Old Fart Speech

The snow is perfect. It is piling up slowly so we can still get out and motor around. This week between Christmas and New Year is a moment when the US slows down. Although, we have slowed way down in the past couple of years. This time of year used to feel more special because of the easy pace, but it seems that we are all in a lower gear. Doesn't feel like anything is getting accomplished. I read the other day that China has a train that can go as fast as a fucking jet or something. They also have the fastest computer. The US used to be first in all that. We certainly had our faults, but we were on the cutting edge of most technology. Now, it seems we are falling behind so quickly, you can feel it week to week, month to month. The Chinese children are learning 10 languages and we are jacking off about Bristol Palin on Dancing with the Stars (which I have to say is the stupidest show I have ever seen-and, yes, I watch reality TV). The craving for reality TV is so strong; there's no denying that. I count the news channels as reality TV. I had an unquenchable thirst for news until Obama gave the rich their tax break AND their estate tax! My stomach has been turned to the point of no return. I have actually turned all the news off! Maybe this is the plan of the owners of this country: frustrate people so much that they no longer care. I don't want to sound like an old fart, and maybe this is what everybody sees when they get older. Fuck it. I hope so. I hope that's all it is.

Deep in the Night of Christmas

OK. Technically, Christmas is almost over, but as far as I'm concerned it will be Christmas till I go to sleep. For that matter, it will be Christmasy until Jan. 2. Tonight is a perfect Appalachian Christmas. We watched Wicker Man and Black Christmas. By the end of the movies, an additional inch of wet snow piled onto the already white roads. The red light created by the cracked plastic Santa on the front porch cast an eerie pink glow over the glistening yard. If you are really quiet, you can hear the electricity flowing through Santa.

Merry Christmas

I prefer to say "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays." Not for any political or religious reasons. Simply this: The words "Merry Christmas" actually taste like a Christmas cookie in my mouth. "Happy Holidays" doesn't taste like nothing. So Merry Christmas. Yum.

Dradle Cookies

So my husband went to the grocery store to buy cookies for everyone in his department. He came home lugging several plastic bags. At first, I thought the cookies were Christmas trees. They were really fat with a little stem at the bottom. Instead of green, they were brilliant blue and white drizzled horizontally across the cookies. They were dradle cookies. I had no idea there was such a thing, but it says it right on the package. Dradle Cookies.