The Daily News
1 I keep wanting to change the DN font but just can't seem to do it. It has a nice sorta personality. Every time I experiment with different fonts I always go back to the traditional one.
2 First thing I do each time I compose.
3 Compose.
4 What an idjit. What am I, Beethoven?
5 Man it's December.
6 Did this season sneak up on you this year? It did me. I have a theory though, which I'm more than happy to share with you. Okay, hold on to your hats.
7 My theory is that December snuck up on us this year because we collectively went into denial about the economy, unless we actually lost our jobs.
8 Just thinking about losing jobs is enough stress to have a few weeks go by without our noticing.
9 Last week I bought a billion things at the supermarket. Psychologically I went berserk, I'm quite certain. It was like I was so afraid of the economy that I bought more food than I could possibly cook, looked for bargains, and even thought about eating fruit while shopping just to be sure that I had something on my stomach if I got mugged.
10 The word "snuck", by the way, has officially been approved as a past participle variant of the verb "sneak". Traditionally it has been "sneaked" but because of the dummydowning of virtually everything nowadays, "snuck" has finally made its way into the English lexicon. I for one am happy for that one, although I don't welcome the trend at all.
11 "Sneaked" never sounded right. It sounded too wussy for what it is. "Snuck" has a much better sound. It matches the crime beautifully. For example:
"I sneaked a Dove chocolate yesterday!"
"I snuck a Dove chocolate yesterday!"
12 Slam dunk.
13 "Snuck" is better.
14 Anyway, December snuck up on us this year.
15 Moving on: Howzbout those Niners?
16 I actually asked my family to pony up $1200 so we could bet against them. I figured the Jets would easily beat them by four.
17 I was kidding of course, but a part of me thought I could pick up some money on that spread.
18 I stand corrected. The 4-7 Niners came in and beat the 8-4 Jets, and beat them handily.
19 I'm now officially a believer in Mike Singletary, and I was his worst critic at first.
20 I was wrong.
21 Moving on, Part the Second: I had the honor of hanging Christmas lights yesterday. This means that I did my annual cleaning of the gutters. I always make a huge mess doing that. I always envision myself flying off the ladder into the leaves.
22 It always goes swiftly but I also always realize I need a new ladder from around eight feet up. I look down and it appears to be balanced on three legs, with the fourth one sort of bending in a touch. I try to lift it and straighten it out while standing on it, and it makes me crazy.
23 And as I'm cleaning it I'm thinking about the light design. I never really know how to protect the cords from rain, for one thing.
24 And some of the twinkle lights won't take a polarized plug.
25 The lady at Rite Aid kept laughing at me because I wound up making around forty trips there to pick up one thing, and then another.
26 Some design.
27 And each time I'd plug something in, I'd start thinking I'd be blown back to the future.
28 Well, little by little I got it done.
29 A few years ago I bought a fake tree, because I was really tired of paying a billion dollars for a real tree. I used to go up into the mountains and cut them down, but later got lazy and would buy them from a tree lot.
30 I love the smell of a real tree. I used to love going into the Santa Cruz mountains and cutting a tree down. And even when I stopped, it was always fun finding just the right tree at a lot.
31 This year I cheated.
32 I bought mine from Save Mart. My daughters had been driving around all day looking for a tree and most were well over sixty dollars. They came home and seemed pretty disappointed. I told them I was going to the store to buy some more light holders, and dashed over to Save Mart so see if they still had trees for $19.99. They did!
33 I was going to get an expensive one if I couldn't get a bargain, but it sure was fun to bring home a tree for them. At one point Nicole gave me a huge hug and said, "Thanks Dad."
34 On my next trip over to Rite Aid I walked down the Christmas aisle that had snow globes, dolls and the like. Hark the Herald Angels Sing played perfectly in the background, and I stopped and thought about what a hard year it has been, what with everyone getting sick, and all that stuff.
35 I saw my Mom and Dad on Saturday. My Mom once again had been taken to the hospital on Thursday for a blood transfusion. On Friday I called her and she didn't sound good at all, so I let her rest. On Saturday I went up and both she and my Dad looked and felt good. My dad had color in his cheeks and smiled and laughed and joked like always, and my Mom talked of old times, of the NIners, and the Giants, and all the rest.
36 Last night in Rite Aid of all places I had a moment when I once again became thankful.
37 It was during Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
38 Snow globes, raggedy Christmas dolls, wreaths and all the rest surrounded me as the music played.
39 I picked up a snow globe that had a couple of polar bears in it.
40 It all worked.
41 I hope you're all well, and that you stop worrying about money and all. We're all in this together, so enjoy all the people you love in the coming weeks. Your jobs are just jobs; your classes are just classes.
42 Your friends and families are forever.
43 Peace.
~H~
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