. We mutually agreed with Davey, which concrete pads were damaged and would be replaced. They’ll contract with the masons and eventually, we’ll get our driveway repaired. We’ll end up having a section of new concrete to go with the rest of our old and decrepit driveway. I think that the clash of old and new concrete will actually look worse than what we had before, but there is no going back now.
It’s One Thing Or Another
“It was the day before Christmas break and all through the plant, not a creature was working, not even an ant”, a wag at work coined this poetry. When I asked him if that was all he had for me, he replied that he still had eight more hours to work on it. I never got back to him, so I don’t know how many more lines he added to his poem. Today was the last workday for the year. Judging by the number of cars in the parking lot this morning, we were already operating at half-staff. I can’t say that I was super productive, but at least I was there at work today, but I am not now. 🙂
Our next door neighbors had contracted with Davey Tree Service to trim one of their trees, in their backyard. The tree is next to our property line, so the tree service crew asked to use our driveway, to reach the tree with their bucket truck. The above picture was taken at lunchtime, when I came home to pick Anne up for lunch. I spoke to a member of the crew then and he said that they were just wrapping up. So, I was surprised to find them still working when I came home tonight. They were spreading dirt around the concrete pads that are our driveway. On closer inspection, I found that more than a few of the concrete slabs, had been crushed, heaved or cracked. Upon questioning, the workmen, their demeanor, filled with chagrin, spoke volumes more than words, “There is a business card inside of someone to call.”
I called Tom and setup an appointment for tomorrow morning. Doing a little forensic investigation, I found out that the problem occurred, when they were trying to back the truck out of the driveway. It ended up driving off of the concrete pads. We’ve had a lot of rain, so the soil is pretty soft, but that truck was big and heavy. They had to call for help. A dump truck came to pull them out. When I came home, a smaller truck was parked on the street and the same work crew that I had seen at lunch, was wheel-barrowing dirt up the driveway, covering up some of the ruts.
Like this post’s title says, it’s one thing or another. I came home anticipating a relaxing family holiday, now I have the looming prospect of having to deal with insurance companies, then contractors. Still, I’m glad to be home for the holidays with my family. I wish you all the same, just not this tree service debacle.
Dan’s Back
Bob, Nink and Zoe left on Monday morning. I went to work and Anne went to the post office. While she was waiting in line, a man came into the post office and exclaimed, “Jesus Christ”, at the line’s length. Because Anne has a filter, unlike me, she thought, but did not say to him, “You know, Jesus is the reason for the season.” Her restraint was wise, because I doubt that anyone else there would have found it amusing, on the Post Office’s busiest day of the year.
LA Dan flew in from the coast around midnight. It was a dark and stormy night, but his flight was not unduly delayed. Still, it made for a late night. Fortunately, I had Tuesday off, if you can call a day full of doctors and dentists, a day off, nothing to worry about, just preventative maintenance. Things went well until the last appointment, the dentist appointment. The receptionist was missing and a hygienist that I had never seen before greeted me. I gave my name and checking the computer, she told me that I didn’t have an appointment. I showed her my appointment card, but that didn’t seem to faze her much. I explained that I had taken off from work, driven a long way, had been with the dentist for thirty years, blah, blah, blah. I eventually wore her down and without having to explode to get my way. It is never a good idea to get angry with a women who is about to thrust sharp pointy sticks into your mouth. We proceeded under a flag of truce, she honoring my appointment, while pretending that she was being gracious in doing so and I being thankful for her special consideration, all the while not mentioning that it was their entire fault and not mine.
On the way home from the dentist, I decided to stop at an auto body shop. Located in Webster, it was recommended by my usual auto repair shop. I should have been suspicious from the get go. It is located in Old Webster, a tony neighborhood, and a way too tony neighborhood for an auto body shop, even one that has been there for 50+ years. When I called them and then when I stopped in to visit them, they were way too nice. I’ve heard enough Click and Klack to know that that is not the way auto mechanics are supposed to act. They even offered me refreshment. OMG! Finally, there was Nick. Nick was my estimator. He had a Breitling on his wrist and worse yet he looked like the male model in the watch company’s magazine ad. First he tried to sell me a whole new bumper for $750+. Then he offered me a heat gun fix for ~$250, but he only promised that it would look about 80% better, whatever that meant. All the while, he had a poster on the wall behind him that claims they do repairs that use the minimum of parts and materials, with a picture of a Prius on it. They’re green alright, greenback.