Seizing the Highs and Lows

My Wife Next to her Christmas Present

Yesterday was full of news most of very good variety while another bit decidedly low.  My wife and I had just returned from a very busy day, which I will chronicle below, when I received a call from my sister in Rhode Island.  She informed us of the passing of one of the favorite uncles in her husband’s family.  I didn’t know the man as well as I wished to but the few times I did hang out with him I was always struck by the twinkle in his eye and the almost reverent love he engendered from his family.  He was one of the greatest generation, fought the Nazis in Europe, but was typically low key about that.  I gave him a veteran’s pin a couple of years ago and I could tell it meant a lot to him.  I last saw him a few weeks ago when he joined us for a Red Zone gathering.  I know some people that I love down in Rhode Island are hurting today and my prayers are with them as they go about trying to figure out their lives without this cherished piece of it.

For some of the better news (I think), I had a very busy day at work and my wife had to take her car into the dealer to get the brakes fixed.  She always dreads this because she made the mistake a few months ago of entertaining an offer from one of the salesman trying to get her to trade the car in for a new one.  They must have her on some sort of alert list because she was minding her own business in the lobby yesterday when they descended again.

 When the dust cleared they had convinced her to take a test drive in a new Highlander which had all the bells and whistles of her current car, a Venza.  She was tempted and called me for advice.  The offer was trading in the Venza plus a $1000 down payment and we would continue making the same car payment we were currently making on the Venza.  I told her to turn them down, that $1000 was going to be tough at Christmas time.  I was actually trying to call her back (mis-dialed my sister to her and my confusion) to change my mind when she called me.  The salesman offered the same deal without the down payment.  I told her, Merry Christmas, take the deal.   

I always try to get her a “Wow” gift for Christmas and this would seem to fit the bill.  She liked the Venza but she always complained about how low the car was.  She loved sitting up high in our earlier Explorers and the Highlander will give her that again.  I can also yell “Highlander!” and “There Can Be Only One!” at inappropriate times, so I’ve got that going for me.  On a certain level it also appeals to my life long obsession with my tenuous claim of Scottish heritage.

Since the car was in my name I had to leave work to go fill out the needed paperwork at the dealership.  This is the third car we’ve bought from the same dealer so the paperwork was fairly fast and my wife was soon posing next to her new car.

I had to rush back to work to attend a big event scheduled for the early evening.  My employer had paid a princely sum for me to attend a transportation association’s holiday dinner at Worcester’s Union Station.  I had a lot of fun meeting some of my counterparts from around the northeast and the salesmen from several of the vendors funded an open bar, ably “manned” by a large (actually spectacular) land owner.  The food was awesome and sitting in the main hall of Union Station is always a treat.  I sat next to my boss who let me sneak out before the speeches in order to buy a Christmas tree with my wife.  I missed the speech by the lady from Connecticut who heads the organization and always gets really hammered at these events.  According to my boss, last night was no exception.

My wife and I went to our normal Christmas tree place and had some fun shopping under the lights.  We have a tall ceiling in our family room and put up an 11 to 12 foot tree every year.  We were using her new car so I had to come equipped with a huge tarp to prevent a single drop of pine tar from landing on her Christmas present. The first step in setting the tree up is trimming off a piece on the bottom.  I used a hand saw because it was late and I didn’t want to disturb the neighbor’s kids.  It was harder than I remembered and I woke up this morning with a right elbow that can barely move – God I love getting old.

There was an extremely funny aftermath to my adventures of yesterday.  My boss was telling his wife about all of the above this morning over coffee.  She zinged him with the following: “You mean he got his wife a car and a Christmas tree yesterday and you couldn’t even bring home the electrical cord I asked for!”  I apologized for making him look so bad. 

The Departed Venza

The Dinner Last Night

My Wife with the Wrapped Tree

Buddy and I After Unwrapping Tree

 

Christmas Decorations and Revisionist Treason

Buddy Sizing Up His Next Target

I arrived home last night to find my wife exhausted after spending the entire day decorating for Christmas, ably supervised by Buddy the Wonder Pooch.  Buddy, possessed of a truly lethal tail, did have some issues with the low hanging fruit of Christmas balls which he repeatedly sent bouncing off walls when he enthusiastically passed by.  My wife actually laughed at this which is an indicator of how guilty she felt about the previous day’s extended incarceration.

I did my part by hiding out in the family room where I happened upon a series on one of the cable channels called Untold History.  Apparently this is a series that presents a different view of American history and was using a text straight out of Cuba. I sat through 45 minutes of this incredulous abomination with my anger growing exponentially as each new subtle shading of reality was presented as truth.  This is the same problem I have with television news that includes opinion reported as facts. 

Not surprisingly this effort was perpetrated by Oliver Stone who really seems to have gone over the edge and should seek some sort of professional help. Stone’s grip on reality has always been tenuous (see his movie JFK) and here we have him re-writing history, again.  He would have us believe that the poor Soviet Union, led by the worst mass murderer in human history, Joseph Stalin, was in reality a victim of corporate American greed.  I was disgusted that this effort saw the light of day; more so because some left leaning young people will see this and accept it as truth. This is the true danger of democracy; that an unbalanced voice is allowed to proclaim a twisted set of facts as truth and perpetrate a myth on an unsuspecting population. 

This is exactly why Eisenhower forced Germans and the news reel cameras to capture the gruesome reality of the World War 2 concentration camps. He had a sense of history and knew with the passage of time some people would try to deny this horrific event ever happened.  Stone does the same thing with post World War 2 America.  Mr. Stone should just renounce his citizenship and take up residence in Havana.  Congratulations Mr. Stone, you have joined the ranks of Idiot’s Hall of Fame, joining such luminaries as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Every cold warrior who confronted the evil that was the Soviet Union weeps at your ineptitude and fears the impact on a younger generation spared that experience. 

My Wife Created This Herself - Talented Lady

Stone Cold Idiot - Get This Man Some Professional Help

Pitt Killed Less Than Softly

Abysmal

Buddy is seriously pissed at my wife.  Over the past year, since she retired, Buddy has bonded with her, spending most of the day together.  Yesterday my wife cooked up a plan to linkup with a member of the Panamanian mafia to do some Christmas shopping.  She rode into work with me, was picked up by her friend, and promised to be back by the time I was finished at work.  Buddy was consigned to spend the day in his cage (shouldn’t have taken so well to the couch).

I received a call from wife right at quitting time informing me that she was about forty miles of rush hour commuting traffic away.  I took this news well (not an accurate description in any way) and spent an extra hour at work waiting for her arrival.  She was apologetic and launched into a recitation of her day while we took up our own commute home.  I waited about five minutes before I reminded her that Buddy was cooped up and probably crossing his legs in discomfort right about then.  In testament to how much she has bonded with the Wonder Pooch she was immediately horrified and admitted she had forgotten about him in her lack of haste to return. 

She rushed into the house when we arrived and Buddy was completely nonplussed.  He didn’t even want to go the bathroom and was more concerned that I immediately feed him.  He was about halfway through his meal when he realized he hadn’t been outside for nearly half a day and rushed out.  My wife could tell she hadn’t made any friends with her late return (she’s had a lot of practice).  We were just finishing dinner when she presented me with a gourmet chocolate cupcake from her shopping trove with immediately dissipated most ill feelings. Buddy was content with a bone.  What can I say, we’re guys, and we can be bought (fairly cheaply in retrospect).

Last night, being date night, my wife and I were excited to see the latest Brad Pitt movie – Killing Them Softly.  I could not have been more disappointed.  Pitt was solid as always but whoever the director of this disaster was should be taken out and shot.  He seemed to be another Tarrantino wannabe who just doesn’t have the same level of talent.  He was blessed with a fantastic cast and still managed to turn in an almost unwatchable farce. 

There were a couple of very funny moments in the beginning with some extremely stupid criminals knocking over a mob run card game but that was quickly suppressed with the director’s attempts at being cute with his camera shots and clunky dialogue.  For some reason there was an almost obsessive focus on the Obama 2008 election which brought the movie to a screeching halt on a number of occasions.  Who would think a movie that gave Tony Soprano another chance at Johnny Sack would be a disaster but there you have it.  This is just a bad movie that I’m sure the critics will love.

I got the impression that the director was a foreigner because he seemed to want to crow about the descent of America and maybe that’s why I hated this movie.  The strange thing is that most foreigners love Obama and would not want to tie him to a movie that is so anti-America.

Yesterday I also finished my latest foray into the science fiction writing of L.E. Modesitt with Ecolitan Prime.  As with the last book I read this was a combination of two of his earlier novels so it was very long.  It took the same scenario as his earlier novel 400 years later and the hero was a descendant of the hero from the earlier novel.  I always like this tactic but wished he could have spent a little more time letting the reader know what happened with that earlier hero.  The current hero, Nathaniel Whaler, was extremely well written in both of the novels captured in this book. 

Whaler was sent to negotiate a peace treaty with Earth which was still dealing with the aftermath of the devastation caused by his ancestor’s acts in the first series of books.  He had to survive multiple attempts on his life while making his way through an empire’s bureaucracy and even manages to finds the love of his life while he’s at it.

In the second novel Whaler now accompanied by his new love is dispatched to do an economic study which is a cover for an attempt to foment an intergalactic war.  Whaler averts the war but in the process kills tens of millions of the bad guys.  Modesitt is an expert at understatement and focuses on the mundane details of life while his heroes are rushing around accomplishing impossible tasks.  He’s an acquired taste but I truly enjoy reading his adventures and Ecolitan Prime is a great example of an sci fi writer in his prime.

Great Read

Arbitrating Baseball Moves

Welcome to Boston Mike!

I spent the better part of the day yesterday sitting in yet another arbitration session.  This time I was called upon to testify about my earlier stint here.  It was entertaining to spar with the union’s lawyer who had to hate what I had to say.  This consumed most of the day but since it was such a gorgeous day weather-wise I was looking forward to a long run to ease the tension created by the long morning.  Of course it helps when I bring my running gear with me to the office.  I had locked the office door and was half undressed when I realized I had forgotten the stuff at home, time to feel a little bit idiotic.

While I was sitting in the arbitration session I was checking the internet for news and learned that the Red Sox had acquired Mike Napoli.  I love this move if for no other reason than he will no longer be batting against the Sox.  This guy absolutely destroyed Red Sox pitching over the last few years.  If he can duplicate that effort while playing with the Sox he could be an MVP caliber player.  I know I’m setting my sites too high there but I like this guy – it’s as if the Sox are getting back to acquiring the gritty, baseball first type players that led to the 2004 crown.  They may not be as pretty as some of the elite players the Sox have gambled on (and lost) for the past few years but they’re a hell of a lot more fun to root for.

In equally uplifting news, the player Sox fans love to hate – Arod (or Smacky McBluelips to a select few) will miss another half of a season because of hip surgery while costing the hated Yankees north of $20 million.  Yet another steroid abuser who is breaking down late in his career. A good day in baseball news.

Karma Biting Smacky?

Christmas Prep Interrupted by Football

The Christmas Balls Prep While Buddy Cruises the Superglue

We made our way home from New Hampshire yesterday through a very thick fog after coming out to find our car encased in ice.  The fog was a result of rapidly warming weather which had the added benefit of removing the ice from the roads. 

My wife is a very driven woman and she had set her sights on getting the house decorated for Christmas which collided very directly with my Sunday football prerogatives.  She seemed amenable to that until she came into the room and found me on the computer writing yesterday’s blog.  Apparently that created the impression that this football game wasn’t as important as others and she could commandeer my time to assist her in the preparation.  I tried to explain that I was only writing during commercials (explains jumpy writing yesterday) but she was having none of it.  She employed all the tricks she acquired over thirty years of marriage but I hung tough. 

We were soon working on these huge Christmas balls (well maybe not so tough).  We live on top of a hill which in the winter functions as a wind tunnel.  She’s had these ornamental balls out on the porch the last few years and they have not fared well – some ending up several houses away.   She had me removing the factory installed tops and then super gluing the tops back on along with some mystery thread, who’s purpose could not be explained (to me).   Buddy contributed by stealing the super glue package which I rescued before he glued his mouth shut (and gave my wife ideas).

Fortunately this could take place in front of the TV and she even watched the game with me since it was the Patriots.  The Patriots came out a little flat yesterday but they always seem to have a bad game against Miami who for some reason elevates their game against the Pats. I was squirming after Welker dropped yet another touchdown pass despite an overall great day from him.  Brady looked human and the running game wasn’t working.  The game came down to one of those situations where the Patriots had a chance to put away the opponent with a long drive.  They have consistently failed to do this but yesterday they accomplished it with some flair, imposing their will on the fading Dolphins.  A down game for the Pats but a win which clinched the division crown for the 9^th time in ten years (and yes we’re a little spoiled up here in New England). 
The rest of the day was spent listening to the Red Zone as I moved about the house accomplishing the decorating tasks my wife found too onerous for her participation.  A lot of plants got moved.

Not as Easy as it Should Have Been - But a Win

 

Grousing Down Memory Lane

Billy's Diner - Sigfried's Haunt

Yesterday was a very long day but it was a hell of a lot of fun.  My wife and I journeyed up to New Hampshire through some very wintry weather along with Buddy the Wonder Pooch.  We were on a mission to buy the Christmas present my wife was getting for me – a 70” LED TV (be still my heart).  We made it up to Keene and picked up or friend and dropped off Buddy.  We had located a potential TV in a Best Buy flyer but the nearest store was in Nashua so off we headed, a little nervous with all the accidents we were passing.

Nashua holds a lot of good memories for me.  I almost married a gal from there, my college sweetheart. As we got closer to the city I started recognizing a lot of places from that time.  A couple places she would drop me off or pick me up as I hitchhike over to Keene to see her as well as a bunch of other locations we had shared together.  I was tempted to take the turn off for her old house to pass by but I’m not sure the kill order against me has been rescinded yet so I passed on this potentially dangerous situation.  My wife was less than enthused by my reminiscing but since she was headed to shop she bore up under my assault of nostalgia.

One of the other impressions as we traveled through Nashua was that I could not believe how much had changed.  The sleepy road from Milford to Nashua had been transformed into an almost continuous series of strip malls along with what seemed to be dozens of traffic lights.  While this was frustrating to drive through my wife was extremely pleased with the shopping opportunities offered.  The trip to Best Buy proved fruitless but my wife was ready with a list of stores we should hit on the way back to Keene.

We compromised and had her pick out one store that she just had to visit.  She promised she would only be ten minutes while my friend and I waited in the car.  My friend and I laughed out loud at the prospect that she would only take ten minutes.  Forty-five minutes later she emerged apologetic but burdened with some of the needed buys.  My friend and I had used the time to use my I-phone to check on nearby stores to confirm that the TV we were looking for wasn’t available.

We stopped for lunch at a place called Joey’s Diner which featured a very energetic waiter named Siegfried.  He was a lot of fun and the food was good and the companionship better.  I really liked the décor of the place which had a car emerging from the wall.  After a stop off to release a very appreciative Buddy my wife dropped off my friend and I at the Elm City Brewery while she headed for some of her favorite Keene shopping haunts.

My friend and I linked up with our favorite bartender who remembered what my drink order was even though we hadn’t been there in months.  We arrived just in time to see the start of a very entertaining college football game.  Alabama and Georgia were playing to see who would play Notre Dame in the college championship game.  I kind of lost track of time and the number of beers heading downrange but before we knew it we watching a subsequent game and the question came up, “Where was my wife?”.

It had been nearly five hours and when I called her she was incredulous that it was after 8pm as she had lost track of time as well having as much fun as we were.  She finally arrived at the bar and sent some challenging looks at the attentive bar tender (who’s young enough to be my daughter). A very entertaining dinner at Margaritas followed.  We ended the night back at my friend’s house where we watched a movie that he had given to me as a joke birthday gift.  It was a movie called The Arousers which was showing at an adult drive in theater when we were young.  It became legendary when the marquee listed it as The Grousers.  We were trying to figure out what a “grouser” was for a long time.  We all laughed at the time and one of our other friends, now in Pittsburgh never misses a chance to remind us about it.  It was an old Roger Corman movie that seemed incredibly tame by nowadays standards and could be possibly one of the worst movies ever made. It was a fitting end to a great day.

An Earlier Photo of Keene Friend and Favorite Bartender

Dinner at Margarita's

Christmas Cranking Up

Front Yard This Morning

As I’ve said many times on this blog I’m an unabashed lover of all things connected with Christmas.  Usually I’m in the zone as soon as Thanksgiving moves out.  This year Thanksgiving was a little earlier and it’s taken me a little longer to get cranked up.  This week was definitely a transition week because work was so onerous but I woke up this morning to a lightly falling snow.  I was also appreciating the beginning of the house decorating that my wife embarked on this week.  All of a sudden I find the spirit of Christmas descending on me and I could not be happier.

Yesterday the best boss I’ve ever had walked into my office around noon and kidnapped me for lunch at the Coney Island hotdog place in Worcester.  We then drove around Worcester so I could show him where some of the new route modifications were going to take place in January.  I really appreciate that he hadn’t seen them ahead of time but trusted my judgment when I first proposed them back in the summer and this was the first time he actually saw it.

Last night was a quiet night as my wife and I made the obligatory trip to Zorbas for our weekly genuflecting at the pepperoni pizza altar.  It turned out to be a good night because I was conveniently seated where I couldn’t easily see the TV screens and therefore was a much better conversationalist.  I appreciated the assistance, as did my wife.  Today we’re up to Keene to do some Christmas shopping and hopefully sampling some of Elm City’s beer.  I think my wife will do the shopping and I will handle the beer drinking, both playing to our strengths.

The Decorating Has Begun!!!!!