Thursday is the day Thanksgiving. The day where we give thanks. We give thanks to each other and the country and generally blow smoke up each others asses.
This post is no different. Today the Coots would like to thank everyone who comes here and reads this silly blog, or as it should be called, Ralph Carlson’s second blog.
Personally, I would like to thank Ralph for keeping this thing afloat and running. I would like to thank Bob for pretending to care about this site. Continue reading »
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Unless you are living somewhere under a rock or at the bottom of the ocean, you know now, it is almost Christmas! Yes Sunday is the big day when a large part of the world celebrates the birth of Jesus and most of us celebrate the wonderfulness of the credit card.
As of mid morning on Sunday, our house will be awash in torn paper and giggles as the kids delight in what Santa will bring them. I will just be wanting a nap I am sure. We get reminded about what and who we should be remembering during the season all too often, yet there are some people that seem to be forgotten. If you work at a store that is open on Christmas, you should quit right now.
There are however, those who have to work on Christmas, and those are the Emergency Services people. Police, Fire Departments and hospitals will be open and running over the holiday, they can’t be closed. If you are lucky or unlucky enough to run into one of these type of people during Christmas, say Thanks to them for working.
It may be that fireman who puts out your house after the tree catches fire, the cop who pulls you over for having too much Christmas cheer, or the Ambulance driver who rushes you to the hospital when Grandmas turkey was just a bit *too* underdone.
Then don’t forget the doctors and nurses who will be there to pump your stomach and give you some groovy feel better meds. Yes my wife will be working the afternoon of Christmas this year as they all get a turn in the nursing field, but then again, if people were not prone to doing stupid things and getting hurt there would be no need for them. Unless you count the heart attacks and salmonella poisonings.
From all of us here at Cantankerous Old Coots, we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas, or if you are one of those who doesn’t celebrate Christmas, well, I will stoop and say Happy Holidays.
We are not done for the year, but this weekend is, unless Ralph tears himself away from the family to put up a news service post. Don’t count on it, he has permission to skip Christmas. Even I am not that much of a Scrooge.
Merry Christmas everyone.
-Justin and the rest of the Coots, Bob and Ralph.
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It’s just part of my cantankerous nature to shun the shopping frenzy of the season but up until now it was impossible to avoid completely. With kids you have to get the spirit because it is part of the contract. Now that I’m retired I spend more time with my wife which is good but often the time is spent accompanying her while she is shopping. This isn’t bad so long as I don’t have to do anything but it does force me to participate in insanities I would otherwise avoid like stores. These days I find that the Christmas season still has all the frenzy that I remember but I can no longer find the spirit.
When I was a kid, there was magic at Christmas. Department stores would compete to have the best Santa display, devoting whole floors to creating a winter wonderland. They also competed to create the best store windows. (When is the last time you saw a store window?) My family would go downtown (25 miles from the farm) just to visit Santa and see the display windows. Of course today anyplace but New York, and San Francisco downtowns are dead as are all the competing department stores. These days Macy’s stands alone. Shopping malls didn’t come along until later but even then, downtown was where the action was.
I don’t much like shopping malls. It has been six months since I visited a mall and a year since I actually spent any money there. They have the crowds; they have decorations;.they have Santa but they don’t have any spirit for me. It is all just empty noise. I’ll be doing my shopping on line. It is easy but there lies the rub. I’m just going through the numbers. I don’t have any Christmas spirit and I don’t know what I can do about it. There is no hassle. No panic. No frustration about finding a parking spot. I am calm cool and collected waiting for the UPS guy to deliver. I just don’t have any Christmas spirit this year.
