The Twelve Days

The Morning of the 29th of December

Sometime in the night I heard what sounded like a large truck going down the street. As I live on a cul-de-sac, it's unusual for large trucks to head up our street, then back down again. Unless it's a snow plow or sand/salt truck (normally one and the same in these parts). Sure enough, lo and behold, when Sasha, the alpha-feline, poked me to remind me that I had not fed her (and her sister) yet, I figured what the heck, might as well get up, to discover that I had heard a big truck. A truck which had apparently applied salt to our street because it had snowed. Snow which had turned to rain.

A very cold rain I might add.

For you see, as I threw on my gym shorts I also grabbed my camera. I figured that I would get some photos of the snow after feeding the felines.

While I did throw on a jacket, I was still wearing gym shorts. Stepping onto the deck, camera in hand, I felt the rain, on my hat-less noggin. That's why there's only three pictures. It was cold and wet this morning. At 0730 when I fed the cats, went outside, and then decided to get out of bed and start the day.

Normally I don't get up so early when I'm on vacation. Yes, you heard that right, vacation. My employer shuts down between Christmas and New Year's, we forego five regular holidays in order to do this. While missing a three day weekend five times a year is a bit painful, it is more than made up for by having this time of year off, without having to take one's "vacation" days. (That bit is in quotes because calling them vacation days is officially frowned upon. Don't ask why, it confuses me. But most things civilian confuse me. I ain't wired that way.)

So yes, I'm off for most of the twelve days of Christmas, which does indeed start on Christmas Day, which is the first day of Christmas, not the last. Don't buy into that commercial crap, I don't. It's not about the song either. Though I do like the song, it doesn't describe what those traditional Twelve Days of Christmas are really about. You can read about that here.

While I am enjoying my time off I am assiduously avoiding Facebook, television, numerous "news" websites, and the like for a number of reasons.

Politics, dissension, name calling, and spurious news items are everywhere and are getting more annoying by the day. I have Facebook friends who will express or pass along the most odd things which serve to annoy me no end. I don't run around threatening to "unfriend" anybody, I just won't read those posts. People are, after all, entitled to their opinions, I am not required to read them.

When I get back to work I'll start reading that stuff again. Maybe, probably. I do like knowing what folks are thinking about, just not when I'm celebrating the holidays.

So I will continue binge watching Homeland (a series which I never thought I would get into, but I did), playing my new computer games, reading, playing with the cats, enjoying the company of The Missus Herself, and generally taking it easy. I am sitting on the bank of the river and watching all the nonsense float downstream. I'll gird my loins and rejoin the fray next year, which ain't all that far off.

But until Epiphany, color me contemplative, non-combative, and trying to stay above it all. We'll see how that works out for me...

Cold today, but very lovely. In an Arctic kind of way...