Here it is - the time for new beginnings. Diets, exercise, eat right - all of that stuff - becomes the focus for about two weeks, and then lags off and people go back to living as they did previously. Two weeks of salad is good, right?
I do not make resolutions - I don't see the point - but I do have some things I'd like to accomplish or do in the next 12 months.
For one thing, I think I badly need a vacation. Some time away might do wonders for my mood.
I also want to stop playing on the computer so much, unless I'm actually writing something (like this blog) or working on the bookkeeping. It's too bad, really, that I simply cannot find interest in crafts like knitting and crocheting, at least, enough to go into another room and do it. Those types of activities do not interest me. I don't know why. I don't do them well, but I am not bad at them, either.
I would like to see my county government figure out what it is doing. So far, apparently, they've given free rein to anyone with money to build anything they want. The southern end of the county, where the grocery stores are, is getting messy.
And as for me, I'd like to be settled. Not happy, or even content. Just calmer and settled. Healthier and less anxious. That's all.
Just a few little tweaks here and there. Or maybe big ones. Who knows?
Anyway, happy new year to everyone, and thank you so much for reading me. I know everyone's time is valuable, and I am humbled that you choose to spend a few minutes reading my words from time to time.
We officially now have what I refer to as "old people's" Christmas. The children are grown, leaving only us older folks to gather around. The younger crowd is off doing their own thing, more or less.
So this was our "old people's" Christmas -
My stepmother and stepsister.
My father.
My husband (left) and my father.
My mother-in-law (left), stepmother, and stepsister.
I think my stepsister is giving me the eye while I snap photos.
My mother-in-law.
My brother's girlfriend and my niece. My niece is not an old person, she is in college but was visiting her dad and came over with him.
Somehow, I missed getting a picture of my brother.
The family came in two waves; my father, stepmother, and stepsister came along around 2, and then my brother and his family came later. My mother-in-law spanned both visits, which, incidentally, took place on Christmas Eve.
At dark, I noticed my tree reflecting in the patio door.
My brother gave me a Lord of the Rings puzzle.
He also gave me a Royal Mint collector's coin that features Tolkien.
I gave my father a throw for the couch that had acoustic guitars on it, Dolly Parton's CD, and a book. I gave my stepmother a cape and some storage things. I gave my stepsister a gift basket that unfortunately had a lot of stuff in it she can't eat because I forget she's diabetic.
I gave my brother collector's edition books of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, along with a 3-D light of the Starship U.S.S. Enterprise and a Bendyfig of Captain Kirk. I gave his girlfriend a book that offers up daily spiritual sayings. I have a copy of the book and like it so I thought she'd like it. My niece received money.
My husband and I had our Christmas on Christmas Day. He gave me some guitar stuff and a new microphone to replace the one I have that has a short in it. I also received a couple of books and a package of Omaha meat.
I gave my husband clothes, mostly. And a kiss for good measure.
On Christmas Day, we also spent some time with my mother-in-law. My brother called to tell me that my niece had woke in the night with a sore throat and tested positive for Covid, so now we are all holding our breath to see if anyone gets sick. I need to check the CDC site for symptoms and incubation period. I hope no one becomes ill.
Somehow, I have managed to go this long with this being my first known exposure to Covid. Fingers crossed.
This is my husband's favorite Christmas decoration. It's an angel we purchased on a trip to Myrtle Beach in 1992 - making this a 30-year-old nearly antique.
At the time, it was unique because the wings would light up and change color. In 1992, this was a novelty.
He puts this up every year. It sits atop my curiosity cabinet, where it can reach a plug in.
The tree went up yesterday. You can also see we hung our stockings with care by the fireplace.
My husband and I agree on most things about what we place on the tree. It must have multi-colored lights, the tinsel that is stringy and that sticks to you when you walk by the tree, and a few special ornaments. He likes an angel on top.
Yesterday, we had my mother-in-law over for Thanksgiving.
This was a different sort of Thanksgiving for us. I didn't spend all day cooking a turkey.
Instead, we opted for rib-eye steak, baked potato, salad, a roll, and a piece of pecan pie.
It made for an easy day, the steak was good, we didn't overeat, and I didn't have to worry about leftovers.
While it certainly wasn't traditional (I did miss the turkey a tiny bit), it was so stress-free that I think we may have started a new tradition, for us, anyway.
We seldom purchase steak, and the rib-eyes were not as expensive as I expected them to be.
All of the fixin's may have been missing, but it was a nice meal anyway. And I sure liked the stress-free part.
Yesterday, my husband and I celebrated Valetine's Day by exchanging cards in the morning. Later, I had a haircut. I stopped at a Chinese carry-out we like and picked up sweet and sour chicken and egg rolls.
I brought them home, and we had the movie Independence Day on while we ate. So we had lunch and a movie for our Valentine's celebration.
The movie, in case there is someone on the planet who hasn't seen it. is about an alien invasion on July 2. Large, massive ships move in over every major city on the planet. Bill Pullman plays the president of the United States. It is soon apparent that these aliens aren't here to exchange daisies or chocolate chip cookie recipes. They annihilate the major cities with a big blast from their spaceships. The president and his young daughter barely escape, and they flee to Area 51. It seems there is a spaceship and a deceased alien there, under study.
A character played by Jeff Goldblum figures out how to upload a virus into the alien mothership. Will Smith's character, a fighter pilot, joins Jeff's and they fly up and insert the virus, which breaks down the alien ships impenetrable shields. The big alien ships are brought down. Earth is saved.
At one point near the end of the movie, Pullman as president makes a speech to bolster the scared young flyers who are going to attack the alien ships.
After we finished eating and the movie ended, my husband wondered when we had last had a president capable of such leadership.
Maybe JFK, I suggested. I was six months old when he died.
Perhaps Eisenhower, long before my time.
No one who has led the country in my lifetime could have stood up to an alien invasion. We can't even stand up to an invasive virus, a pandemic that has taken as many lives as one of these alien ships took when it blasted away a city. We have not had leadership since 1963, and who knows how Kennedy would have turned out if he hadn't been shot. He may have been a political puppet, too, in the end.
Having a bully for a president does not mean he is a good leader. The former guy showed us how he would deal with an alien invasion - he'd either hide in his bunker, or he would tell us not to worry about it and wouldn't care how many died. He'd call the alien leaders and offer them the world if they'd leave him alive.
Having a president who would walk out onto the White House lawn with his wife and dogs and offer the aliens a teddy bear is not the kind of person to lead the country during an alien invasion, either. He would be first among the dead. The current president tried for about 8 months to lead the country out of the pandemic, but he was not able to. He could not bring the country to heel.
The people resisted. Not for the good of society, but because, well, we're assholes. While resisting an actual alien invasion would be a good thing, resisting a viral invasion instead of nodding to science and stepping forward to take a vaccine and do the right things was beyond us. We are no Greatest Generation here, ready to stand up to moral ineptitude, capable of marching off to save the world. We are a bunch of whiny pansy butts who sit around and cry about our second amendment rights and things like CRT, about which we know nothing, and fume and fret because we aren't getting what we believe to be ours, whatever that is.
If we had a real alien invasion like in this movie, I know of no one in government who could step up to lead, to inspire, to literally talk us into saving the world. Even Obama, as well spoken as he is, could not do it because the white people wouldn't listen to him. The racism runs so deep many people don't even know it's there.
This was our Valentine's Day discussion. We talked about the loss of leadership, the demise of democracy, the changes in humanity that are not for the better. Capitalism may have made some people rich, but it also turned everyone into individualistic automatons, incapable of caring for their fellow man. It destroyed the social network that is, ultimately, vital for the survival of the human race.
We are lesser people than our forefathers. We are soft and stupid. We have all the knowledge of the world at our fingertips, and we look at pictures of cats.
What wimps we have become. What a shame. What a disaster. What a deformation of character we have suffered as we moved through the Industrial Age and into the Technological Age.
If the aliens arrived tomorrow, we'd all deserve to die.
1. When Sam Winters (the meme author) was a little girl, she loved giving her annual wish list to Santa. If you could ask Santa for anything at all, right now, what would it be?
A. World peace, less fighting amongst people, etc., would all be very nice, but wishing it away isn't going to make it go away. Santa, alas, is rather materialistic in what he can actually manage, so I will wish for a small 5-year diary, one with just a few lines per day. I saw them when I was younger, even had one, I think, but I haven't seen them in a while and haven't been able to find one.
2. Are you currently on the Naughty or Nice list? How did you get there?
A. I presume I am on the Nice list, since I've not done anything overly naughty.
3. Are you traveling this Christmas? If so, are you going by car, plane or train?
A. Not traveling.
4. Did you buy yourself a gift this year?
A. No.
5. What's your favorite holiday-themed movie or TV special? Have you seen it yet this year?
A. Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and I've seen it. I also like Jeff Dunham's Christmas Special - the DVD version, not the one on TV, because it leaves out a lot. The DVD version is hilarious.
6. Which do you prefer: candy canes or gingerbread?
A. Gingerbread.
7. Close your eyes and tell us the first carol that comes to mind.
A. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree is playing on the radio so it's sort of hard to think of something else at the moment. That's not a carol, though, it's just a holiday song. Joy to the World?
8. What's your favorite winter beverage?
A. Water, same as it is every day. In the good ol' days, I used to like hot chocolate.
9. What do you remember most about the 2020 holiday season?
A. Covid. We stood out in the cold on my back porch with various members of my family at certain times, all of masked and huddled in our coats.
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I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however.
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