from one 'mas' to another

Yay! That's over for another year.

There is one reason why I do like christmas day though. Not the christmas season, not the two months of having a holiday I don't celebrate crammed down my throat everywhere I go, not the attendant hypocrisy of good will and gift giving and good deed doing by people who every other day of the year can't be bothered with those things, but the actual day.

Christmas day is one of the few days of the year when you can be a complete slug, spend the whole day on the couch with a good book doing nothing, accomplishing nothing and no one will think ill of you for doing so.

I know the madness isn't really over yet, not for a few more days while everyone takes back those gifts that were lovingly or thoughtlessly selected, those gifts they really don't want and exchanges them for something else. It sort of cheapens the whole thing to me, this wanting the value of the gift but not the gift.

So here we are now on the other side of the winter solstice, the shortest day and the longest night. The days are now getting incrementally longer, the light is increasing but with it also comes the coldest days of the year. Now, winter sets in for real. The solstice here was ushered in with a thunderstorm and it's been cold, overcast, and rainy, ever since.

I am glad of the rain. We've had more rain this week than in all of last year I think. There are still some puddles here and there around town. The ground has been so dry that puddles have been a rare sight. I heard last week that they think Texas lost a half a billion trees from the drought. Five hundred million trees died of thirst.

Well, the only thing left to do before the end of the year is Marcmas. That's tomorrow. It's the special 60^th anniversary this year. We think we might drive down to Aransas Pass and see the whooping cranes to celebrate. Maybe. Marc already got a present...

sniff sniff sneeze