 Bruce’sOnline Journal |
| “I write because I don’t know what I think, until I read what I say.” — Flannery O'Connor |
Week of December 25, 2000
Christmas Day
Christmas at the Wilburs’ has always been interesting. It means things like, it’s okay to park on the lawn, or in the snow where the lawn would normally be, but only if you drive a 4x4.
It means the entire point of unwrapping gifts is for ammunition in the gift-wrap fights. Uncles are at a serious disadvantage on that one.
It means the basement becomes a firing range so everyone can show off their marksmanship with their new air guns.
It means, thank heavens, that my father cooks the turkey. When my mother cooks it, or anything else for that matter, it generally resembles dehydrated survival rations. Just add warm water and
knead gently.
It means my older niece and nephew shoo my younger nieces out of the room because they’re making too much noise for the older ones to concentrate on the dialog in “The Little Mermaid II”. (Someone
please tell me how it ends. I only saw it up to where Ariel gets her flippers or fins or whatever back.)
It means that my sisters-in-law are so tired of dealing with the kids that they actually sit and talk with me.
It means it’s great to be an uncle, because the kids give you homemade cookies and candies instead of a scarf or hat.
It means my mother slips an extra twenty in with the cookies she sent home.
It means I have to lubricate myself to get my pants on for the next three weeks. (Volunteers welcome!)
It means I’m all tired out and need to get to bed.
December 29
I didn’t partake of the three great shopping crunches of the season, Black Friday, the weekend before Christmas and the day after. I did, however, partake of the Friday noontime crush on the last banking day of the year. Of course, I didn’t plan to be in the Friday noontime crush on the last banking day of the year. It just worked out that way.
All I needed was a little pocket cash for the weekend. I found myself swept up in the world of high-finance as deposits were deposited, withdrawals were withdrawn and transfers were transferred. I confess to doing a bit of high-finance stuff myself. I’m waiting until after the first to pay for the courses at
Writers & Books, just in case it’ll be deductible next year. Hey, you never know.
After nearly 20 minutes in line, I got the $40 I wanted to have on hand just in case over the weekend someone says, “Hey, wanna go out to dinner?” Someday I’ll trust myself to have an ATM card again. But until then, getting cash has to remain a go-to-the-bank-during-banking-hours deal.
As for what I already have planned for the weekend, the answer is, not much out of the ordinary. The
only out of the ordinary thing is that the Sunday night AA meeting I occasionally attend is having a bring-a-dish-to-pass
do after the meeting. It’s supposed to run until 1:00AM. I’m not sure I’ll stay all the way to 1:00, or even midnight. I’m perfectly content to not screw up my body clock. I like my go to bed between 9:00 and 11:00 and get up between 6:00 and 8:00 routine. And of course my naps between 2:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon.
My cold seems to have run its course. Only the nagging cleanup remains. I
have to report it knocked the snot right out of me. Figuratively I’m talking. I think that the longer one is not sick (we’re talking physically here) the more out of practice one gets. Back in the day when my work required lots of contact
with different people (and their mice and keyboards) I seemed to get a cold at least once a month. If it was going around the office, I got it, and probably transmitted through my contact with healthy people’s mice and keyboards.
Although I was sick much more frequently, it never bothered me much. I mean, sure I was sick, but my ability to function remained at a fairly high level. I used to look down on people who took time off because they had a cold. These past few days, well, I was never in that completely plugged up, cross-eyed, hot-water bottle on my head mode, but I sure felt drained the whole time.
This led to a huge increase in the amount of time I spent in my favorite daytime activity, naptime. Three a day was not uncommon. And they usually came after doing something particularly strenuous, like taking a shower, or eating something.
During the course of it, I didn’t go to a single meeting and I even blew off group on Tuesday. That was no biggie, BTW. They were going to show us a film for 2½ hours. I’d have probably blown it off anyway. I can babysit myself just fine now, thanks so much for asking.
I did miss my meetings though, especially my home group last Friday where I was supposed to get my six-month coin. I could have had a ride in both directions and the meeting is, after all, held in a hospital so emergency oxygen wouldn’t have been far away. But coin or no coin, ride or no ride, oxygen bottle or not, I just didn’t
feel up to leaving my room, let alone the house. So I did what I presume most sane and sober people do, I stayed home and took care of myself. What a concept!
It was weird going six days without a meeting or group. Going back to the Wednesday meeting this week seemed almost strange and foreign. On the other hand, I had had a drama queen afternoon and was still dealing with the emotional fallout, so that could be why.
Of course after having a drama queen afternoon with plenty of emotional fallout, a meeting is the best place for me. It took almost the full hour before I started to feel better. And when I did, it just happened, there was no specific “trigger” that seemed to do
it, hell, I didn't even speak. It was just being at the meeting itself that seemed to do it.
You know, I’ve been warned a lot in the past six-months, “Be careful before asking an AAer, `How are you?’ because they’ll actually tell you.” That didn’t really happen to me until after I started telling people how I was instead of the usual,
“Good, and you?”
It startled me last week when I asked someone I’d never talked to at a meeting before, and she told me. After I got over the initial shock, I felt good. Here was a girl I knew by sight but not by name telling me how she really was. I felt, I dunno, honored that she’d share a little personal detail with me, a relative stranger.
This program just seems to make life interestinger and interestinger. In a good way, mind you.
Oh, and I got my coin tonight instead. 
New Year’s Eve
There was a note in the e-mail this morning from Rainhawk. He wanted to know about the snow and if I was safe and snug inside from the storm. My reply got a little long winded (imagine that!) and towards the end, I thought it would make a good start for today’s entry.
It didn’t start snowing in earnest here until last night. Until then we had been getting an inch or so a day, just enough to keep up with the melt. It was really nice because it never got any deeper (about 4") and there was always a fresh clean layer on top.
If we get dumped on by a nor’easter, it’s generally not until the center of the storm is over Maine. So we get it a day or so later than downstate. Measured on the roof of Mark’s car, we got about 6" overnight and they're calling for an additional 4" during the day. Judging from the regional radar and satellite pictures, I estimate we’ll get another 6" to 8" through tomorrow. I like to make my own estimates and compare them to the pros.
Since snow is a regular occurrence around here, it doesn’t really bother anyone beyond a modest inconvenience. Downstate though, well I’m sure you’ve seen the panic-stricken reports from NYC. Whenever the snow is deeper than their toe-rubbers they have a conniption. We just laugh at them.
As of 7:00 this morning, it was 23°F (-5°C) with only a light breeze, so it wasn’t too bad outside. Kinda nice really, especially when you consider it was 30°F (-1°C) in Tampa. In the four hours since then the temperature here has dropped to 17°F (-8°C) and the wind has picked up giving us a wind-chill of –4°F (-20°C). It’s warming up in Tampa where it’s presently 37°F (3°C). The reason I mention Tampa is that Mark vacations there with friends every New Year’s. He flew out yesterday in the wee hours and just missed the airport closings on the coast.
As for me, the larder is fully stocked and there’s nowhere I NEED to go until Tuesday. Although I’d
LIKE to go the Sunday night gay men’s AA meeting tonight, if only for the party afterwards. It depends on if I can get a ride. The meeting doesn’t work well with the bus schedule and the “do” afterwards is a dish-to-pass thing. I’m not sure I wouldn’t be attacked on the bus if I had a piping hot casserole with me. (Hmmm. If
that’s what it takes…) Anyway, my promised ride is supposed to be coming back today from a few days in NYC. Who knows if he’ll make it?
It’s not like I don’t have things to do around here. There’s shoveling, laundry, I have to make whatever I decide to take to the meeting and it wouldn’t hurt to push the vacuum around the place. I’m not sure if I’ll get a chance to write any more today, so I’ll say it now:
Happy New Year! Here’s wishing you a new year filled with love, health and happiness.
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