ONLY THREE DAYS TO GO

The very last days of Advent are finally & at last upon us. In Lindenhurst, I was always very busy around this time of year. Here it's a smidge easier on me though. I wonder what all those people over there are doing without me. When the cousins & I used to bowl together, we always used to have a really nice time for Christmas. I really should make it a New Year's resolution to start getting active in the KofC council. Unfortunately, I never got around to sending Cathleen her Christmas card until this morning. That makes a whopping grand total of three I sent out by way of snail mail this year. Of course, as everyone must most certainly know quite well by now, I've always enforced an extremely strict taboo on those "Season's Greetings/Happy Holidays" cards. Mine always say, quite specifically: "Merry Christmas". It absolutely never ceases to boggle my mind when I get a reminder of how bitterly resentful people are over any sort of an expression of Christian belief whatsoever. It really disgusts me when they try to maintain an atmosphere of what is supposed respect for the beliefs of others but is really an attack on Christianity & a defiant promotion of mandatory secularism. The big question on Yahoo's homepage today is, appropriately enough, about exactly where the tradition of Christmas elves comes from. That always makes for intelligent, witty banter among eggheads.

THE BIG DAY BECKONS

Christmas is but four days away. All has been going fairly well so far. Pretty soon, we shall all be swamped with company & food. This morning has been nice & quiet so far. Yesterday I ate chicken cutlets & French fries. They've always been very favorites of mine. I know they're fattening & not exactly on the list of things that are all that good for a guy's health. Coffee by the gallons doesn't exactly do me any favors either. I watched the old TV shows again, ever bemoaning the total lack of any good new stuff. Sometimes, though, while watching the ones about those controversial crimes, I get a little curious about what "Crossing Jordan" may be like. Occasionally I cheat & sit through about a minute or two of it at a time. The guy from "Sliders" is on it.

VERY SHORT SNOWSTORM YESTERDAY

It didn't amount to much of anything but trouble but there was a seriously annoying snowstorm yesterday. Last night Aunt Lauren came over, on her way home from work, for a while to get a head start on giving out presents. She, for whatever reason, isn't in the habit of showing up all that often, just every once in a while on her way home from work. I suppose Uncle Frankie must have shown up somewhere over the course of the day too. When I got home, there was candy on the table. I read quite a lot more of that Chaucer biography. I watched one of those cold case shows & a couple of old sitcoms. In other words it was a typical day. The librarian wont be back for a few days. He's in Chicago until the day after Christmas. The lady who covers for him during the week isn't as knowledgeable about things as he, so it should be very interesting to see how things work out around here for a while without him.

COUNTDOWN TO ZERO HOUR

It hasn't rained or snowed in a while but the snow & ice are all over. Uncle Frankie complained yesterday that he was inevitably going to trip on it sooner or later. Another pet peeve of mine is the incessant "Happy holidays" instead of the only one that's really appropriate: "Merry Christmas". It's splattered all over the media, in public places, & among friends & relatives. Of course, I should be used, by now, to the notion that that's to be fully expected in a world where all sorts of things have gone insanely wrong. A few times, lately, I've been in touch with my cousin Vinnie. It's cool, since we've always lived so far apart, that we can keep in touch by way of the internet. We've exchanged phone numbers too. Hey I've been noticing that I haven't gotten any headaches lately. That's a bit of a really nice kind of surprise for me since they always most certainly seem to sneak up on me sooner or later. Unfortunately next month I shall have to get my car inspected. That ought to be a regular hoot. I suppose I shall have to go to the Jack Williams right next to Jiffy Lube on Wyoming Ave. I finally got a few more hits from wheresgeorge. Thank you to Nirvana from the Wyoming Avenue Unimart. I don't quite understand how it could even be possible that I don't have a hell of a lot more hits considering how many bills I've most certainly put into circulation by now.

CHRISTMAS WITHIN A WEEK

Well, folks, the big day is getting oh so very much closer by now. It's one of those days each year that the ACLU, & other liberal special interest groups are always trying to ban from polite society. Things like that always clutter our e mail, snail mail, etc. Yesterday Michael & Terri's Christmas card came. They sent a really nice picture of their very first grandson. I think his name is Tyler Matthew. Grace, Daren's mother, also sent me a card. There's lots of tension around Christmas time. People send all sorts of e mails, legitimate, corny, activist, etc. Salesmen galore keep trying to capitalize on the whole thing. I still haven't gotten entirely used to Christmas around here. I keep in touch with the New Yorkers so I can easily find out what's going on over there. My cousin Vinnie, who now lives in N.Carolina, just sent me an e mail rambling on about days of yore. Change happens. Last night, I watched "I Love Lucy" again. That show was on back in the good old days when at least very many show business people knew better than to try to make controversial shows that forcibly crammed unacceptable agendas down people's throats.

BLIZZARDS

These days the snow & ice just keep right on constantly hounding us. I went to Saturday Mass & lectored there even though I was on the schedule for 10:00 a.m. yesterday. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it. Laura called on the phone yesterday & said she couldn't show up either. There were power failures. Three TV channels didn't come in. Cables were knocked down in the streets. I spent a large part of the day reading "War & Peace". This morning, it took quite a while to get the ice off my car. My driver's side door wouldn't open for a while & I ended up having to climb through the passenger side. On top of that, I couldn't help noticing that some complete lunatic of a guy, a pedestrian, tried walking down the street. He slipped every couple of inches & consistently punctuated each of his falls with an expletive. Last night, I watched "An American in Paris" with Leslie Caron, Gene Kelly & lots of other big names of that era. It's full of Gershwin music. I see Dan Fogelberg, the guy who sang that mammoth classic, "Longer" in 1981, has died. Yesterday I also watched Raymond Arroyo's interview with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has just published his autobiography.