Save The Date

Hello World, Well, anyone can see that the bright and shiny new year of 2014 is marching right along in much the same way as 2013 before it, and here it is, the second week of January already. The poor beleaguered merchants don't know what to do with themselves anymore, after the frenzy of Black Friday, the extravagance of Christmas, and the avalanche of returns have already come and gone, and all of the throngs of weary shoppers have returned to their normal routines of hearth and home, no longer camping outside of big box stores all night for the most enticing bargains of the season. Now we find that the stores are deserted at all hours, with nothing but the sound of crickets on all sides, and only impending snow storms can make people rush out in hordes to stock up on milk, toilet paper and batteries. This is scarcely the spendthrift windfall the retailers are craving, and their desperate attempts to try and drum up interest in Valentine's Day all too often fall on deaf ears, except for chocolates, flowers and jewelry. Easter isn't until April, and the next real gift-giving opportunities won't show up until moms and dads, brides and grads hit the scene much later in the spring. This would be a good time for all of us to get out there and buy something just for the heck of it, and the bigger the better, to keep the economy chugging along on its rocky road to recovery. A new house would be good, and two would be even better, and did I mention, that third house makes you look so much thinner! And while we're on the subject of gifts, we had a spot of trouble around here getting our schedules to line up for the big day on December 25, so we celebrated our own late mini Christmas on New Year's Day instead, and I don't mind saying that a very relaxed time was had by all, and I ought to know. Bill and I had stayed up late to watch the ball drop the night before, so we certainly didn't get up early to tear into presents, like the long-ago days of years gone by, and which could only be considered an improvement under the circumstances. It made no difference to the cinnamon buns that it was a week late, I can assure you, and all of the stocking stuffers, holiday decorations, and yuletide presents were just as welcome as if they had been right on time. There were gifts of warmth, always appreciated, as well as practical household items, and trinkets whose only usefulness was their entertainment value. Of course, there's always gadgets galore nowadays, and they did not disappoint, although a couple may have mystified their recipients a bit. Bill got wireless headphones for our big screen TV, so he can watch the most explosive action films, or most raucous college football games, even in the wee hours, without disturbing the slumbers of anyone in the next room. Since my rickety old computer has been acting up, Santa decided I needed a brand new Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge, which is one of those all-in-one models where the hard drive, CD drive and all the ports are built right into the monitor, and there's no separate CPU to take up space on the desk or floor. What won't they think of next, I ask you. One of my favorite things was something that we used to call a "transistor radio" back in the day, and I had spotted our bathroom contractor using it during that project, and was impressed with its small size but big sound and versatility. Of course, it only plays 60's surf music from the bygone beach blanket bingo days, but you can't have everything, I guess. (Only kidding!) All in all, we had a fun day, and although the date might have been slightly off, everything else was right on target. Now that we were on a roll, we figured it was time to get the Christmas caravan cranked up in earnest, so we packed the car full of presents and headed for my sister's log cabin in the woods for Christmas III: The Sequel over the weekend. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate, with that monster blizzard from the mid-west dumping double digits of snow all over the northeast, so that my other sister from Long Island was unable to join in the festivities with the rest of us. We had no choice but to soldier on without her, and make the best of challenging conditions that were less than ideal for traveling, even 2 days later. But our hosts greeted us with warmth and appetizers to leave our troubles behind us, and we had already taken precautions to check into our motel and turn up the heat, so we had no deep freeze surprises to worry about at bedtime. After lunch, it was presents, presents, and more presents, followed by dessert - and if there's a better way to spend a day, by golly, I haven't heard of it. All too soon, it was time to turn in, and while Bill felt the room could have been more comfortable, I was too sleepy to put up much of a protest, one way or another. In the morning, we hurried back to the cabin for French toast, and plenty of it, and there was no lack of left-over snacks and desserts on top of everything else. There's no denying that for two days that weren't technically Christmas, we certainly had a holly-jolly, sugar-plum-dancing, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la time of it, and that's not just the egg nog talking, believe me. Then we figured as long as we were way up north anyway, we might as well squeeze in a rendezvous with our friends from the capital region, and we arranged to meet them at the Phoenicia Diner, where we had been years before, after a trip on a tiny tourist railroad, and found it extremely diverting. [Alert readers are welcome to check out my original note about that quixotic excursion from way back in June 2004 - although it would probably be carved into stone tablets on some old steam-powered computer tucked away in a dusty corner of the attic by now, I shouldn't wonder.] Unfortunately, much had changed in the intervening years, none of it for the better, and we were sorely disappointed. But it was great to see our friends again, and there were even gifts, so we managed to keep the chorus of complaints to a minimum. Afterward, we stopped at the nearby Emerson Center in Mt. Tremper, where we had also been before on a previous visit, to browse in their interesting shops full of unique and off-beat curiosities. Soon we noticed that it had started to rain, and with long drives ahead of us in both directions, we decided to call it a day and head for home. Of course, for us that always means a disembarkation at Denny's along the way, but even here, what should have been a tried-and-true fountain drink like I usually have, was instead more of a botched misfire, and another disappointment from about the last place we would have expected. On a positive note, most of the rain held off for the ride home, and since we already had dinner, we had nothing else to do once we got there but relax and enjoy the comforts of home, sweet home once again. I won't say the cats were exactly euphoric to see us again, but their bored indifference is reassuring in its own right, and a mainstay of our journeys that we have come to rely on. Which is just as well, since the Christmas caravan hasn't seen the last of us yet, and still has more stops to make on its merry way, at even more dates that are not now, nor have they ever been, actually Christmas day itself. So stay tuned for more adventures from caravan-land, which will not rest until the last cane has been candied, the last bell has been jingled, and the last hall has been decked, or know the reason why. By the way, the President's economic advisers asked me to mention that those extra houses make you look so much younger! Elle