Not Another Christmas Album!

Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I love Christmas music.  Give it to me in reggae, pop, celtic, rock, whatever, I love it!  The fact that I am a Christmas freak may have something to do with that.  While YouTubing for some classics recently, I found out something really strange.  Just about every man, woman and their dog had a Christmas album!  It didn’t matter if they were new on the music scene, they had a Christmas album.

It seems as soon as a new artiste comes out, their manager goes to them, “Ok, here’s the dealio. We have to, I mean we NEED to, release a Christmas album like ASAP!”  “But it’s only July…” “Nevermind that. We need a Christmas album.  It’s what makes you bonafide.  You feeling me?”

Luckily for me, I rather the Christmas classics. I like the old stuff, they make me feel warm and fuzzy inside and go better with everything.  Putting up the tree, decorating the house, having a Christmas dinner, or just sipping on some accidentally-laced egg nog.  It just goes together, you feeling me?  Many years ago, I would actually go out and buy the latest  Christmas album every year, before I realized that I couldn’t keep up.  How many times can one sing ‘Silent Night’?  And really, how many versions of the ‘Little Drummer Boy’ can you make?

Saying this, I must say I really enjoyed the Biebs’ Christmas album ‘Under The Mistletoe’.  It’s actually a good listen and one of the better albums out there.  It sort of reminds me of another of my oldie favorites, The Jackson 5 Christmas album, especially the way he did, ‘Some day at Christmas’, a very poignant holiday song that predicts a Christmas in the future where wars and pain etc. will be non-existent.  Too bad we won’t be around to see that…

Hmm…I wonder if Rebecca Black has a Christmas album?  ‘It’s Christmas, Christmas, gotta get down on Christmas…’

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Remember The Soldiers? Or Go Shopping?

November 11 is Remembrance Day (Photo credit: Enokson)

On November 11th, the commonwealth countries will show their respect for the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we could enjoy the benefits of living in a free world.   It is recognized as a national holiday here in Canada and up until a few years ago, the entire day was set aside to reflect and remember.

A recent editorial in the local newspaper bore testimony to how even a day such as Remembrance day is no match for commercialization.  The editorial was titled “Sunday shopping affected on Nov. 11″.   Sunday shopping affected?  Affected?  Doesn’t that sound to you as if Remembrance day is intruding on one’s right to shop?  Yes, that’s what I got from that also.

I have always had an issue with the new Sunday shopping laws that now allow stores to opening earlier on Sundays to help those who make shopping their hobby.  Read my blog here.  When a holiday as important as this falls on a Sunday, the least we could do is show some respect and observe it to the fullest.  It’s only one day versus how many days some of these soldiers spent in war zones fighting to make it possible for us to go shopping.

Remembrance day is a great opportunity for us to sit down with our kids and tell them stories about the wars.  Children love shoot em up stories with villains and heroes so we could take advantage of this and spin an interesting story for them.  This way,  the fading memory of our soldiers would never be forgotten when we are gone.

The editorial should have been, ‘Remembrance day halts Sunday shopping’.

Just my take, Lest We Forget.

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It’s never a bad day, even when it snows early

On Tuesday, I went to the hospital to visit a friend who recently suffered a massive stroke that paralyzed the entire right side of his body.  I sat with him for a while even though we couldn’t communicate with each other.  He sometimes struggled for a breath of air and tried to speak during his brief moments of consciousness but was mostly incoherent. This was a man who was never lacking for words.  He was intelligent and a great debater.  Now here he was, reduced to a mumbling baby.

As I watched him, feeling useless and wondering if there was something I could do or say, I thought of my frailty.  I thought of how I would feel with my mind trapped in a body that refused to answer its will.  It was a dreadful thought that scared me.

The next day it snowed, prematurely by our expectations as we hadn’t seen snow before December for some time.  I joined the voices of the malcontents and questioned God’s bad timing.  It’s just the beginning of October! What kind of joke is this? How long is winter going to last this year?  This really sucks!  It was just a knee-jerk reaction as I am never one to really complain about too much snow, rain, heat or otherwise.

Then I thought of my friend in the hospital, (See the good thing about having an overactive mind is that it sometimes counters the negative thoughts by coming up with other thoughts, even while thinking).  I suspected that my friend would rather be out here navigating the snowy roads and feeling cold than lying on a hospital bed not knowing what his future holds.  That was a sobering thought that righted my ship.

Later, I was surfing Facebook and came upon the photo above, it was about being thankful for each day as someone somewhere is fighting to survive.  Coincidence?

As Thanksgiving approaches, there’s no better time to think of the things that are taken for granted.  The things that we feel we have earned.  A breath of air, health, possessions.  We feel that no thanks are necessary or saying thanks once should be good enough.

When we have our health and our lives, there is no such thing as a bad day.  Snow falling when we think it’s not supposed to, does not constitute a tragedy.  So now I am thankful that I could experience another winter.  I could feel the cold and trudge through the snow and that’s  more than some could say.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

Happy Heap Day, Or Is That Lump Day?

As I lay in bed this morning fighting a losing battle to stay in bed, I got to thinking.  You know what happens when I think, I come up with interesting stuff and ideas that if used, could perhaps change the world. Or so I think.  So anyways, as I was saying, I got to thinking and I thought about today being leap day.  For those who still don’t know, this is an extra day that is added on to the month of February every four years, making the year a leap year.  February normally has 28 days.  It is a little weird for those born on this day as they end up celebrating their real birthday every four years.  Funny huh?

Well my idea is this,  since this is an extra day added in to sync the calendar days with the seasonal days, why not just make it a holiday for everyone?  This would make everything so much more simple.  We could all take the day as a holiday and pretend it never happened.  This way it’s there but not there and the year could still be a standard 365 day year.  It’s like garnish on your plate, it’s kinda like food but not. It helps to fill your plate but you ignore it and eat everything else. Like that continent that’s not really a continent, the planet that’s not really a planet.  I am really astonished that no one has thought of this before.  It’s ground breaking stuff.  Just like my idea that when a leap day falls on a Wednesday, we should call it Heap day or if you prefer, Lump day.

You don’t have to agree, it’s just my take.

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Valentine’s Ass

I made an ass of myself.  Me and my takes.  My big mouth.  My opinions.  My wife came home and ran down to the basement immediately.  She came back up with a slight look of guilt on her face.  I asked her what she was doing and got, “It’s none of your business!”  Which fanned the flames of my suspicions even more.

Later while she was getting dressed for bed, I again asked, “So what did you went to do downstairs?”  I got “Never Mind. You will know later.”  I remembered how she would hide presents for me at Christmas so immediately made the connection. “It’s not like it’s Christmas and you are hiding presents…”.  The look I got spoke volumes.  I had hit the nail on the head.  Without thinking, I plunged right in.  ”I hope you didn’t go buying gifts for me.  You know I really don’t do Valentines.  It’s just a stupid commercial day to make money for businesses.  We don’t need a day to profess our love.  We could do the same thing any other day.”  I got on a roll and let it all out about my feelings of such days and how much I hated it for making us men feel inadequate if we do not partake in the madness yadda yadda yaddda…

My wife turned to me and her look said it all, but my words were like Cupid’s arrow,  once shot, could not be taken back.  They hung like a noose in the air, awaiting my neck.  I would have been happy to oblige right then.  Without a word, she took off to bake some Valentine cookies for our son’s school.

I went downstairs a few minutes later to make amends and sweep everything under the rug and found her in tears.  I tried to apologize but that only opened up the flood gates even more.  Apparently she had the entire love day planned out with me receiving small gifts throughout the day and other acts of love.

To make matters worst, on the treadmill this morning, (I exercise before work) I found a rose and a stuffed  ’be my valentine’ dinosaur.   Way to take the zeal out of a workout…I felt like crap and rightly should.

You see, I am not a scrooge or spoil sport. I just don’t like commercial holidays that stress gift buying.  ”Buy your loved ones this ring and make her feel special”  Does that mean I can’t make her special if I don’t buy it?   It seems so fake and contrived but if it is special to my wife, then I should make it special to me also.  After all, she comes first.

So Happy Valentine Baby!

P.S  I am now tossing out my vuze on Valentine and from now on, will make sure it’s an extra special day me and my honey.  Promise!

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Boo At The Zoo With My Lead Foot Wife

Well what do you know? My poor snake bitten wife got her second speeding ticket in 7 days.  It was almost identical to the one she got last week.  Let me start at the beginning.