12/26/19
During the run-up to Christmas, I had some time to slow
down and reflect a bit. Having not
written anything on this blog for over a month, I came up with some seemingly
random thoughts, most of which are not at all political and few of which have
anything to do with Christmas.
·
The highlight of the pre-Christmas season was a short
cruise my wife and I took to escape the then wintery weather. It was terrific and a bargain with the
proverbial capital B, especially since we did it “Quinn-style” and spend
a grand total of $10 beyond the laughably reasonable cost of cruise itself. Okay, we did throw in some tips beyond the recommended
and seemingly mandatory tip level, which, I suppose, is also “Quinn-style.” But we bought no excursions, making our own
fun by finding public beaches in both ports of call, which we, and especially
water loving yours truly, thoroughly enjoyed.
One should draw two conclusions from our cruise experience. First, I would encourage any of you who like
to cruise, and those of you who have never cruised, to look for last minute
deals; they are real and they are cheap; we spent nearly as much on the decrepit
and shady-looking Ft. Lauderdale hotel we stayed in on the night before departure
as we did for one of us to cruise for four nights. We
couldn’t have eaten for what we paid for the cruise. Second, we LOVED this cruise, so don’t let
any of my subsequent comments disabuse you of that notion.
·
The highlight of the post pre-Christmas season
was that all our kids were with us and that we were able to celebrate the birth
of our Savior together. Our
church, Sacred Heart, had a terrific crowd at both Masses on Christmas
Eve (and I presume on Christmas), so the old place soldiers on in faith. See my now seminal 9/29/19 post THANKS,
RON GROSSMAN, AND THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE FOR HELPING A HOLY PLACE WORTHY OF HELP.
Thanks, God, for coming to redeem us and
for keeping the faith alive, even during this season during which the real
meaning of Christmas has been ravaged nearly beyond recognition by the materialistic
bacchanal our society has chosen to make of it.
·
Why do so many people consider washing their hands
after using the bathroom to be such an onerous, backbreaking task that they
have succumbed to the utter futility of even attempting such an impossible
feat? I notice this everywhere I go,
i.e., guys walking straight from the urinal, or, worse, the stall, to the bathroom
door, completely bypassing the sinks, but I noticed it especially on the cruise. Disgusting.
·
Whenever Sue and I hear yet another tale of an outbreak
of norovirus or some other such ghastly affliction breaking out on a cruise
ship, we are not the least bit surprised and do not hold the afflicted cruise
line responsible. How many more “reminders”
can the ships provide to seemingly adult cruisers to wash their hands? See the last bullet point. And I hope this observation does not
dissuade my readers from taking the advice dispensed in the first bullet
point. Just pack prodigious quantities
of hand sanitizer (You can never have enough…anywhere, but especially on a cruise
ship.) and never, ever open a bathroom door, anywhere, with your bare hand. Ever.
·
Referring to the last, and the second, comment…I
am not a big fan of laws, as my regular readers know. But it might make sense to make a law requiring
all bathroom doors to open out so that they can be more easily opened with an
elbow or a posterior, eliminating the need to make open hand contact with said
doors.
·
I’m not much for the death penalty, either, but
perhaps we could re-invigorate it for such offenses as texting while driving
and failure to wash one’s hands after performing the more disgusting yet
necessary bodily functions.
·
While this was a wonderful Christmas season, yours
truly made no progress in getting over the more obsessive aspects of his
thought processes and behavior, as evidenced by several of the previous
comments.
·
I heard lots of things on the news during this
holiday season, which should not be surprising because I rarely am not listening
to, or reading, the news; see the last comment. One particular piece of news I found
especially troubling is that The Kelly Clarkson Show is now the
most popular day time television talk show.
The saving grace of such news is that it stopped dead in its tracks any degree
of sanguinity I may have been developing regarding the future of American
democracy. While I don’t know much
about Kelly Clarkson, other than that her rendition of O, Holy
Night, yours truly’s far and away favorite Christmas carol, is terrific
and that hence she seems to be quite a talented singer. However, I did see an episode of her talk
show in the waiting room of my Subaru dealer while having some service done. (One of the downsides of owning a Subaru, other
than a sudden and nearly irresistible urge to drive far into the woods and hug
trees, is that maintaining these vehicles is nearly as expensive as servicing European
luxury cars, but I digress.) My
conclusion, as it is for any of these popular daytime TV talk shows, was that I
don’t mind if people choose to fritter away their precious time on such fluff
and drivel…as long as their right to vote is immediately canceled after they
have done so on more than, say, three (3) occasions. I
might paraphrase Winston Churchill and observe that the greatest
argument against American democracy is a twenty-minute conversation with any voter
who watches daytime TV talk shows…or just about anything on network prime time television,
while I’m at it. My other conclusion is that I should consider
my local Subaru dealer for service because it has multiple televisions in its
waiting room, one of which is normally tuned to CNBC.
·
One thing my wife and I especially noticed, and
liked, about our cruise was that everyone got along. Race, ethnicity, nationality, social status,
geographical location of home, etc., all faded into irrelevancy. Everyone enjoyed everybody else’s company
and were, generally, courteous and kind to, and genuinely interested in, his or
her shipmates. It was great. People were even nice enough to not cover
their ears and flee in horror during karaoke nights when yours truly
delivered his renditions of Frank’s That’s Life (which, by the
way, I’d like to have played as the recessional hymn at my funeral. Don’t get the wrong idea; the test results
of late have been wonderful, so no exit from this mortal coil by yours truly is
imminent. I just want someone out there
to remember that request when the time comes.) and Nat King Cole’s Unforgettable,
the second dedicated to my lovely, ever patient and tolerant, and wonderful wife. You should have been there; see my first
bullet point.
Merry and blessed Christmas to those of you who celebrate
this wonderful holiday; just because the calendar moves along, the true spirit
of Christmas should remain throughout the year and our entire lives. And happy and prosperous new year to
all of you.
