What in blazes is a Christmas Value?

Friday, 1:46 pm

By Kate

Dec

05

2008

Day two in my war against Christmas. I had to hop in the car to go do about 50 errands this morning. I flipped the radio on and after the in-progress ad finished, a voice started speaking to me in a suspiciously Fred Thompson-like cadence and tone. I think it may have been him, but I’m not sure. In any case, this Fred Thompson-esque voice spoke to me of Christmas values and how they’re only found in small pockets in America. Blah, de-blah, de-blah, blah..... And then a woman began singing some sad refrain and I punched the radio off.

I was so mad I saw 20 shades of red.

WHAT is a Christmas value? Who exactly are these special people who possess them and where are these small pockets in America where they reside in ever shrinking numbers? Huh?

A pox on his house. I’m sure that’s not a Christmas value. Tough. At least it’s honest.

Swearing off radio for real now. That’s it.

There should be a law...

Thursday, 5:18 am

By Kate

Dec

04

2008

...against Christmas music 24/7 beginning the day after Thanksgiving. My two favorite light rock radio stations have gone around the bend with this and I’m hearing the same songs over and over and over and over. I love Christmas music. But not for a solid month. By the time Christmas arrives, I’m going to be so sick of Christmas that I’m afraid I’ll be ready to take the tree down before I even get it up. Of course, I could just exclusively listen to NPR for the next month, but I WANT my tunes. Sigh…

I’m so totally sick of the Jackson Five. Don’t want to hear Jose Feliciano again. Ever. Garth Brooks just shouldn’t do Christmas carols. And I HATE the one about Grandma getting run over by a reindeer. That instantly puts me in Scrooge mode and it seems to be a perennial favorite, played a dozen times a day. Bleh.

(The sun isn’t up yet, either, fwiw.)

Nearly normal

Thursday, 4:40 am

By Kate

Dec

04

2008

Well, here I sit with my first cup of coffee, impatiently waiting for the sun to rise. Which it won’t for another couple of hours. I’m awake before the proverbial chickens. And this so not my natural state. However, over the past several weeks, I’ve been trying, very hard, to change my sleep patterns to something that resembles normal. For reasons I know not, I am naturally inclined to have the exact reverse schedule that almost everyone else enjoys.

It takes several weeks to change such patterns. But I think I’m almost there. Just a couple more hours worth of adjustments. And I am anxious for the sun to rise. Then I can Do Things that Make Noise. It’s one of the disadvantages of living in a house that shares a wall with a neighbor. My neighbor may be an early bird, but not this early. I don’t imagine she’d appreciate my vaccum cleaner at this hour, though I have more energy to burn right now than seems decent.

Enterprising neighbor

Wednesday, 11:53 am

By Kate

Dec

03

2008

My former absentee landlord neighbor is now my neighbor again. He kicked his tenants out and moved back into his house the weekend before Thanksgiving. His former wife lives about 5 doors up the street. From his kids’ perspective, this probably is the better arrangement than having Daddy live two towns away as he had been for a while. They’re over here quite often now. In any case, he’s baaack.

About an hour and a half ago, he pulled into his driveway in a strange van and suddenly a bunch of kids piled out—three boys and two girls. They extracted rakes from the back the of van and began raking leaves out of my neighbor’s yard. By the looks of things, they were not enthused. Kind of makes one speculate what that was all about. Community service? Raking leaves during study hall in lieu of detention (he’s a teacher)? It was an odd sight. Worked out kind of nicely for my neighbor, though. His yard is a completely deleafed and very tidy looking now. It made me laugh a bit, too. That’s one way to get your yard raked.