May 2006 be better than 2005.
I say that every year.
On the night of December 31, 1999, as the final year of the 20th Century approached, I fully believed the prospects for world peace were better than ever. The Berlin Wall was gone, the Pope had visited Cuba, and things just seemed to be headed in the direction of peace and stability. What a fool I was.
As we speak, there is one more tropical storm (Zeta) out there in the Atlantic somewhere, reminding us that our future and safety are not as much within our control as we would like to believe. I don't need to remind anyone that a great many people foolishly believe that bombing and killing will achieve something good. And, we have nearly three long years until the next presidential election.
Even so, as I think of my family and our extended family, which was extended even further in June, I can't help but think that 2005 was a very good year for us personally, and 2006 holds a lot of promise to be good or better. Please, God, may I not be fooled again!
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Thursday, December 29, 2005
catching up with Christmas
I've finally put up a photo of the tree (below). We'd need to put a hole in the ceiling to get a bigger one. I like to keep them up until Greek Epiphany Day, January 6. One of our neighbors put his out at the curb the day after Christmas, which is entirely too soon. We'll be caught up with Christmas when we get our cards in the mail, which for some reason always seems to happen in time for New Year's.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Merry Christmas!
OK, it may seem a few days late for that greeting, but not really. This is the time when work tends to slow down and people start shipping themselves back home if they were lucky enough to come home for Christmas. No, that's not a contradiction. You can have two homes, and if you are fortunate enough to have a parent still living where you grew up, that's one of them.
We had three of our "kids" home for Christmas. We look at them and think, how did we raise four of them in this dinky little house? Our fourth "kid" was at home in Colorado, establishing a new Christmas tradition with his new wife - go skiing on Christmas Eve, and make your Florida family jealous. Some of our old traditions continue: One daughter had strep throat for the umpteenth time at Christmas, and another one expressed irritatation at being exposed to the bug. The one recovered and the other didn't take it home with her, so all's well. The five of us shared a warmth and a closeness on Christmas Day that is the stuff of fond memories. Stay tuned for photo with new camera.
We had three of our "kids" home for Christmas. We look at them and think, how did we raise four of them in this dinky little house? Our fourth "kid" was at home in Colorado, establishing a new Christmas tradition with his new wife - go skiing on Christmas Eve, and make your Florida family jealous. Some of our old traditions continue: One daughter had strep throat for the umpteenth time at Christmas, and another one expressed irritatation at being exposed to the bug. The one recovered and the other didn't take it home with her, so all's well. The five of us shared a warmth and a closeness on Christmas Day that is the stuff of fond memories. Stay tuned for photo with new camera.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
the world is flat
Everybody, and particularly every Westerner under the age of 30, and every school teacher, should read Tom Friedman's book, The World is Flat. We have a "flat" world because of satellite communications, fiber optic cable, and high-speed Internet access. You can have an X-ray taken today and it will be read by a radiologist in India or Australia tonight. Your doctor will have a report on his or her desk tomorrow morning. You buy a gizmo at Wal-Mart, and before you walk out the door their computers are telling their sweatshop in China to make another one and ship it over.
Buying Christmas gifts over the Internet is an example of how the flat world works, right here at home. I just bought a camera (not a gift, but a replacement for myself). Thanks to UPS's tracking system I know it left New Jersey yesterday and rolled into Jacksonville this morning. It rolled out this afternoon and I fully expect it on my doorstep tomorrow. I never spoke with a human being about it. They never saw the flash of green money or even heard the clickety click of a credit card in their machine by the cash register. There is no cash register.
I can tell you the time of day it was logged in and out by UPS but I can't tell you what the sales clerk looked like, because there was no sales clerk. That's one less sales clerking job that might have been taken by some kid trying to make money for school. I saved money on the camera and didn't have to drive around our plagued, traffic-choked roads trying to find a better price.
If you are the kind of kid who's still in school but just shuffling along, getting no education to speak of and no job skills, it's time to look at the big world around you. Don't think you can get out of school and get by with a minimum-wage job. They haven't learned to flip hamburgers and sell them through the Internet, yet, but it's only a matter of time.
Buying Christmas gifts over the Internet is an example of how the flat world works, right here at home. I just bought a camera (not a gift, but a replacement for myself). Thanks to UPS's tracking system I know it left New Jersey yesterday and rolled into Jacksonville this morning. It rolled out this afternoon and I fully expect it on my doorstep tomorrow. I never spoke with a human being about it. They never saw the flash of green money or even heard the clickety click of a credit card in their machine by the cash register. There is no cash register.
I can tell you the time of day it was logged in and out by UPS but I can't tell you what the sales clerk looked like, because there was no sales clerk. That's one less sales clerking job that might have been taken by some kid trying to make money for school. I saved money on the camera and didn't have to drive around our plagued, traffic-choked roads trying to find a better price.
If you are the kind of kid who's still in school but just shuffling along, getting no education to speak of and no job skills, it's time to look at the big world around you. Don't think you can get out of school and get by with a minimum-wage job. They haven't learned to flip hamburgers and sell them through the Internet, yet, but it's only a matter of time.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Christmas trees
We've been slow getting the house ready for Christmas this year but we do have the tree up with lights on it. Last year we had a tree that seemed good when we bought it but looked puny in the house. This year we got one that seems to have grown on the way home from the lot. It is big and beautiful, and probably the heaviest one ever; I had to run out and get a bigger stand. I would put a photo here, if I had a digital camera. :(
We have good friends whose tree fell over after they decorated it, which reminded me of a story about my Aunt D., in Kentucky. She is the sole survivor of my parents' generation and I know why: Few things bother her. She has the belief, proven true after a lifetime of experience, that "things will work out," so why fret? She's not starry-eyed or naive. She raised seven children successfully. But there was one time when her kids were little and Uncle H. could not get their Christmas tree to stand up. It kept falling over and Uncle H. was cussing a blue streak. This was in the days when a tree stand was two pieces of crossed wood nailed to the bottom of the tree, and you also need to know they had hardwood floors. Aunt D. finally had her fill of the commotion and she came in with a hammer and a nail. Wham, wham, wham. "That'll fix the damned thing," she said.
The replacement camera should be here in a week and I'll put up a photo of our tree. The new camera looks like a shrunken version of my old camera, which was beginning to look like a brick compared with what's on the market now. I have no idea what to do with 7.2 megapixels. The old one took photos with 2.1 megapixels when I set it to take the highest resolution, which I seldom did.
We have good friends whose tree fell over after they decorated it, which reminded me of a story about my Aunt D., in Kentucky. She is the sole survivor of my parents' generation and I know why: Few things bother her. She has the belief, proven true after a lifetime of experience, that "things will work out," so why fret? She's not starry-eyed or naive. She raised seven children successfully. But there was one time when her kids were little and Uncle H. could not get their Christmas tree to stand up. It kept falling over and Uncle H. was cussing a blue streak. This was in the days when a tree stand was two pieces of crossed wood nailed to the bottom of the tree, and you also need to know they had hardwood floors. Aunt D. finally had her fill of the commotion and she came in with a hammer and a nail. Wham, wham, wham. "That'll fix the damned thing," she said.
The replacement camera should be here in a week and I'll put up a photo of our tree. The new camera looks like a shrunken version of my old camera, which was beginning to look like a brick compared with what's on the market now. I have no idea what to do with 7.2 megapixels. The old one took photos with 2.1 megapixels when I set it to take the highest resolution, which I seldom did.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Happy Holidays? Merry Christmas!
An editor in our local paper today tees off on the issue of taking "Christmas" out of public displays, including Christmas trees, um, Holiday Trees, in town squares and shopping centers. The Nova Scotia logger who for years has donated Boston's official Christmas tree has said that, if he knew it was going to be referred to as a "holiday tree" in a city news release, he would have fed it into a wood chipper. Boston's mayor issued a statement saying he considers the tree to be a Christmas tree. Threats of lawsuits hang in the air.
I'm not sure who fatigues my rear end more, the ACLU or the radical religious right.
There was a time when the churches complained about the "commercialization of Christmas." Be careful what you ask for; you might get it. Christmas runs the risk of disappearing from public venues. It may have to take sanctuary in homes and churches (where it belongs).
In any event, a Christmas tree is not Biblical. The early Christians were clever enough to co-opt pagan symbols and Winter Solstice ceremonies (in Rome, "Saturnalia"). Why else would they put candles on branches of dead trees in their homes? December 25 is probably the wrong date, too.
The Puritans in England and the New World banned Christmas because its celebration had turned into a drunken carnival. Christmas was banned in Boston from 1659 to 1681. Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under America's new constitution. Christmas wasn't declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870.
And a Merry Christmas to you during this "holiday" season!
I'm not sure who fatigues my rear end more, the ACLU or the radical religious right.
There was a time when the churches complained about the "commercialization of Christmas." Be careful what you ask for; you might get it. Christmas runs the risk of disappearing from public venues. It may have to take sanctuary in homes and churches (where it belongs).
In any event, a Christmas tree is not Biblical. The early Christians were clever enough to co-opt pagan symbols and Winter Solstice ceremonies (in Rome, "Saturnalia"). Why else would they put candles on branches of dead trees in their homes? December 25 is probably the wrong date, too.
The Puritans in England and the New World banned Christmas because its celebration had turned into a drunken carnival. Christmas was banned in Boston from 1659 to 1681. Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under America's new constitution. Christmas wasn't declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870.
And a Merry Christmas to you during this "holiday" season!
Friday, December 02, 2005
saying hello to Christmas season
We have four weekends to go before Christmas. Cool weather is settling into Florida and we had a fire in the fireplace last night. (Why do we associate Christmas with cool weather? It wasn't snowing when the shepards had their flocks out in the fields at night.)
It is that time of the year again and I'm not going to allow Hurricane Grinch or Idiot Grinch to interfere. We also have a couple of December birthdays to celebrate, one for an uncle and one for an aunt who will turn 80 and 90 respectively.
So, it's time to celebrate. Lights! Music! The show is about to begin.
It is that time of the year again and I'm not going to allow Hurricane Grinch or Idiot Grinch to interfere. We also have a couple of December birthdays to celebrate, one for an uncle and one for an aunt who will turn 80 and 90 respectively.
So, it's time to celebrate. Lights! Music! The show is about to begin.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
saying goodbye to hurricane season
It's over. Finally. It may seem odd to have the official season run this late in the year but on November 30, 1925, a hurricane came in south of Tampa Bay, crossed over Tampa, and caused death and destruction.
We thought 2004 was a bad year and it was, but then 2005 came along. I shudder to think about next year.
There are people in Florida still living with blue tarp roofs after more than a year, and FEMA's temporary housing is still occupied. Defenders of the Bush Administration blame the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans for the federal incompetencies of this season, but I don't hear them blaming Gov. Jeb Bush for their lingering incompetencies in Florida.
We thought 2004 was a bad year and it was, but then 2005 came along. I shudder to think about next year.
There are people in Florida still living with blue tarp roofs after more than a year, and FEMA's temporary housing is still occupied. Defenders of the Bush Administration blame the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans for the federal incompetencies of this season, but I don't hear them blaming Gov. Jeb Bush for their lingering incompetencies in Florida.
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