The colored lights and garland around the porch door have been taken down, as has the Christmas tree. The place has been un-bedecked and de-festooned. The accoutrements of the holiday season have been packed up and stowed away once again.
In my family, the tree and all the trimmings came down on New Year's Day. Even though I was raised a Methodist ("Baptists who can read"), I long ago adopted Epiphany as the day for such activities. This change was not due, as some of my family no doubt supposed, to any laziness on my part. If the truth be told, I am especially find of Christmas trees and "twinkle bulbs". I like the concept of the Season of Light. I've always thought it a bit awkward to take all of the color and glitter down just as we get to the coldest, bleakest, darkest part of the year. But if it has to come down, and I suppose I appreciate it all the more because it is something of a limited engagement, then I suppose waiting out the 12th night makes some sense and is completely justified. The way I now see it, I keep the lights on (or the 'star' shining, if you will) against the darkness. But in today's world, if no Weismans show up bearing gifts by 12th night, then the chances of it happening are about equal to Linus seeing the Great Pumpkin.
This year I was especially proud of myself, certain that I hadn't forgotten to pack some odd bit away. These last several years there has always been the extra bulbs, or the extra hangers, or the gift wrap - something - that gets overlooked. After everything was moved into the storage unit in the cellar, I did discover the useable top of a broken ornament, and yes, a holiday CD a friend made for my Yuletide amusement and delectation that hadn't made it into the boxes. Ah well, there is always next year.
The season here was unusually warm. On December 24th, the temperature was in the low 60's fahreneight. A few days later, the temperature dropped into the teens and single digits and we finally got a couple of inches of snow. It took a couple of weeks, but winter has finally arrived and announced itself. In case there was any doubt, the garden catalogues began to show up in my mailbox. Who was it who said, "Temptation is a seed catalogue in January"?
My telephone just rang. For the second time today the call was from the same alleged security company. Both calls were quite obviously the same male digital 'computer voice'. The first time I simply hung up. For this second call, I noted, "John (or whatever name was used), you sound like a recording." There was a pause. I continued, "I am listed on the National Do Not Call Registry. Please remove my name form your records and do not call again." At that point, the computer voice split into three or four voices - all of them were laughing uproariously.
For last Saturday's radio show, I decided to continue the methodology of the week before, and feature clips from the radio of various holiday seasons, this time focused on shows from New Year's Day and January the 2nd. As always, I hope listeners enjoy the show.
Oh, and Best Wishes to All.
Except the programmers of smart assed computer robo calls.
(Although I have to admit, the laughter thing was pretty funny.)
