Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Christmas 2014

It's been a foggy, rainy dreary month here, unlike last year and below zero and 6 inches of snow on the ground.  Usually at this time of year we do have a typical snowstorm that makes travel a pain in the ass but not here.  East coast maybe.  And I think I'm coming down with a sore throat, not exactly what I want before Christmas but it's usually the rule and not the exception if somebody is sick in our family.



This year, once again I didn't find anything worth getting for Christmas tunes and although I did see an interesting Christmas CD in the cheap bins, it has God Rest Ye Gentlemen by Ronnie James Dio and something from REO Speedwagon but I didn't think it was worth buying.  Last decent Christmas CD I bought was Yuletunes.  No reason to post a playlist, just look up the Christmas 2013 playlist and that will do. Or let somebody else pick them: http://www.themortonreport.com/entertainment/music/new-music-for-old-people-ten-tracks-for-everyone-whos-tired-of-the-same-old-christmas-music-2014-edition/



The folks are getting more fussy to buy, so I ended up buying about 40 dollars worth of fudge for the old man and a Conway Twitty CD for mom and since my brother was having DVD problems, I picked up a DVD player for him as well. Made In China.  Which means it probably won't last but I have the same model I got about 4 years ago and it still plays.  My best friend and his wife would have loved Tequila but I thought getting them a Cracker Barrel gift certificate for her and a Guitar Center gift card for him would be better.  My other best friend got a card and three CDs of Train sounds, but have yet to hear from him.  Not asking for the world but You're welcome will do.



The world is full of surprises of course and this town out in the middle of nowhere has their share of feral cats running around.  I am not a cat person, especially when I go over to my best friend's house and deal with their set of deranged pussies, the old gray cat Smokey, now 17 years old and still psycho.  Always had a love/hate affair with it.  Cosmo, the more friendlier puss, though I think they pawned him off to their folks, he was a nice cat.  And there's Louie, the snow lion, whatever the fuck they are called.  Thank my mom for pawning him off to them when the old man was feeding the feral cats and one of them gave birth to kittens to which Louie was taken home.  Runs when company comes around and then glares from top of the steps.  Which explains why I don't visit much, can't stand him.  Getting back to the story, we have feral cats running around here.  However, the past weekend, there has been a gray youngster that's been hiding around the cars and I tried shooing it away.  She's not a feral cat, she might be a neighbor's cat, she might have been dropped off the highway by uncaring fucks and left to fend for herself.  I call it Callie. She's not a calico, I just like the name, she's gray with odd spots left and right.  She's a loving thing, rubs your leg and then jumps around wraps herself around your neck and purrs or gives you a catbath.  I take it over the neighbors and tell them to keep it in their yard but coming home guess who's waiting out in the rain?  Thought cats hate rain, this one doesn't.  The little shit had the audacity to jump in my nice clean car and the back seat and put paw prints on it.  She's not going to live long if she does stupid shit like that.  I talked to my brother about adopting it for our own but he's not for it.  Too much work.  Plus I have a waterbed.  I would not like to come home and see water all over the basement if Callie decided to exercise her claws on the bed.  Declawing would be the answer but I have been told that that inhumane to do that, even for house cats.  The next option is to either send it to my folks so they can take care of it, or take it to a animal shelter but the latter I'm not too keen on either.  Millions of cats and dogs get put to sleep after a certain time or if nobody adopts any of them.  Either way, I'm ready to smack the neighbors for not watching over their animals....if they can afford them.  And history has shown that they don't.

The rain reminds me more of late March or a cold Autumn rain and with freezing temperatures it turns the roads into an ice rink.  Which I found out all too well last Saturday night and almost went 20 feet down the Viola bypass hills, to which the smart minds at the IDOT took out the guard rails.  So I spent Sunday Night going to the carwash and spending 10 dollars to get the fucking sand and salt off my new car so it don't rust before the year is out.  And then the next day we get rain.  And the whole world and you readers know how much I hate rain, even after putting 8,000 dollars for waterproofing the basement.  Can't do nothing but bitch about the rain and history has shown I have done a fine job of that.



But I'm ready for Christmas to be over.  the malls are playing Christmas Music and so is KDAT and Jon Tesh, and I'm more interested in the radio station that plays Fear F**k Christmas than Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.  The child that used to live for Christmas mornings and paper will fly with his brother now pretty thinks it's all a bunch of commercialized bullshit.  And maybe it was then back when we were kids but we were all caught up in Rudolf The Red Nosed  Reindeer or A Charlie Brown Christmas to which I've seen the debut 50 years ago.   And sit and stare at our Christmas tree, with the blinking lights and the bubble lights as well.  And the old cardboard fire place that mom would say that Santa would come down from the chimney.  Man we were so gullible to believe in that.  But we have grown up, we never had kids or grandkids and the folks finally quit buying Christmas trees a couple years ago since nobody wanted to decorate it anymore.  It was pointless just to chop down a tree, decorate it and then throw it out on the 26th. The only we celebrate Christmas is the joy of being together one more time and to see if everybody can live to celebrate it again next year.

But we made it once again, although it will be a brown and muddy Christmas and even if we do get any snow, it won't be enough to cover the whole landscape.  Which is fine by me.

A Christmas time story: http://www.savingcountrymusic.com/the-johnny-cash-christmas-story-from-robbery-to-redemption


Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays.  Whatever it means to you, it shall be.




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