Day 321
Well, with an hour or so to go on Doomsday Friday … we are still here. I think I’m safe in saying … we’re okay.
Today I was trying (key word here) to drive the two miles to the downtown Hallmark. I thought, okay … it snowed, it feels festive, I’ll go do a little window shopping and get a few cards.
BAD MOVE. The drive took me 20 minutes. By the time I parked and walked the block to the store I was not exactly in the best holiday spirit. Traffic was horrendous. People were practically running down pedestrians in the cross walks! I know it’s Friday on a holiday weekend … but come on!
I, contrary to what I felt I should be, was not so happy.
I, personally, would like to know what medication Johnny Mathis was on when he sang the lyrics … It’s the hap-happiest season of all …
Seriously. I can only surmise the guy was on some heavy-duty pain blockers to think that … or maybe he didn’t think it, but just sang it. Or perhaps he was in a lovely recording studio in Hawaii being plied with coconut drinks and macadamia nuts during the holiday season. And just maybe he had his assistants do his shopping and he was driven around so he wouldn’t have to contend with the traffic and idiotic people. If so, then I’d guess he’d be pretty happy.
Yesterday we had snow. The forecasters were posting WINTER STORM WARNINGS all afternoon. Unbelievably the airports cancelled flights. The rain was to change to snow … and it did. By midnight we had 17 snowflakes and this morning we had a cold, crusty dusting on the grassy areas. That was it. And with that snowfall Chicago area surpassed the record holding date for the latest snowfall in a season. Honestly – that is perfectly fine by me.
I’ve had my pre-holiday snow. I’m done! Snow here isn’t like snow in Colorado. Here after two days it’s gray and black and stays that way until March. Snow in Colorado is white and dry and if you don’t want to shovel the 5″ on your driveway you wait a day and it’s melted. Gone. If we don’t have snow for a while or for the rest of the winter, I’ll be a very happy little elf.
Back to the “hap-happiest season of all” … I suppose “the reason for the season” would make some people happy but all too often it’s the hustle and bustle (and not like in the song Silver Bells) … but more like the streets of reality where everyone is doing too many things in an ungodly short amount of time and things are too commercial and expensive and the days are getting shorter and it gets dark at 3:30 on a gray day and it’s COLD.
Yep … whomever wrote that song (actually, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” was written by duo Edward Pola and George Wyle in 1963) must have been in Hawaii … or some other version of Paradise … or those drugs were really swell.
Did I say it was COLD? We are mid-winter and though our temps have not been (much) below freezing (rarely) I have enough clothes on to make an outdoor hockey player envious. I am like the Michelin Man in tights. This is ridiculous. I’m not prepared for this kind of bone chilling cold. It was 34 balmy degrees today … I am in real trouble when it actually gets cold!
In any case … there are three days until Christmas. Step back, deep breaths, smell the cookies, bundle up, slow down. And maybe then it really can be the hap-happiest time of the year!