Still sick...

.... but at least I've stopped coughing.

Seems that no matter where you live, the flu germs will get you.  I had eMail today from my friend J in England.... and her household has been hit with the flu also. She said they cancelled Christmas there because they were so sick. On top of that, they've had horrendous weather with heavy rains and flooding. Not exactly perfect weather for Santa and his reindeer.

I've been walking around the house taking down some of the Christmas decorations... a little bit at a time.  They were put up a little bit each day, and that's how they'll all come down.   When I spoke to my friend V last night, she said she was trying to box-up all of Christmas before she went to sleep last night.  V decorates like I do, and I can't imagine packing all of that away in just one night, so I'm wondering today if she was able to do that.  V said that maybe she wouldn't decorate so much next year.  I reminded her that now that she has her first grandbaby, the sky will be the limit on her decorating, especially for Christmas.

Still trying to really feel better here.... I've spent most of the day on the sofa in the TV room, watching re-runs of "The Cake Boss."  I kept falling asleep (my apologies to Buddy and family).... but I just don't have the stamina yet to carry on with a day in my normal routine (which is usually non-stop).  Oh well...... sooner or later, the last of this flu will be gone.

I wish the current weather patterns would be gone.... not a drop of sun today..... the temperature never got above 50 degrees, and it's supposed to be down near freezing tonight. Enough already!  Is it Spring yet?!

Cough, sneeze, cough, sneeze....

... and then repeat.

Definitely the flu..... more than just a cold.  And on tonight's news, they talked about the entire state of Texas getting hit by the flu bug. I can certainly vouch for that.  I'm coughing more than sneezing, which is a good thing because my nose is so sore.  I haven't been able to focus enough so I can read, and that's killing me..... I got such great books for Christmas, and I have only opened one of them, and that's only because I opened it the day before Christmas Eve when I was still feeling good. It's been downhill ever since.

I'm walking around the house in a fog, but mostly staying in bed.  When I do go downstairs, I look around at all the rooms that are decorated to the max for Christmas... and what goes up, must come down.  I will get to all of that when I'm feeling better, but until then, I have to wonder just who it was that made Christmas explode in this house in the first place.  Moi?  Can that be possible?

Oh well... this too shall pass, and so many people are dealing with much worse.  I've heard about the frigid winds and the blasting snow and ice storms, and there are hundreds of thousands of people without power.  Not good..... makes me wonder, as I watched them cutting off frozen tree limbs from power lines.... why on earth don't they put those electric lines underground instead of up near all of those trees?  Surely, there must be a better way..... they go through this every winter when the snow and ice comes and the frozen trees fall and down come the power lines with the frozen branches.

They were talking about New Year's Eve on the news..... everything is being prepared in Times Square...... and even though they're expecting frigid temperatures in NYC that night, The City is still planning for a record number of party-goers to show up for the celebration.  We've been in this state since 1993, and we still watch the ball falling in Times Square on New Year's Eve.  Along the years, we may have missed just one or two years, but other than that, we're still New Yorkers when it comes to New Year's Eve.  I remember the days when Guy Lombardo and his band played at the Waldorf Astoria and they televised the ballroom on New Year's Eve.  Everything looked so elegant, so perfect. Now they show the streets of Times Square, filled with mostly 30-somethings and younger in Times Square, wearing crazy hats and glasses, foam-rubber hands and faces........... and most of the people look as if they've had more than enough to drink even before the ball starts to fall. Not so elegant, not so perfect.

Oh well.... not for me to judge.  Everyone is going to do their own thing, no matter what. Seems to be the way of the world these days.  So.... celebrate, celebrate, celebrate..... however you see fit...... but honestly, have just a little regard and respect for other people along the way.  As for me, I'll be comfy here at home, and I will try not to cough and sneeze on anyone else's parade.

Boxing Day.

Oh well.... sick for Christmas Eve.... ditto for Christmas Day... and now the same for Boxing Day. Which seems appropriate for the way I feel---  box me up, cover me with a blanket and just let me rest till this blasted cold goes away. Jingle bells... cough, cough, sneeze, sneeze.

Even the cats must know that I'm not feeling well... they're being very good, very quiet, and except for Gatsby meowing at the stray orange/white cat that comes around from time to time, there have been no cat-adventures outside.  Which I'm thankful for.... I didn't want to be having to walk around the property looking for Mickey these past couple of days. He's not as Marco Polo as he was when we first made him an outside cat, but he does roam further away from the house than Gatsby does.

I noticed just this morning that my fingernails weren't polished for Christmas. Oh well... that's certainly a first.  Not only did I forget about polishing my nails, but I didn't even notice till today. And Christmas Eve and Day came and went anyway, sans polish. I've been wearing more or less the same color nail polish since the 1980s.... same shade, different names for the same color, depending on the company.  My Aunt Dolly told me years ago to find a good color and stick with it..... one that would look good in both summer and winter, and it would become your 'signature' color. Always one for classic fashion, Aunt Dolly was way ahead of her time.

I called one of my cousins up in New York today, to wish her a belated Merry Christmas.... she heard my cough-syrup-coated voice over the phone and her first words were "Oh my god, who died?"  I guess my voice sounded worse to her over the phone than it did to me.

Boxing Day..... a time to pack up what you really don't need or use anymore and pass those things along to someone who could use a helping hand.  And I will be doing just that.... but not today, and probably not even tomorrow.  It will most likely take at least two or three more days till I'm back to feeling like a person who doesn't have to stop and cough after every fifth word.

Jingle Bells to you all..... and I hope you got to enjoy Christmas without a box of tissues and a sack of cough drops. (And I hope your fingernails were polished and pretty!)

The Grinch factor......

I've been sick for the past three days... bad cold, lots of coughing, can't sleep, can't get comfortable. Not exactly how you want to be feeling for Christmas Eve and Day, but sometimes the Grinch tip-toes in and decides to sprinkle a little nasty stuff on your head.

We had a nice Christmas anyway...... my saving grace was cooking part of the meal on Christmas Eve because I thought if I was feeling worse on Christmas Day (which I was) then at least the dinner would be under control.

My husband's friend from Clear Lake drove up here for dinner with us...... right up till this morning, we were considering telling him not to come because of my cold, but we didn't want to cancel at the last minute like that, especially since this was the first time he came for a visit.  I could see by his face that he was amazed at all the Christmas trees and decorations in this house...... he was like a little kid when he first walked into the dining room and living room, not knowing where to look first.  My "Christmas Explosion" in this house isn't exactly on the quiet side.

I haven't been sick like this since 2008...... and I remember it distinctly because we had just gotten back from Germany and within 24 hours, I was down for the count with the flu.  I hate, hate, hate being sick..... such a waste of time.  And I'm not much good at asking anyone to do things for me.... my husband has been heating up pillows for me, and getting me cough drops and whatever those pills are that are supposed to calm down the flu symptoms.  I don't know whether this is the flu or not.... it's just downright annoying.

But we had a nice Christmas Day and a delicious dinner...... at least I think it was delicious... whatever I ate started to taste like the cough drops.  This too shall pass.  Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Too much information...

You all know about those long, long, long letters that come tucked inside Christmas cards, filled with so many family stories....  we got one of those last week, and I've been thinking about it today.

I have to say that I did indeed read every word of that single-spaced typed two-page letter. I know it was sent with good intentions, from very good friends.  I was amazed at the amount of family stuff that was packed into those two pages, and the organization of the letter was such that all of those details could only have been culled from a yearly diary.  As soon as I saw that letter peeking out from the middle of that Christmas card, my first thought was not to read a word of it.  Then as I looked at all those paragraphs, and thought of all the preparation that must have gone into it, I figured that I just had to just take the time and read it.

That letter must have been prepared by looking through a day-to-day diary... how else would you remember which of your cousins got bit by a tick, and which variety of shrubbery got eaten by the deer. And who could remember which one of the cousins had shellfish allergies?  Then there were the trips..... up north to see her relatives, down south to see his relatives, up into the mid-west to taste cheese, out west to sip wine, then to the south-east to have photos taken with Mickey and Minnie.

Then there were the birthdays (their third cousin's daughter's twins from her first marriage, her step-sons from her second marriage), the anniversaries (their sister-in-law's 25th, but it would have been the 28th if that dang husband of hers hadn't run off with the waitress at the Dairy Queen but then she left him for the car mechanic so he went back to his wife before the divorce papers were filed).

And of course we can't forget about the family medical adventures... everything from a burnt wrist from frying up the Thanksgiving turkey, to a colon exam on Black Friday which destroyed all plans to get to Best Buy for that 70-inch flat-screen.

Family picnics and BBQs, school reunions, military ceremonies, swim meets, tractor pulls, church groups, civic organizations, hand surgeries, laser treatments, ice cream socials, dog-sitting, car restorations, and let's not forget their project to build a safe-room way at the back of the house just in case another hurricane comes along.

I am worn out. Worn out to a frazzle just from reading this single-spaced typed two-page-long letter mostly about people I don't know, will never meet, and whose lives are way more busier and complex than my own quiet little life.

Worn out.  But I read it. Every blessed word of it. It was the right thing to do. If we get a Christmas card from these friends next year, maybe I won't even open up the envelope.

In case you're counting.....

.... there are just five more days till Christmas. (Note that I did not type "Holiday.")  There are five more days till Christmas Day, as in Merry Christmas. (But let's not get started with that again.)

If you want to know how frantic people are getting this close to Christmas Eve and Day, just pop into a grocery store.  Which is what we did this afternoon, after having lunch in town.  We have a very large HEB supermarket in town here, and honestly (with apologies to HEB), I hate that store. I hated that store in Clear Lake, and I hate it still up here.  I can walk into that store in a perfectly happy mood and then walk out with an attitude.

There is just a certain frantic energy in their stores that I cannot handle, not do I even want to try and cope with anything that frantic and frenzied.  First of all, the music that is piped into that store is pure craziness.... if they're not playing some sort of rap-crap, then they're making you listen to country-western songs that aren't soft and soapy, but fast and annoying.   I don't like many country-western songs as it is, but throw in those 'shoot my horse and I'll hang you up to dry on barbed-wire' type of songs, and I'm just about ready to run out of the store.

The HEB aisle placement makes so sense whatsoever. Not only do you have to go up and down some of the aisles, but you have to go sideways in certain sections.... so if you've forgotten something at one end, there's a maze of north/south and east/west aisles to get through before you find that one item------ and usually, the one item you overlooked on your list is not printed on their signs above the aisles, so good luck in finding that one last thing.

To add insult to injury in that store, when you get to the registers, the moving belts that you put your groceries on is on the right side, not the left.... which is fine if you're left-handed, but most of the world is not, so as you're getting groceries from your cart onto that belt, you can't always trust your left hand to do what your right hand can do.

Then the people they hire to pack your grocery bags.... anyone and everyone on this planet who will put a huge bag of cat food on top of a dozen eggs or a bag of grapes will be working at HEB.  They will be tossing fruit into bags as if they're made of rocks, and how about three heavy bottles of juice into one of their dental-floss-thin plastic bags......... it just never fails.  Note to HEB:  I'd rather pack my own groceries than un-pack the careless mis-packing of your employees.

I hate, hate, hate that store.   But it's five days till Christmas.  I should have known better than to go in there in the first place.  And... the one bright spot in today's shopping experience..... the cashier, who had probably been on her feet behind that register for hours, handed me the receipt and she looked right at me and smiled and said "Merry Christmas!"   Not Happy Holiday, but Merry Christmas.  Merry Christmas!  I guess I'll be going back into that store after all, but hopefully not till after Christmas Day.

Save those cancelled stamps....

I've written about this at least two or three times over the years, but it's worth repeating, plus a change of address has just been sent to me.

There is an organization connected to the American Philatelic Society that collects cancelled stamps and uses them to get kids interested in stamp collecting.  Their educational programs benefit the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Young Stamp Collectors of America, and various outreach programs around the United States.

They take all the cancelled stamps sent to them and use them to promote a life-long hobby, so it's a worthwhile organization.  Plus, don't you just hate to toss out those pretty stamps along with the paper trash?  Here's what you can do with the cancelled stamps:  just cut out the corner of the envelope where the stamp is (leaving about a quarter-inch margin around the stamp)....... keep them in an envelope till it's filled up....... then mail them to:

American Philatelic Society
APS Youth Programs
100 Match Factory Place
Bellefonte, PA 16823

Just one first-class stamp is all that's needed to mail the stamps to the A.P.S., as long as the envelope isn't bulging at the seams.  The Philatelic Society will thank you, and you'll be making a lot of kids very happy.  Surely worth the little bit of effort this takes!

Good night, Mrs. Calabash...

wherever you are......

I remember Jimmy Durante used to sing that song at the end of a television show. I can't remember just now if the show was his, or if he sang that when he performed on someone else's show. I'm guessing that was back in the 1950s or 1960s.

My dad would also sing that song when I was a kid......  he would read me a story before bed-time, and then he would turn out the light and I'd hear him singing "Good night, Mrs. Calabash...." and then we'd both sing the next line:  "wherever you are......"    Sometimes, daddy would sing "Inka-dinka-doo" as he walked down the stairs.... I could hear him from my bedroom because he always left the door open a little bit.

I believe there was also an old song by Frances Langford (I think that spelling is correct)...... she sang a song with the words "Good night wherever you are."

I always get sappy around Christmas....... and sappier still when New Year's Eve comes around.

Time to say good night...... wherever you are......

"We should do this every month!"

That's exactly what one of the neighbors said at our Christmas party last night........ "We should do this every month! This is fantastic!"  

When he said that, I thought of the weeks of planning, the days of moving tables and chairs into place, the grocery shopping, the dishes and cups and silverware that are set out and then have to be washed and put away........ and I told the neighbor that I'd put him on top of my volunteer list for helping-out with this once-a-month party idea of his.

I have to say that last night's party had a new energy to it, and I don't know why.  All the other parties we've given here have been fun, but there wasn't a quiet moment or a lull in any of the conversations last night.  The table in the dining room was filled.... as were two tables in the living room, plus I had chairs arranged around the side tables in the living room as well.

The one thing that gets me is that if someone has to leave early for whatever reason, that first good-bye somehow becomes a must-leave-clue to everyone else.  I think we need to tell everyone that if one or two people have to leave, that doesn't mean the party is over.  When we lived in Clear Lake, our parties lasted till midnight..... out here, by 9:30 or 10:00, everyone has gone home. I guess everyone is just busier out here, with property and livestock and gardening and endless chores that don't get done by picking up a phone book and calling someone.

I told my husband that from now on, I'm not sending out invitations that say "It's a Halloween Party... Come in Costume!"   or....... "Come Celebrate Valentine's Day... Wear Something Red!"    Everyone sincerely had a great time last night because it was "just" a Christmas party..... no costumes, no pressure, just come and enjoy a potluck dinner with friends and neighbors because it's Christmas.  That must be the secret here.... just get everyone together to have a nice dinner and enjoy talking with neighbors that they don't get to see that often.

I'm sure that all the decorations add a special touch to the night and everyone smiles when they see them, no matter which holiday it is.  One of our neighbors, a very tall strapping man who's most comfortable on either a horse or a tractor...... I saw him sitting in our living room and looking at the Christmas trees in there, and he was smiling like a six-year-old, saying "This is great.... this is just so great."

Everything is back to pre-party mode now..... chairs are back where they belong, extra tables are closed up and in place..... everything is washed and dried and put away.  Maybe that neighbor is right...... we need to do this every month.

Sunny and cold....

I'm waiting for the weather to return to normal. Texas-normal, as in the 60s and low 70s during these winter months. It was in the mid-50s today, and sunny, which made it seem not quite as cold... but still, it's coat-weather... we've gone beyond the usual sweater-weather (for temperatures in the mid-70s).

Lots of errands to do today..... and if one more person says "Happy Holidays" to me, I think I will scream.  There is only one holiday between now and the last day of the month, and that holiday is Christmas.  I'm certain there are people in this town who don't celebrate Christmas, so I wouldn't be surprised, or offended, if they said nothing at all.  Saying nothing would be a big improvement over "Happy Holidays."

I'd like to walk around with a sign that says "It's Christmas!  December 25th is Christmas! It's perfectly fine to say Merry Christmas!"  But of course I can't, and wouldn't, do that. But the idea sure can be tempting at times, when cashiers in the supermarkets are chanting "Happy Holidays!"

I've noticed that in the smaller stores, the 'mom and pop' shops.... where there isn't a Board of Directors passing down approved conversation laws as to what can and cannot be said to customers... those stores are filled with people who very happily (and sincerely) say "Merry Christmas!"  A lot of those people working in the smaller stores tell every customer to "Have a blessed day" each and every day of the year.

Note to self:  Do more shopping in the little mom and pop stores.

A Christmas tree grows in College Station....

Well, wonder of wonders... we really did find a beautiful Christmas tree. My husband looked on the Internet and discovered "The Farm Patch" in College Station.... and they sell Christmas trees of all sizes.  We went there today, looking for a tree to reach the ceiling.... and that's just what we brought home this afternoon.

The Farm Patch is a huge red and white striped tent in one of the many shopping centers in College Station. They had just gotten a truck-load of trees from Washington and Oregon, most of which still had snow and ice on the bottoms... I guess the truck was refrigerated. It's been cold here today, but not cold enough for snow and ice. (Thankfully.)

They had everything from table-top-sized "Charlie Brown" Christmas trees to massive trees that my husband probably wished he could get. Our ceilings are eleven feet high, so anything higher than that is just not going to work. Christmas music was playing inside the tent, men were sawing the bottoms off trees and standing them in buckets of water... and every tree was lined up according to size so you could easily find what you were looking for. (Note to Lowe's--- go and have a look-see at The Farm Patch and take some tree-display lessons.)

We found just the perfect tree.... and two seconds later, we were told that the man ahead of us had just paid for that very tree.  Not a problem, said the tree-guy..... "Go pick out another tree and I'll give you $20 off the price."  So we looked again.... and...  found just the perfect tree.  I stood there right in front of it so no one else would claim it before we paid for it.

The only down-side of today's tree adventure was the weather.... cold and raining all day long. We may as well have been up north, for the weather we're having in this state.  Not as bad as Dallas, which has had ice storms.... but bad enough that my cousins in Arizona called today to ask "What is going on with the Texas weather?"  I wish I knew....... the weather gods have not been kind.  Nor are they being kind to Arizona because tonight will be just as cold there as it is here.

I told my cousin about our Christmas tree adventures of yesterday and today, and D said "Don't they sell artificial trees in that state?"  I explained that there hasn't been an artificial tree made yet that my husband would approve of.  D's answer to that was "When he gets older and starts having aches and pains, he's going to be wishing for an artificial tree."

I don't think I'll be telling my husband about that part of the conversation... it's too close to his birthday, and possibly, the carrying and setting-up of today's Christmas tree may very well have given him an ache or a pain or two.

Great expectations.

We usually get our real tree the day after Thanksgiving.  No matter where we've lived, our trees have just about reached the ceiling. In our Houston house, we had a 25-ft. ceiling in the great room, and one year we had a tree that was nearly touching it.  That tree was so wide that seven adults joined hands and made a big circle around the tree... and wouldn't that have made a great photo if we had thought to get the camera at that particular moment.  It took us five days and two ladders to decorate that tree, and when it was finished, it was just the most beautiful Christmas tree.  We vowed never to get one that big again.  Or I should say, my husband promised not to get a tree that big ever again.... he was at a Christmas tree lot near downtown Houston when he spotted that mammoth fir.  We still wonder how the roof of the car didn't collapse because that's how he got it home.... tied to the roof of his car, driving from Houston to Clear Lake at less than 30 mph.

In this house, all the ceilings are eleven feet high.  After all the years of mostly 12-foot Frazier Firs or Noble Firs, now we look for eight- or ten-foot trees for this house.  Because of the crazy coast-to-coast weather this past year, we heard on CNN that there would be a shortage of Frazier Firs because of a root disease that has taken its toll on the Christmas tree farmers across the country.  Our aim today was to get a Noble Fir.  We're late in looking for this tree.... Thanksgiving was very close to the end of November, and my husband was just over-the-top busy at work, and still is.

So out we went today (in the stupid cold weather) to look for our Christmas tree.  We went to Home Depot, Lowe's, a tree nursery, and even drove into the next small town (which had no trees for sale--- the people who live there buy their Christmas trees in our town).  We even looked at the trees in the nursery section of WalMart.... they were fine if you wanted a tree less than five feet tall.

What gets me is that these big companies insist on spending millions to build these mega-stores, but then only spend enough money to hire a mini-staff of employees.  When you have to find something in one of the big stores like Lowe's or Home Depot, you find yourself walking from one end of the store to the other just in search of a person who works there so you can ask a question.  As in:  "Are these the only Christmas trees that you have?  And will you be getting any more in?"

We walked out of Lowe's.... we did look at the Christmas trees there, none of which were standing in water, and most of them weren't standing at all.  They were tossed over on their sides, one on top of the next, like trees in an abandoned lot.  Let me get this straight---- you want people to spend $98 dollars for trees that have been tossed on the concrete pavement and haven't seen a drop of water in how many days?

Home Depot was better.... trees in water, arranged according to size, but what was labeled as an 8-foot tree was barely as tall as my husband, who is six ft. tall. Who measures the Christmas trees at Home Depot? Tiny elves in green curly shoes?  I found two trees that were pretty nice, but they weren't as tall as my husband wanted them to be.  We have a beautiful gold star for the top of our Christmas tree... I bought it via an on-line auction... the star belonged to Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, and it was the star they used on their own Christmas tree.  This star was handmade for them to exactly match the huge star that hung on their property over their ranch.  So finding the perfect Christmas tree that's worthy of Roy Rogers' star has been a priority since we bought that gold star about ten years ago.

After two hours of driving around and looking at Christmas trees, and walking out of places where they didn't have employees ready to help and answer questions, we came home.  Tomorrow is another day.   I even told my husband that if we didn't get a 'real' tree this year, we certainly have enough table-top trees in our house to celebrate Christmas.  We have three little trees in the dining room, and three more in the living room, and others all over this house.  My husband gave me that look.  None of them could possibly hold that gold star, or my husband's vintage lights.  And how about all our antique ornaments that are still in their boxes?

There is certainly a Christmas tree out there that will meet my husband's expectations. We just have to find it.

Merry Christmas...

To everyone out there who would like the phrase "Merry Christmas" to go away, I have just two words to say to you:   Merry Christmas.

To the groups of people who don't want Christmas carols sung by school choirs, and who don't want Christmas pageants in school auditoriums, and who do not want to see Nativity scenes in public places, I have these two words:   Merry Christmas.

To the people who would like the words Merry Christmas to be replaced by Happy Holiday, or to be replaced by nothing at all, these two words are just for you:   Merry Christmas.

To every person who would like everyone else in the world to follow the beliefs of certain groups, rather than to follow their own hearts, these two words are especially for you:   Merry Christmas.

Last time I looked, the American flag was still flying all over this country... which means that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and their own opinions, without being judged by certain groups of people who have taken it upon themselves to try and change the beliefs and opinions of others.

To those groups of people, two words for you:   Merry Christmas.

And, in case you're counting.... there are 19 more days until the 25th of December.  In this country (as well as many others) the 25th day of December is called Christmas.

Christmas. As in "Merry Christmas." 
So..... Merry Christmas.
And........ Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Minnie Pause and The Hot Flashes

I drove into town with JD last night to JS's church, for a Christmas show featuring "Minnie Pause and The Hot Flashes."   This group consisted of four talented women with colorful wigs and costumes, blinged-out to the max in rhinestones and sparkles, singing and dancing to classic rock songs that they re-worded to fit their act.

We all laughed as soon as they came on stage, with their mile-high wigs in pink, yellow and blue. Their outfits matched their wig colors, and their personalities sort of matched the colors they were wearing.  With an audience filled with women, their humor and songs were spot-on with menopausal madness.  I looked at their web site this morning, and it showed pictures of the performers without their costumes and stage make-up....... I wouldn't have recognized them as the four women who were on that stage last night.

The church ladies had tables set up with countless home-made desserts for after the show.  Cakes and cupcakes and cookies, a chocolate fountain for dipping fruits and marshmallows.... enough sugar and chocolate on those tables to make you forget about those nasty things called calories.  I looked at all the choices before choosing the least calorie-busting dessert.  Everything just looked so good... and you could just tell that those desserts were all made from scratch.

Driving into town last night was a small adventure..... with not very many street lights after dark, all the streets and buildings in town look more or less the same.  JS told us to look for the brown building on the left side of one particular street...... JD and I were laughing because all the buildings on that street looked brown after dark.  The church wasn't that hard to find.... all we needed to do was look for the parking lot with all the cars in it, and the building that had all its lights on.  One thing about a small town..... after the stores close at dinner-time, the rest of the town goes to sleep till the following morning.  Very few restaurants are even open for dinner here..... unless you count the fast-food places, which I ignore at all times.

As I type, it's 5:30 in the morning, and my car is sitting out in the driveway.  That car has never been left out of the garage since I got it in 2005.  When I got home last night, I couldn't put the car into the garage because Mickey Kitty was in there for the night.  If I had opened the garage door, then Mickey would have gotten out, and I'd have been looking for a black cat in the black dark of night, which would have been an impossible task.  And leaving Mickey out at night is not an option.

Last night was lot of fun.... the show was laugh-out-loud funny.... complete with a dancing conga-line towards the end of the performance, led by one of the Hot Flash ladies.  As I looked at the Crayola-colorful wigs and outfits on Minnie Pause and her Hot Flashes, I couldn't help but think that for next year's Halloween party, one of my friends might show up here covered in rhinestones and flashing rings and a feather boa with matching wig.

About those "That-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named Friday" shoppers.

Every year after the post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy, you hear on the news about the horrible stories that accompanied the frantic bargain shoppers who decided to cast off their turkey-day in lieu of those sale prices at the stores.

Yesterday on CNN, there was video footage of women fighting in shopping malls, men using mace to keep people from cutting in on the lines, and younger people using pepper spray to keep other shoppers from getting to the Holy Grail before they were at arm's length of the prize.

Note to all of the above: You have lost your minds. Not to mention your souls.

How does one buy an item for oneself, or give that item as a gift to a friend, after using either mace or pepper spray to obtain that item?  I can just imagine the gift card: "Merry Christmas!  This is for you!  And you'd better like this gift because I had to knock down three old ladies and use mace on two big guys to get this!"

Note to all who are guilty of the above:  You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves.  You have dropped far below the realm of being human, and are tilting on the cusp of being an animal. And even wild animals have more respect for one another with the exceptions of killing for food or killing to protect their young.  And don't even try and explain your behavior by saying that if you didn't get that 70-inch television, your family would starve to death or your children would be eaten by wolves.

I don't know if the Retail Powers That Be are controlling the out-of-control masses, or if the out-of-control masses are fueling the greed of the Retail Powers That Be.

What I do know is this...... we are becoming a non-caring, non-sharing society when it comes to that idiotic shopping day after Thanksgiving.  Instead of everyone giving thanks for their blessings, a huge segment of this society is giving grief to whoever is standing next to them.

Wake up, people.  We are supposed to be human beings.  Underneath our skin, we are all alike...... we are more alike than we are different. We share just this one planet, which is perilously in danger from imploding not by nuclear bombs but by all the anger that is raging from coast to coast.  And for what? To be first on line to purchase a mega-television or the latest iPhone or whatever happens to be number one on the hit parade of holiday gifts?!  Does that even make sense?

Give me a blessed break.