Today I’m watching the first snowfall of this season, and coincidentally the first snow of 2017. At least here in Northern Virginia. As luck would have it, today is a Saturday, so I’ve avoided the Mad Max-like horrors of traveling out on our snowy highways. On the flip side, I’m stuck in the house all day and cabin fever strikes quickly.
We’re presently up to about one-half inch, and with any luck, we’ll have Washington, D.C. shut down for a week.
For the first post of the New Year, I just want to wish everyone a Happy New year 2017! Gratuitous New Year’s video on the flip in celebration of having survived this past year while retaining some semblance of sanity.
This is a story about being permanently traumatized by the Christmas song “Jingle Bells.” Actually, it wasn’t so much the song itself, but the events surrounding the playing of “Jingle Bells.” Fair warning; this “Jingle Bells” Christmas story involves topless women and beer but is otherwise considered Family Safe, unless you don’t want your kids to grow up to become sailors.
Winnie and I decided we needed to do something different for Christmas this year. Our Christmases past have normally revolved around either staying at home in quiet celebration, or visiting family. This year, we gave each other a Christmas vacation trip to Puerto Rico.
Back in December, Winnie decided that we needed to do some major home improvements. To be fair, our house is about 30 years old and needs some upgrades. So our plans were to redo the flooring in our basement den first, along with repainting. Then we’d move up to the main level and replace the old carpeting with wood flooring and be finished by April. Take off the spring and summer for more important boating and outdoor stuff, then replace the upstairs carpeting with wood flooring in the fall and be finished by Christmas 2016.
That was our plan.
Recently I was involved in another auto accident in which I was hit from behind while not moving. To add insult to injury Winnie was also involved in an auto accident, abet much more minor than mine, in another part of town just about one hour later.
Not a great day at all.
In considering America’s latest record-setting mass murder of unarmed people – the Orlando nightclub shooting of June 12 – I have to once again ask this question;
“Is a periodic mass murder of innocent people inside homes, churches, schools, shopping malls or other public places, a reasonable price to pay for the unrestricted right of anyone to own as many guns, of any type, that they desire?”
I have to confess that one of my favorite female singers is the native Welsh wonder Bonnie Tyler. I also enjoy great animation movies (called cartoons for a younger generation, but I remain a kid at heart) and among my top computer-generated animations are the “Shrek” movies. So when these are put together, I’m hooked.
Zurich, Switzerland, April 1, 2016. Today, leading world scientists announced that the total quantity of Stupid in the world was rapidly increasing. “It’s worrisome,” said Dr. Fabienne Urnechi, head of the sociology department at Karolinska Institutet of Sweden. “Our worst-case predictions consistently underestimate measured increases.”
What Happens Next?
It’s still difficult for me to process all my emotions from November’s election results. Feelings of dread about what happens next; feelings of loss for what could have been; feelings of disbelief knowing that so many of my fellow Americans voted for a person that represents the worst side of humanity; I’m trying to process all these feelings running on the same track. Underneath all of these is a feeling of deep anger at the people who believed Trump was anything more than a master con artist who says anything he has to, to get what he wants, and does whatever suits his ego.
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