Whoa! Didja get the numbers off that truck?!?

December 21, 2004 - 10:03 p.m.

Christmas?

I've been successfully ignoring the whole Christmas season. The lights and the decorations mean nothing. Because if you ignore it long enough, it will turn back into winter. Within 36 hours, most of the Christmas effect will be gone, with a few lingering stragglers. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike Christmas. I just don't get it this year. It's another milestone on the year's clock. 

The new year will have more significance for me, being ten hears hence from the time when my life changed, again.  It was the second time, so it was easier to recognize but no less difficult.  I think I'm a better person now than I was ten years earlier.  I picked up some valuable information on myself in the last ten years.

If I had the vision it would take to be able to catch a glimpse of our lives ten years ahead I wouldn't recognize the life I currently lead.  It's neither good nor bad, just remarkably different than the life [unconsciously, I wrote "lie"] I lived ten years ago. 

Aside from my kids of course, there isn't a single thing that I would miss from the way I lived life ten years ago.  I'm sure I'll have the same wistful view ten years from now about today.  Or not.

So anyhow, back to Christmas which is almost here for gosh sakes.  Have you gotten all your shopping done, people?  I'm not done because it isn't Christmas yet.  Son1 and I went off in search of a tree.  By this time all the migrants have packed their trailers and driven back to Michigan.  I wasn't too worried about not getting a tree because I really didn't want to bother with one.  You put all this shit on the tree, it slowly sips water as it dies its certain death brought on by sudden decapitation.  Ho Ho Ho!  It does make the house smell nice though.  But I sensed that Son1 felt it wouldn't be right without one.

We had our Ace in the hole, Ace Hardware.  There was still a fairly nice selection of trees, a fine Blue Spruce, my all time favorite.  One had a $65.00 price tag on it.  Not for me!  My lowest tree price yet, $5.00 for a fine looking tree.  They were all five dollar trees, but the spruce was too big.  It's Blue's cousin, Doug Fir.

It's not bad for a dead tree, but it's been lounging on the parking lot for so long it's got a permanent flat side.  That's for up against the wall.

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