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Ray Stevens had that song, remember? Mild seasonal hit, featuring the frantic dub track “He’s everywhere! He’s everywhere!”
I think it was the glitter. Honest mistake on Stevens’ part.
For fun and a simple errand we visited Walmart and Toys R Us on Christmas Eve.
Neither was as bad as you would have thought. Neither had what we wanted.
We did see a planking Santa. And lots of glitter.
Do you stop and consider yours when you’re hanging them on the tree?
Do you ever tell your friends and family the significance of the ornaments on your tree?
Do you ever ask others about that special ornament?
It has come to our attention — mostly because one of my grandmothers brought it up today — that there might be some confusion about the Christmas card. So, if you received this lovely image on thick stock of our happy and charming faces, please allow me to explain.
To my family: this is not someone in The Yankee’s family.
To The Yankee’s family: these are not people from my family.
At a football game late in the year we saw Aubie Claus here taking pictures with kids.
He and Mrs. Aubie Claus let us take a picture, too. File this under one of those unique little college town experiences.
So War Eagle, and Merry Christmas, from Auburn.
Winter is here. The ladybugs are coming inside.
“Just hanging out on the tail light. You weren’t planning on going anywhere were you? Think of all of the aphids that could pop up if I blew off your car miles away. You should probably just stay here.”
The biggest part of winter, so far, has been the complete absence of the sun. If there’s any consolation to the ladybug thing, however, it is that tomorrow is the longest night of the year. And with the shortest day of the year soon behind us, we have plenty to look forward to!
The optimist on the first day of winter is a fool before the last freeze of spring.
Family and shopping today. Picked up a bicycle for a secret Santa gift. Did this at K-Mart, where they have three registers open during the Christmas rush. There is a reason they work at K-Mart. It is a nice little bike, though. The unsuspecting older man that will get this gift is due an upgrade. He pedals a hand-me-down to the store and back home again, but the brakes are gone and the gears are shot.
Finished shopping for my mother. Failed at shopping for my grandparents.
If you fail at three places in a row you should just go home. And so we did.
Family visiting, picked up Chinese food, made a drug store run and then watched the night drift away on the History Channel.
Tomorrow will be a lot like today.
Hit the road, Jack.
“There’s no place like the interstate for the holidays … ”
Woke up this morning for breakfast, but the Barbecue House was closed. Everyone who’s ever been in the parking lot of a closed restaurant has muttered oaths and proclaimed the owners as losers of money. You want to spend yours there, after all. But who knows what drove the man to make this choice?
Maybe he just wanted a break. Maybe opening for lunch at 10 means he can sleep in until 8. Maybe he has a problem with biscuits. Maybe there’s a shortage of butter.
You never know. (Though I’ll ask Mr. Price next time I see him.) You just go find breakfast somewhere else. So we went to Cracker Barrel, where there are neither barrels nor crackers. Breakfast. And then packed for the first of the holiday adventures.
After packing — or maybe it was during? — I had to take a short nap. Apparently all of my energy hasn’t yet returned.
So. Finished packing. I had my oil changed before leaving and the guy noticed I have a blown headlight.
I’ll fix that, then.
“Well … The dealerships like you to bring these in because there’s a seal … ”
Designers have begun engineering cars to so completely befuddle the average owner that you must bring your car back to the dealership.
I called the dealership to ask them about how much this would cost.
About $175, to $310, depending on the kind of light in it, he said.
So I’ll be doing that at home. Not that I’d intended to take the thing in. I believe I can turn the wheel, turn a 10mm wrench and find 10 minutes to spare.
Halfway through the drive there was a visit to the mall, which was actually painless, and then a bookstore for a brief bout of Christmas shopping. Dinner at Jim ‘N’ Nicks in Gardendale — has the chain gone downhill since we left town or just that store? — and then the rest of the drive. Lots of driving.
Made it in just before midnight. Everyone was already asleep. Oh yes, the road hits back.
