Two More Days

We are down to the holiday wire and, somehow, I wrapped the final present this morning. We had a few things delivered yesterday and today before work I took them to my wrapping station in the cellar and cranked them out.

The Wrapping Is Complete.

I still need to go out and pick up one or two little things that are fun but not required. I will do that either tonight after work or tomorrow. I am off work tomorrow. Actually, I am off work until Friday. I was going to work in the office today but I am still sick so in order to not screw up anyone else’s holiday I stayed home. I am well enough to work, but not well enough to be in public guilt free. If I do go out at some point tonight I will wear a mask.

One more work day to go and then I am off for xmas eve, xmas, and Boxing Day… even though the US doesn’t celebrate Boxing Day. Whatevs, right? HoHoHo.

Random Saturday Thoughts

The Bruins are finally back home after a tough road trip. They have a 1-0 lead over Buffalo late in the first period but the Sabers are going on the power play. We’ll see how it goes. I’m listening to the game on the radio. I am using the NHL app on my iPhone and I am running the app using the iPhone Mirroring app on my MacBook. Ain’t technology cool?

I was going to write something else… what was that… I don’t recall…

Oh yeah, xmas is four days away and I am starting to feel sick.

Figures. HoHoFuckingHo.

First Day of Winter

Well… it’s winter again. Again. Literally winter, as opposed to the last three plus months which was figuratively winter. Literal winter runs from December to March. Here in New England, figurative winter runs from September 1st through sometime in late June. The upside of the first day of winter is that from now on the days start getting longer. The downside is that it’s going to get colder and more awful with each passing day, and it’s going to take so long for the days to get longer enough that it matters that it won’t make any real difference for months.

I hate winter.

December 21st puts us in the home stretch for xmas. I am still waiting for the amazonians to deliver a couple of things so the wrapping is still not complete. I have to go out and pick up a few things today as well. That includes some food supplies for xmas eve, xmas dinner, and our slightly delayed annual xmas eve party which happens on the Sunday after xmas this year. I also need to bring my work-holiday gift to my sister’s today so we can have it with xmas dinner.

I need to play guitar but there probably won’t be time for it. I need to go out and take pictures of stuff but the weather likely won’t let me. Ugh.

Lots to do, but I can’t do anything until I clean the tiny amount of snow we got yesterday off of the cars and the driveway. Ugh.

I hate winter. Remember that time a few years ago when we went to Florida in January and the weather was warm? Can we maybe do that again?

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Cellar Dweller

My step son, Harry, is home! He was here when I got home from work last night and it was wonderful having him around. Having kids here makes me happy.

Him being home today means that I am working from the office desk in the cellar instead of the desk in his room. I am a cellar dweller again while he’s home. Today is Friday and I am working from home. Next week I will be in the office on Monday and then I am off for xmas eve, xmas day, and I took a vacation day for the day after xmas. So one day working in the cellar is all I need. I can handle it. Not that there’s any difficulty working in the cellar, I just like being upstairs more. That’s all.

I do have one thing planned for my lunch break down here in the cellar where no one can see me…

I setup a gift wrapping station. Let’s see how much of the remaining pile of presents I can get through while I eat my chicken patty and fries. Bring on the work day so I can get to it. Two working days left before Santa comes. Still much to do in that little amount of time. Let’s do this thing!

Calendar

I don’t like what the calendar does to me at this time of year. We’re so close to the holidays that I just stop being able to deal with the days that still lay between me and the big dates.

We are currently seven days away from xmas and 14 days away from New Years. That means 13 days until New Years Eve, but NYE is a work day for me so that’s pretty screwy in general.

As an added bonus, we are 38 days away from the next vacation too. I sure hope it’s nice and warm in Florida in January. Last time we visited in January it was cold-ish in the morning and warm in the afternoons. I can live with that.

With the possible exception of anything that might be added to any one of the many piles of xmas gifts in the next few days, everything that isn’t for my wife or for a Secret Santa has been wrapped. I’ll have it all done by the weekend, with oodles of time to spare before the big day arrives.

I just want it to get here. I want Santa to arrive and unlawfully break into the house do his dirty work. I want the kids home with us, even if it is just for a short time, and I want to see the niece and nephews and the siblings and the in-laws on both sides of the family. I just want it to get here already. Is that too much to ask?

Star

The star on top of our xmas tree is dead. It died over the off season somehow. When we put it up this year it didn’t work.

It took me a couple of weeks, but I finally got a replacement yesterday. It’s not nearly as nice. I’ll have to upgrade it next year, if I can remember to do it.

107/365

Home

We are home from New York. It was just a one day visit to the city but it was a blast. All we did was wander around 5th Avenue while freezing our asses off. I shot a whole roll of 35mm film through my father’s camera. Awesome.

Today is December 15th. Xmas is 10 days away. You know what that means. It means that today starts the final xmas push. The to-do list for today includes wrapping presents by the truck load. There are a few errands to run too, but today starts the wrapping bonanza.

Bring it on.