Christmas Eve thoughts.

1) I had considered doing a bit about Dr. Fauci declaring Santa Claus to be a one-man super-spreader event, but you know what? It's not even fun to make fun of that egomaniacal stuffed shirt anymore. In a just world, a bureaucrat having long outlived any purpose but service to his own self-importance would have been thrown into the street years ago--Go see some actual patients, Dr. Science!--but we don't live in a just world. Being Christmastime I will wish him a healthy retirement, starting as soon as humanly possible.

Okay, he's the Grinch. I'm so done with this guy.

2) It's strange that I didn't see one single Christmas special this year. Didn't really miss them, either. Granted, with some old favorites shuffling around cable channels or even streaming services, it's harder than usual to catch them. Things that were Appointment TV for kids when I was a kid are just part of the child's 24/7 media circus now. Over the years shows like Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town went from great joy to nostalgia to poking fun to nostalgia and poking fun to--I've seen it enough, maybe. Although it's always worth checking in on Rudolph to see if this is the year they digitally remove Yukon Cornelius's revolver and edit his shopping list ("cornmeal, gunpowder, ham hocks, and guitar strings"). 

3) Christmas on a Saturday feels kind of weird. Is Friday a holiday or not? Not for me, but I'm a freelancer. My wife got it as a floating holiday. We have trash pickup today. It's a federal holiday, but the post office lists Christmas Day as a holiday in 2021 but says it falls on Friday. So I have no idea if the mail is coming today. Glad to say the packages I shipped on Monday did arrive at their destinations intact and unmolested by porch pirates. I don't know what's going on, but I'm staying away from the stores, that's for sure.

4) I did take baby Izzy, my 70-pound seven-month old, with me on my rounds the other day. We saw a housebound friend, got his anti-flea-tick-etc. drug from the vet, and went to PetSmart--Izzy's first trip to a retail establishment. He was very excited. I was a little sad that no one said how cute he was or wanted to pet him; he's a Golden, for goodness sake, and was smiling and happy. Everyone just seemed grumpy. Well, I hope their days got better. Iz had fun anyhow. 

5) Little snow this morning; not much but enough to make old dude Tralfaz happy. He loves to romp in snow, eat snow, pee in snow, stick his head in snow, etc. etc. And for Izzy it's just his second experience with snow and he's enthralled. I'm glad for them. I'm freezing.

And so Christmas is about to descend, but I'll post tomorrow. God bless us, everybody! (Tiny Tim is suing for copyright infringement this year.)