Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Forward!

(Source)
So yes, it's the last day of December (my favorite month for those of you keeping score at home) and, not coincidentally, the last day of 2019. A new year dawns, or so I'm told. For you see dear reader, I am something of a Grinch when it comes to these New Year festivities. No doubt much to the chagrin of my Scots ancestors. (See Hogmanay for an explanation.)

I have stayed up to watch the glitter-ball "drop" in Times Square (a place I have been some decades ago, quite an experience for a 13-yo Vermonter to see the sights of the Big Apple, lots of odd-looking folk about as I recall), I have been to a couple of New Year's Eve parties, imbibing, no doubt, more adult beverages than are probably healthy. As I'm still alive, I guess it wasn't that bad.

But it all seems so bloody artificial. I mean it's just a different date innit? Time to buy new calendars, time to remember to put a new year in the date when writing a check. (Some of us still do that.) We don't make a big deal when April turns to May do we? (Oh wait, we kinda do in some cultures.)

Every new day gives one something to look forward to, no need to get all boozed up about it. I do suppose it does provide employment for any number of little known "celebrities," well, little known to me. But when you think about it, each month gives us something to look forward to, for instance:
  • January - The NFL playoffs.


(Ja, ja, ich weiß, einige von euch mögen die NFL nicht. But some of us do...)
  • February - Other than the Super Bowl (see above) there's St. Valentine's Day. Other than that it's a dark, cold month, thankfully the shortest of the lot. Okay, not much to look forward to here.
  • March - Any college basketball fans out there? (Calm down, calm down, I see you.) Big month for that I'm given to understand.
  • April - Spring! (Unless it arrived in March.) Easter! (Well, that happens in March as well from time to time.) The colder weather is astern and we have better weather to look forward to. (Like Skip says, when in doubt, blog about the weather.)
  • May - Well, my birthday falls herein, so it's a pretty big deal for me. Unlike some old-timers, I actually enjoy having birthdays. (Certainly beats the alternative!)
  • June - As a kid this month contained the last day of school, much to be celebrated. As a parent, I learned that this was not so much to be celebrated but rather endured.
"Dad, I'm bored..." "Hi bored, I'm Chris." (All dads do this, it's traditional, Hell, it's kinda mandatory.)
  • July - Independence Day!!!  Oorah! Oorah! After that it's just kinda hot and humid, which is wonderful if you're a beach-going type. I used to be, not anymore. (The Missus Herself was raised to abhor and fear the water, with good reason.) Good excuse to drink beer though
"Damn but it's hot out, guess I'll have a beer." 
  • August - Another hot month, but due to the kids and grandkids there are a metric crap ton of birthdays in this month. The Missus Herself and I like to call this The Expensive Month. Has multiple reasons to drink beer...
  • September - As a kid this month contained the first day of school, much to be mourned. As a parent, I learned that this was not so much to be mourned but rather celebrated.
  • October - Halloween. Need I say more? The weather is also cooling off now, not Next Ice Age cool, but tolerable, light jacket weather. Plus there's football (see above) of the professional and college variety. Oh yeah, the World Series, that's in there somewhere in this month. (I used to watch that when it was on during the freaking day and not in the middle of the freaking night.)
  • November - Ah, Thanksgiving, a much beloved holiday of mine. Not to mention that it's almost December! (The most favored month.) Usually there's pie in this month, sometimes eggnog, both things I love but can't really get away with in the other months of the year.
  • December - Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. I love this time of year. Visiting with family, getting the grandkids (and kids) cool gifts, eating too much, Christmas carols, the message of the Savior... Just can't get enough. Oh yeah, there's also pie, guaranteed. Also eggnog (with bourbon, thank you very much), guaranteed.
So there you have it. A curmudgeonly view of the New Year's Eve celebration. Bah humbug.

Though truth be told, I like December the 31st much more now than I did as a wee bairn. For it is my oldest daughter's natal day. She and her siblings are gifts from God, can't forget that.

Happy Birthday Nuke!


And thus the curtain comes down on yet another calendar year.

Forward!



44 comments:

  1. Definitions of the months per Sargeipedia, like it! Never have been one to celebrate the arrival of the New Year, preferred to get sleep.....ya I know, boring but bleary eyed wasn't a good look for me. Nonetheless Happy New Year to you Sarge and to all the Chanters! Uuugh.....more snow management on the schedule today.

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    1. We've had rain for two days now, looks like our December cold spell is over.

      Happy New Year to you and yours!

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  2. Forward. Yes.

    The story--

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hHm6NHs-NI

    The song--

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc5AWImplfE

    Happy New Year! Glad to see we're all still here.

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    1. The old man has been tapping on my door for a bit. I haven't let him in yet!

      Old guy can wait his turn.

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  3. I haven’t even done the weather for awhile... oh, dear!
    The rolling over over one year, one month, one week, a day, or a decade to the next is kinda like wiping your butt with a hula hoop; there’s no end to it.
    I, too, will take all of the birthdays I can get.
    I will wait until tomorrow to wish everyone Happy New Year.

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  4. I might quibble with a couple entries on your list (March is for spring training, April is for Easter and the true start of baseball season in my book), but otherwise that seems about spot on.

    Happy New Year to you and yours, and Happy Birthday to The Nuke.

    We'll be up watching the Rose Parade tomorrow morning, which is a lot easier now that we're not on the Left Coast. For all that I hate Central time during baseball season, there are some benefits.

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    1. If you have HGTV (formerly known as House and Garden channel) they actually show the parade and talk about the flowers and don't usually get too stupid in comparison to other channels. It's a Beans' family tradition (well, since finding HGTV) to watch the parade on HGTV.

      No, I am not a paid shill of HGTV, I just hate watching parades and being forced to watch musical numbers or listen to inane and insane people babble on about stuff not related to the parade. Here's a clue, major media. Want your ratings to increase? Just... show us the parade/sports event/concert/whatever without inserting your darned opinions or interview freaks, geeks and leftists galore instead of showing us what we want to watch.

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    2. Aaron - Yes, March and April confuse me, but start of spring training and start of baseball (respectively) are as good as any a definition for those two months.

      New Year's Day used to wrap up the college football season but the money people have ruined that as well.

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    3. Beans - I remember when the parades were semi-interesting. (My own POV is if there are no tanks in the parade, why bother? At least give me a military fly-over!)

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    4. Beans - Yup, HGTV is our go-to, at least since we no longer have access to KTLA 5's live broadcast.

      Sarge - Well, the Rose Parade does at least start with a fly-over. Usually a B-2, which I don't believe I'll ever get tired of seeing.

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    5. A B-2, freaking awesome. We had one do a flyover at our Independence Day parade a few years back. Seeing that monster directly overhead was surely one of the highlights of my post Air Force life!

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    6. Well, looks like my attempt to escape stupidity has left me. HGTV no longer carries the rose parade, it is broadcast exclusive to ABC, the rat bastiges.

      I'll give it this year, and then it'll be dead to me. The breaker? How much time they spend on the USMC band. If the Ghost of Sousa isn't happy, I won't be. God, two hours of soap stars nattering away and not showing the floats. There ought to be an amendment, that God gave us the right to watch parades without commentators and without Broadway production numbers... Or, well, suck the ratings fail like every other exclusive 'event' on tv.

      Fatherless Sons and intact female dogs of breeding age! Copulate me! Copulate this excrement! Copulate all this excrement! Gaaaaahhhhh! Khaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnn!!!!(shakes fist in air...)

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    7. A truly Beansian comment. Epic my friend, truly epic.

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    8. So, hubris... The schedule on the TV does not list the parade on HGTV. But HGTV's website lists it showing at 11am. Which means I must curse Cox Communications and not HGTV and the Rose Bowl Parade people.

      So.... go re-read FSaIFDoBA! CM! CtE! CatE! above.

      Now I have to try to stay awake till midnight and check schedule so I can record it and watch it on the DVR and skip all the crass commercials (watching them fast makes them blipverts which just goes to prove that 'Max Headroom' was a prophetic show way before its time.)

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    9. (Don McCollor)...was not a holiday event, but when the last B52 stationed at the Grand Forks AFB left, it made several "low" passes across the city (not THAT low) east and west and north and south along University Avenue and Washington Street...for about fifteen minutes the whole city shook from engine thunder, and the escort fighter alongside it looked like a sparrow alongside an eagle...

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    10. Beans - Good luck with your valiant endeavor to avoid the commercials!

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    11. Don - That truly must have been a sight!

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    12. Don McCollor)...it was..the ground seemed to shake...and it wasn't dropping anything...Love the 52...

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    13. (Don McCollor)..and in Vietnam at the siege of the marines at Keh Sang...there were six of them high overhead 24/7 for three months...

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    14. I didn't know that, a nice thing to have on call!

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    15. (Don McCollor)...The Marines there had great admiration for (and trust in) the AF...they would call in B52 strikes as close as a hundred yards from their perimeter (picture six planes each dropping 35 tons of dumb bombs from six miles in the sky)...

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  5. There is a story in your statement "The Missus Herself was raised to abhor and fear the water, with good reason." Can you elaborate? Toxic waste? Nork espionage? Just really dangerous waters around Korea not related to the Norks?

    Toss out such a statement, and not expound upon it. Dude, what were you thinking?

    As to the coming year, we get to witness a mostly Russian Federation-free Olympics in some place somewhere reported by a 'news' service that will not show us the sports but yammer about food, the weather (gah, over and over and over about 'climate change' and so forth, which they've been bitching about since I first started watching the Olympics,) some whiny special interest story about some athlete who states before the O starts that he/she/it won' go to the Whitehouse occupied by OrangeManBad if they win a medal (which is for two reasons: they know they won't win (so why are you there, hmmmm?) or it will invoke the Trump Curse and their once promising career will go down the toilet and only leave them the opportunity to report on sports for the rest of their life based on their hatred of OMB.) Dudes, show us the sports. Show us the US women and the Italian Women who are shooting (seriously, the Italian women shooting look like sexy Italian models shooting...)

    And then there's... politics. Will impeachment move to the Senate? Will we care? Will the House act like even more spoiled than a cage full of monkeys? Will we care? Will Virginia's state government back the heck up? Oh, we care, we care very much. What new hells will the deep pockets of Soros and Bloomberg infest upon state legislatures? Oh, we care very very much (Dudes, keep your fingers out of my rights.) Who will the end candidate be for the Dems? And will it be the former first wookie, the former first wicked witch, or the former vice-stupid jerk or the still socialist rich ahole (that's Hawaiian for arse-hole, by the way... not really, but it could be...)

    Bleh. Not looking forward to this coming year. For so many reasons not related to good things.

    And, yeah... Merry Christmas (still a few more days left in the Christmas Season) and Happy New Year. May the new year shine bright and be lit by the funeral pyres of your enemies stacked up to the sky, may your blades stay sharp and your guns stay unclogged, as the enemies' blood flows like the mighty river as we fight to stop Ragnarok and bring justice and civility back to the land... (huff, huff, hufff,,,,, what?) Okay, go vote. Not nearly as fun as breaking skulls and doing blood eagles, but seriously, what door would hold Nadler?)

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    1. As to water, I doubt I'll tell that story, family tragedy there which I shouldn't expound upon. Yeah, I know mysterious and all but hey, a fellow has to have a few secrets.

      Olympics, yeah, meh, more "celebrity" a-holes nattering about everything but the games themselves. As to the rest, 2020 could get "interesting" to say the least.

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    2. The waters in and around Korea have always been particularly treacherous. Sorry to hear that they got to your wife's family.

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    3. It was an inland body of water. Yeah, a bad time.

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    4. My dad did not like the inland bodies of water in Korea. He said on the quietest days they were treacherous. Of course, his idea of inland bodies of water were the bayous of Vermilion Parish or the streams of the Rockies, so...

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  6. Oh. Ahhh. Happy New Year-to-be Everybody. The previous statements made by someone claiming to be 'Beans' was a grumpy old fart intruding upon the normally sunny disposition of the person you all lovingly know as 'Beans.' Uhhuh. Yep. Suuuuure...

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    1. Welcome to Curmudgeon Ville, population "too many to count."

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    2. Heh. I was a member starting at about 13-14yoa. I just moved up to the 'senior silver' level. Rapidly heading towards the 'chrome dome' level.

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    3. Beans,
      Just because your a "grumpy old fart" curmudgeon doesn't mean you're wrong.

      And, my New Year's Resolution? Answer "OK, Boomer" with "OK, Dumbass". I feel better already.

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    4. Beans - This is my surprised face. 😐

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    5. Juvat - I'm thinking of adding GOFC to the Acronym Page as the first entry for 2020. Maybe we should have a badge that goes with that...

      [Cue movie line in 3...2...1...]

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    6. juvat, that response is right up there with the classic response to 'Age before Beauty' which is 'Pearls before Swine.'

      For some reason I suspect the golden age of Hollywood ladies were a tad... catty.

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    7. Heh. Me thinks you have the right of it!

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  7. Happy Old Year!

    I remember a New Year's Eve in the early-ish 1960's when I sat myself down with pencil, paper, and newly won computational skills and worked out how old I would be on January 1, 2000. For some reason I never wondered how old I would be in subsequent years. I also had no idea what the concept of being 40+ actually meant. Other than having my own helicopter and being able to stay up 'til midnight if I blankety-bleep well wanted to!

    Happy Birthday to The Nuke and here's hoping you're all able to savor the momentous occasion.

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    1. In the early 1960s the though of being in my 40s was as imaginable as the dark side of the moon (this was pre-Pink Floyd BTW).

      But the beauty of being growed up is most definitely being able to stay up as late as one wants, but knowing that one really should go to bed because 0600 comes awfully early. And doing it anyway...

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  8. The Birthday Badger Sends The Nuke Respectful Birthday Greetings!

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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