Category: personal

Cool and damp but clear is the forecast for the next few days. Not particularly Christmas-y, but not bad.

Merry Christmas to all here. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, I still wish you the joy and peace of the season, and I hope that everyone can spend time with loved ones. Even if you can’t get together physically, make the call.

If you are one who dreads this time of year, you aren’t alone. There are others who can help. Seek them out.

To my Jewish friends, I was chagrined to learn that Hanukkah was earlier this year than I thought, and is already over. No one said anything, so I missed it. My apologies and belated well wishes.

My wife and I were raised in the Catholic traditions, but now we celebrate the non-religious aspects of the major holy days. Sounds odd, but humans have a need for tradition and story, for continuity with the past, and understanding of our place in history, and we find that in our practices. We also make sure the kids understand the religious aspects, and the origins (as much as we understand them.) So we take the time to practice the virtues of the holiday, and build our own traditions and observances.

Today we’ll open a few more presents, spend some time watching a movie (not sure which one, I’ll be voting against Die Hard), and have a great dinner. I hoped to get together with friends but they had family obligations, and our families all decided months ago to forego travel this year. Turns out THAT was the right choice… So it will just be our little family at the table, but it will be our much bigger family and circle of friends in our hearts and thoughts throughout the day.

As always, light a candle or raise a glass to “Absent friends.”

Merry Christmas.

nick

Warmish and damp. That’s about guaranteed for Houston anyway. Maybe damp turns to rain.

On Friday I headed out to my client’s house, did some things there and moved the project along. Some extra challenges on Friday… but got through them. I’m not done out there, but I see the path to being done. NOTHING is every as simple as it seems, especially when it’s new, and the person telling you how simple it is won’t be doing the work. and hasn’t done a bunch of work to make sure it’s simple for you. Thankfully the second tech support guy recognized the issue and figured out how to fix it.

Today, more house cleaning, and more decorating. I’ll be cutting my hair, and doing more domestic stuff besides.

Finished listening to the audio book of Orson Scott Card’s “Speaker for the Dead”, second book in the Ender Wiggins saga. It was well produced, although the audio was low, with three voice actors and occasional music. 12 CDs. I really don’t understand the voice casting, nor do I get the voice direction that gives voice to the piggies as vaguely Brooklyn accented cartoon kids. The female actor’s voice was so passive, dropping at the end of every sentence, that I thought she’d been drinking cough syrup on the rocks. Still better than the Jack Reacher POS. It kept me awake for the 40 minute drive each way to my client’s house so it did the job I wanted it to do.

Find the tools that work for you, for whatever job you’re doing.

And stack a few extra…

n

Another weird day, maybe sunny and humid, maybe rainy and humid, maybe just overcast and humid. Had all of those yesterday…

Got some real progress on my install yesterday and hope to get the bulk finished today. There are a couple of things I haven’t even considered getting started on with the other issues. Those can wait though for next year.

I feel the approaching holiday coming like a freight train. We still don’t have a tree up and we still don’t have all the lights I want to hang up. And like Epstein, those danged lights don’t hang themselves… I am in a very weird mental place as a result.

The kids are getting weirded out by it too. Not good.

I really like the Christmas season, and it’s strange to not be feeling it this year.

Maybe after this weekend…

n

{stack all the things}