You know how when you buy a car and all of a sudden you see millions of those cars everywhere? That’s not happening to me, I guess ‘cuz I don’t really know what my car looks like anymore. I have to park it in the same place everyday so I’ll recognize it (and that’s really only because I have the same license plate). I parked someplace different yesterday at work, and it took me forever to figure out which one it was. For one thing, it’s silver, but in the dark, it looks kinda white. Oh well, after a few years I’ll probably figure it out.
Speaking of being white, I sure am glad that’s what I am. I may be short and unathletic, but at least it’s not legal for the police to shoot or choke me to death. Well, I guess technically it’s legal, but killing old white guys is generally frowned upon. And it made for a nice experience at airport security in Minneapolis on the way back home on Sunday, as they marked my boarding pass and allowed me to keep my shoes on and only go through the metal detector instead of the full-body scanner thing. Or maybe they just didn’t want to subject the screeners to the ghostly recreation of my nude body. Can’t blame ’em for that.
I never caught much of a break back when my hair was still mostly dark and I had a ponytail down to my ass, that’s for sure. I guess there are advantages to looking old and non-threatening. The only downside was I got through security so fast that I had a long time to kill at the gate. But since everybody’s got free WiFi these days, I was able to watch NetFlix, which is probably what I’d have been doing at home anyway (though in a more comfortable chair).
Speaking of NetFlix, I started watching a BBC show (I think it’s BBC, though it’s listed as a “NetFlix Original”) called Happy Valley (don’t worry it’s got nothing to do with Penn State) that’s pretty good. And I’m about five episodes into season 3 of Lilyhammer, which I think has been the best season yet. So far, anyway.
I’ve got about 12 more months of my commitment to DirecTV, and then I’m gonna pull the plug on it. It’s just too damn expensive, and in a few months I can save enough to put together a pretty darn good media server. About the only thing I’ll miss is live sports channels like ESPN, but that’s mostly for SU sports – and they’re too hard to watch these days anyway.
Well, I suppose I’d better get the process of going to work rolling. Once again, a four-day week is proving to seem twice as long as a five-day week (especially following a six-day weekend – even if a lot of that was spent sitting at the airport or stuffed into an economy class airplane seat. My knees don’t like being bent in one position for that many hours).
That title “Three weeks to Xmas” was enough to start panic in me. So, for 2 days I’ve made the lists and done some shopping and now it’s down to the cash for the grandkids. I think I can breathe again.
I only shop for my daughter, new daughter-in-law and granddaughters. Everyone else gets cash because only they know their inner Xmas desires. The shopping ususally takes place at the Shelter Island crafts fare where many jewelers and other artisans come here and set up in one place. This year I was uninspired and probably very tired and so I failed. Thus the panic.
It’s nice to give people I love gifts, especially when they really like them, but I have come to loathe Xmas and all the commercial stuff that surrounds it. Once the kids figure out that there is no Santa much of the fun is gone and each year there is less fun and more loathing.
Bah humbug!
I basically just don’t participate in Xmas anymore. Happy to have the day off, though. I’m more into New Year’s – hard to beleive it’s only a month to 2015.
Worth a listen…Xmas in Frisko: SomaFM’s wacky and eclectic holiday mix. Not for the easily offended.