on christmas.....

being an atheist you wouldn't think that i would bother with christmas.  after all, it is supposed to be about the birth of jesus and all that nonsense and not about shop-till-you-drop consumerism.  but our nation (and others) have turned this religious holiday into something completely different.  we have turned it into the time of year that many retailers return to working in the black (profitability, if you will).  while that may be akin to a religious experience for many a ceo and cfo out there, i don't think it is quite what god (had he existed) had in mind.

yet i have no problem with celebrating christmas in many of the tradiational ways, just as long as they aren't religious in nature.  i mean things like the exchange of gifts, well wishes via hallmark cards, visiting family and/or friends, fancy dinners with family and/or friends, etc.  i only wish it didn't take this season to bring folks together in such a way.  it would be difficult for most of us to maintain the level of happiness that can come with this season, but wouldn't it be nice to try?  wouldn't it be nice to have dinners more often with each other?  to exchange a small treat, a tiny gift every so often?  oh well......

this year, this christmas, was one with which i am not happy though.  while we did enjoy a very nice meal at the home of a close neighbor, we did not exchange presents.  that is, my wife, daughter and i did not exchange any gifts.  this is due, in large part, to the lack of cash-money on hand for such.  i've been unemployed for the past four years (since we moved to the dayton, ohio area) and my chronic unemployment has made life difficult fiscally.  not harsh, mind you, but difficult.  and we agreed this year to not purchase gifts for each other (the wife and i) and now that the day has come and gone i can say with complete certainty:  i don't like it.  

i can live without the christmas tree (besides - the cats would, in all likelihood) destroy it).  i can live without the birth of jesus.  i can live without christmas carols and coloured lights and i could even live without christmas television shows, but i don't think i can ever again go without getting something for my wife.  it just feels wrong.  

maybe it is in part because i'm not the best person at expressing my feelings of love, warmth and caring.  i'm not saying i'm cold or appear unfeeling; far from it.  but i'm not as good about showing feelings of love as i could be.  so when birthdays or christmas roll around i use these times as an opportunity to try and show what the person means by obtaining a really nice present.  clearly that did not transpire this christmas.  clearly this has left me irritated.  

next year i will not make the same mistake.

can the weather ever be normal?

what's with the weather?  it's all over the place.  i don't mean that weather is actually located everywhere, but that it doesn't seem to know what it is supposed to do based upon what day of the year it is.

the winter of 2007/2008 was a perfect example.  here in s.w. ohio it warmed up enough and stayed such long enough that some trees started to bud with leaves in february.  try reading that again.

february.

this year (2008) our fall was heavily skewed towards warmer-than-average temperatures and i don't mean by a few degrees, but by 10 to 15 degrees above average.  for days on end.  no.  for weeks on end.  we had no appreciable autumn this year.  one day the trees were covered in green leaves and the next they were brown and falling off the trees en mass.  needless to say this did not bode well for fall photography.  not one bit.

and here i sit.....just a day before the holiday of xmas.....and it's 53-degrees outside with rain falling.  53-degrees.  rain.  the average for this date is 36-degrees.  sounds like like fall, doesn't it?  oddly enough this warmer-than-average situation didn't exist the previous few days when it was much colder.  much colder than average.  and while i cannot speak about the long-term because i've only lived here for three years, i can say that our lack of snow is unusual.  we have had snow on at least two or three occasions by this time of the year during each of the past three years.  we have had nothing but flurries this year.

still....i'd rather be sitting here in 53-degree weather with rain falling from the heavens than be back in florida.

and then it went dark

i was up way too early this morning.  had to drop-off the daughter at the airport around 0630 for her flight to Florida.  this mean i only had about five-hours of sleep in addition to the six (give or take a bit) from the night before.  not enough shut eye to keep the body and brain functioning at optimum levels.

so as i sat there all tired and such on the couch i elected to return to bed for a nap.  no sooner had my head hit the pillow i was out and dreaming; a sure sign of tiredness.  the next thing i know my eyes popped open and my brain slowly noted that the time on the clock across from my bed was almost noon.  i'm certain it said something far more specific, but my brain was only able to process this information into "it's almost noon.  you should probably get up."

as my eyes slowly adjusted to the strong light entering the the windows of my bedroom's southern exposure i was treated to the almost musical sound "eeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrtttt" and suddenly my world went black.  inky black.  a world of shadow and darkness.  

phoebe had arrived.

phoebe is one of our nine cats.  she's a lovely little black-furred cat with a few strands of white fur found here and there.  she has a tendency to show up just as soon as my eyes open each morning.  i don't know how she does it......eyes open....pause....boing!  there she is.  and the sound of eeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrtttt is phoebe as she leaps up from the floor to the bed.  i guess it's not unlike the grunt one makes during a back swing in tennis....or while taking a dump in the toilet.