Blog Reorganization

26 Dec 07

I have been thinking about revamping my blogs. I will add a blog which doesn't deal too much in personal issues and may not deal in politics so much. I want this one to be for everyone. I had contaminated this blog with personal nonsense and I want to create another blog and retitle it something catchy. Supposedly I have a secret blog but I rarely go there. You will be kept posted.

This Christmas was wonderful considering what has happened to us this year. I am having to adjust to new realities since I have gotten older and that isn't too much fun either.

The first celebration of Christmas was Sunday. My niece, nephew, nephew's wife and niece's kid came with my sister to swap presents. We had roast. It was good. I gave my niece an Itunes card, my nephew and his wife a Subway gift card, my great nephew a Pirates of the Carribean treasure chest. I got a desk calendar with cat cartoons.

Monday I worked until 2PM. The boss stopped in and brought donuts and a jug of coffee. Somehow I didn't hog the donuts. After work I went to the auto parts place to get the battery out of my car tested. Surprisingly it took them longer than it did the NAPA place down the street. My sisters were scrapbooking except for one who was cooking. She was aggravated from being the Lone Ranger of the kitchen. I helped her then had two hot dogs. I learned the art of slawmaking. Don't use the blender and fill it with water; the water does not create enough centrifugal force against the pieces of cabbage. We had to work fast on both scrapbooks and dinner before my aunt came.

I went to the auto parts place and picked up the dear departed battery. I went to Food Lion and got sugar (ours was solidified) and a big bag of ice. I had to go to Kroger to get the gingerbread mix. We had for years a family tradition where Dad would cook us gingerbread and make the sauce in a pan, usually the one which had been banged around in the kitchen since I can remember. I came home and helped create scrapbooks for my cousins.

The main course was barbecue and baked beans along with chips and canned cokes (no bottled Cokes were available). We had Coca Cola Cake and Dixie Bars (Dixie Bars were from a recipe on the side of a sugar bag from Dixie Crystals hence the name).

My aunt and uncle from around the corner came along with my cousin from Florida, her husband, and their gargantuan son. Not that he is fat but he is quite a big man. I gave my aunt and uncle a USB hub for their PC. I think at some point I will upgrade their PC to Windows 2000 but they don't know that. I received a set of John Cleese DVDs. For some odd reason I could not get to bed that night.

I woke up at 12:30 PM on Christmas Day since the others chose to sleep late. It seemed like a very condensed Christmas celebration. The givers of the gifts gave each family member their gifts to them. I gave Mom a towel, a calendar, and a cup with old pictures of her inserted into the cup shell. My youngest sister got a scrapbook calendar, The oldest sister got measuring spoons and a calendar and crossword puzzle book, the middle sister got a Diabetes Crockpot cookbook, and when my uncle came he got a DVD collection of John Wayne B-grade movies and a selection of Inner Sanctum old radio episodes on CD. I went to bed for a little while.


I received Season 3 of "Emergency!" on DVD from Rosemary. Mom gave me a white dress shirt and Ruth gave me an Eddie Bauer sweater (green).

We had ham for lunch prior to doing the present swap. My sister made mashed potatoes and we had lima beans. My uncle came and he gave me a "Politically Incorrect Guide to American History". He actually has read David Limbaugh's book and finds it very factual. Perhaps we are more conservative than we think. We had the ham for dinner.

Christmas Albums from retailers

I have been digitizing some albums my parents bought over the years. I ripped them to MP3 and put them on CD. One is a 1972 album from Grant's Stores (we had one in Warner Robins) and another was from JCPenney in 1973. Penney's is on the nice part of Libertycounsel.org's list of those retailers who do or don't mention Christmas in their marketing. But don't look for too many retailers' Christmas compilations.

I bought a compilation off Ebay that we had discarded years ago. The album was sold by Goodyear stores in 1967 and was stamped by Columbia Special Projects. This compilation of various artists was called, "The Great Songs of Christmas" and features, in a round robin, several singers including Robert Goulet and a young John Davidson.

Featured twice on the record is the folk group The New Christy Minstrels. Mind you this is a politically incorrect name but none of the members wore blackface and in fact longtime member Barry McGuire sung the 1965 protest hit, "Eve of Destruction".

I guess it's a way of honoring my childhood- and my Dad. I see so much wrong with the present that I have to reach to the past. It's only going to corkscrew myself further into a depressed state. I come home tired from work and oversleep. I feel angry at myself because I don't listen to people, am impatient, am not nice to people as I used to be, and need to go to work on finding another job.

But I'll still listen to those old records. I mean, CD's.