Hello World,
I see that the month is creeping along at its petty pace, and little by little, you notice that each day is just a tiny bit longer than the day before - it gets lighter a wee bit earlier in the morning, and stays lighter just a tad later than the previous day. Before you know it, all of us workaday stiffs will be going to work and coming home while there's actual sun up in the sky, and not skulking around in the shadowy gloom of winter's inky darkness. This may be bad news indeed for the rank and file among the vampire classes - and of course, the werewolves, it goes without saying - but for sun worshipers like the rest of us (and you Druids know who you are) it's a welcome shift in the right direction. It's not exactly Richard III's "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer" by any means, but I'm still happy to embrace the improvement, however incremental, and let the vampires, werewolves and zombies fend for themselves, by Jove.
In local news, the long-awaited roof project finally shuddered to a close last week, as impossible as that might seem. It was all too easy to get used to the routine of waking up to the roofers clambering all over the house, then coming home to the yard being all topsy-turvy, with their supplies and equipment having been moved hither and yon from where they were the day before. It was an interesting experience, with only a few casualties along the way - most notably, the poor yard lights, and one of my Christmas decorations will never be the same. They were more than equal to the challenge of the roof's many sharp angles and steep sides, and when the derelict butler's pantry proved too unstable for its intended covering, they simply rebuilt the framework underneath it, and then attached the new roof to that. The last thing they needed to do was the garage roof, and that also did not stymie their efforts, in spite of countless obstacles in their way that lesser men would have quailed before, and called it a day. Finally it seemed to get quieter and quieter around the place, and less and less material scattered everywhere, until there was nothing left but their copious conglomeration of ladders in the backyard. Eventually even that was gone, and they scoured the property down to the bare earth, leaving not so much as a leaf standing in their wake, so that a person could be forgiven for wondering if there really had been roofers there in the first place. Two days later, even the tiny Dumpster was a thing of the past, being spirited away under cover of daylight, while we were both at work, and not even a last opportunity to wish it well on its merry way. The last nail in the roofing project coffin, as it were, was when we received an invoice in the mail for the balance of the project, and at that point there was no denying the fact that it was well and truly over. It's pretty much been raining ever since, and we certainly have no complaints about the new roof, that's for sure, and looking forward to many decades of sturdy, leak-free service from our newest addition to the old manse. Of course, we haven't been up there to check it out in person, and can only surmise that it's all that we could have hoped for. My primary concern is that the cats might have prevailed upon the roofers to install a big sign that lights up and says "ALIEN SPACESHIPS LAND HERE," and then all bets are off.
Meanwhile in sports news, literally dozens upon dozens of loyal fans in hockey cities throughout North America were rejoicing last week when the NHL contract dispute was resolved at long last, and their favorite teams - or bitterest rivals - could get back to playing hockey once again. All pre-season games and the early part of the season were lost to the labor conflict, as well as the beloved Winter Classic, which is a fan favorite and media magnet that far surpasses anything else that they do for the entire season. The league management was able to salvage 48 games out of the usual 82-game schedule, and the teams will play only other teams in their own conference, rather than the wide-open, coast-to-coast forays of the regular season, when time is not an issue. For clubs with post-season hopes, like the new and improved Rangers, it will be a mad dash to the playoffs in May, dragging their exhilarated fans right along with them, as each individual game in the truncated season looms large in the overall picture, and there is virtually no room for error. So while the rest of the wide world may continue to ignore hockey as boring and insignificant, for those of us who hang on every face-off, this is indeed "the winter of our discontent made glorious summer," and let the pucks fall where they may. After all, Richard III may have been King of England, but he never won the Stanley Cup, and that's not just the Zamboni talking, believe me.
And while we're on the subject of seasonal delights, I would be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to invite one and all to view a very special video that is sure to please, and can't help but fill you full of the holiday spirit all over again and again. One of our friends has painstakingly constructed an elaborate model train layout, with the meticulous attention to detail that you would expect from a retired engineer - although it must be said, not an actual locomotive engineer like the fabled Casey Jones, but still a certified professional with an engineering degree nonetheless. A recent addition to his railroading paraphernalia is a tiny camera that mounts on the front of the train itself, and gives you a wonderfully unobstructed view of the sights, as if you were sitting right in the conductor's lap as the cars go rattling along the tracks. At the time, the layout was all decked out in its winter finery, with snow everywhere, ice skating, snowball fights, sledding, shopping, and holly jolly decorations at every turn. Why, if they tried to cram any more yuletide merriment into this model landscape, they'd have to build a bigger house. It also features a suitably cool soundtrack, and running commentary that points out the various highlights along the way, lest you miss the outhouse or popcorn cart in all the excitement - not to mention, the vampires. (Okay, I admit there's not really any vampires.) The video is called "Jayne and Eddie's Winter Wonderland Train Ride," and I encourage everyone to just go right ahead and see it for yourselves at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-IBVp58ngE if you've got 5 minutes to spare in your busy schedule, and you won't be disappointed. Best of all, you'll do your part to help improve the number of page views, which were at a pathetic 28 the last time I was there, and which is probably fewer people than our friends have in their own actual families to start with. So if we all pitch in, we can do our best to get those numbers up to a more respectable level, or at least on a par with hockey fans, even without the vampires, werewolves and zombies. Say, is that Richard III driving that Zamboni?
Elle
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home