The end draws near. . .

Insomnia! I suppose this is what I deserve for sitting in a meeting last night and tanking up on coffee. Taking a walk around the ol' 'hood doesn't work, Stephen King doesn't work, a bagel covered with cheddar doesn't work, so I suppose I think sitting in front of the glaring blue glow of a PC monitor and tap - tap - tapping upon a keyboard is going somehow to put me to sleep. Arlo Guthrie is telling me it is nighttime on the City of New Orleans, which I guess may be a fact, as it is still nighttime here in the city of Lansing at the moment. However,  if I sit up much longer screwing around with this thing that will no longer be true. The winter solstice is now past and the days are growing longer, though I believe we may have a few more weeks before it will be time to tune the mower. Blossom is sitting here begging me for another piece of cheddar, not realizing she and I have consumed the last of that brick. By golly, I think it may be time to head on back upstairs and see if I can find some rest. If a few more pages of Stephen can't do the trick, perhaps I will haul out the vacuum and do some dusting. Housework seldom fails to make me drowsy.

 

As I pass on by the front door I am going to go ahead and hang my flag on the front porch. It is close enough to daylight to put up the flag, and I would like to do something in honor of Gerald Ford. As Ford is former president and a World War II veteran it would be a good thing to do. Aside from which, I just plain like flying the flag and I think it is going to be a nice day. When I was out walking earlier there were stars all over the place. Being the ordinary, straight type of guy that he was I bet if Ford had a say he'd ask the rest of the nation to hang our national symbol in his honor and leave his family alone to mourn in peace. I had even considered a drive to Grand Rapids to pay my respects when the man finally completes his trip home and arrives here in Michigan, but I believe I am gonna skip that. Actually, I showed the guy all the respect I believe was possible when I gave him my vote during the presidential election in seventy six. I haven't kept track of who I did and did not vote for over the years, but I will be damned if I can recall another republican I have ever wasted my ballot on. I still think he would have done a good job had he remained in office, and I bet it will be a long time before we have another person from Michigan in that seat. Hopefully, it will be a very long time before we have another president in the oval office with the capability of remaining there for three terms

And so Happy Christmas. . .

And another Christmas heads on over the horizon. Not in any way a white Christmas, and I actually did some Christmas shopping on my motorcycle a couple of days ago. Michigan weather continues to become weirder. I got to spend some time today with my daughter, and a nice sized portion of the weekend with my boys. I have an improperly functioning light saber I must return to Meijer sometime today. Very difficult to have the Force be with you if your light saber is not working as it should. My daughter presented me with a Mag flashlight, just the sort of thing you would expect from a young lady working at a hardware store. This baby would make a dandy weapon if I ever had a need to use it as one. It would certainly handle any light saber. The thing is at least eighteen inches long and is very solidly constructed. And American made, to boot. A real shame you cannot find a good, American made light saber here in Michigan; perhaps it would be unnecessary for me to have to run Barry's back to the store.

 

My Christmas was quite festive this year. I whipped up my famous Chef Boyardee ravioli along with some stovetop stuffing for Christmas dinner, which delighted my sons, totally. No Christmas turkey for this crew, by golly. Rebecca demonstrated to me a digital memory device that hangs on your key chain and holds up to one gig of information, which is roughly equal to the capacity of my first PC. . .AFTER I upgraded it with a new hard drive. I was quite impressed, and proceeded to load the thing up with all kinds of photographs I have stored here on my current PC. I kept loading in photographs and waiting for it to say it was full, but it didn't happen. May have to get me one of those.

Skywatching. . .

Just back from a morning stroll around north Lansing. As I was out and about tonight I spent a bit of my time searching for meteors. Tonight the Geminid shower is supposed to be at its' peak, and in spite of the fact that I remained in town I managed to spot a few as they zipped across the sky. Walking through the grounds of the School for the Blind I found an area far enough away from street lights to enjoy some darkness. The radiance from all the city lights sometimes makes it difficult to see much of anything in the heavens overhead. 

An evening with friends. . .

Had supper tonight at a friend's house in Brighton this evening. Meat loaf, scalloped potatoes, and home made cole slaw. Nothing spectacular, everything sumptuous. Always a good time and good company at this home. After dinner we took the boys to see the movie Happy Feet. If you have ever wanted to watch a group of penguins as they sing Leader of the Pack, this movie is for you.

Oh, Christmas tree. . .

Blossom was endlessly fascinated as I assembled the Christmas tree earlier tonight. She does not yet realize that I have the talent of reading the minds of small animals, and that I know she was sitting there thinking "What a great toy! I can't believe he brought that in here just for ME!" Being her first Christmas, when the boys decorate it later today I will probably have to lock her in the basement or she will go crazy.