I’ve decided that writing a blog post on the day before, of, or after Christmas is like lighting yourself on fire in Antarctica. It might be hot stuff, but no one’s around to appreciate it. Except yourself, of course, though self-appreciation is basically mental masturbation. Nevertheless, I’m duty bound to provide at least the semblance of a post, lest I be outblogged and overshadowed by such worthy stalwarts as Greg and Steve (I’ve never met Steve, but his facial hair post pretty much made me a believer).
The flight across the Midwest was as miserable as I expected it would be, given my sickly condition. I left LA at 8:45pm Christmas Eve and flew into Phoenix, endured a 1.75 hour layover, then caught another connection to Chi-town which took a little less than 4 hours. 3.25 hours after that, I finally arrived in Madison at 7:44 Christmas morning.
Speaking of Antarctica, Wisconsin was not the snowbound, blizzards 24/7, air-so-cold-your-thoughts-freeze place I had expected. I blame my sister Stephanie, whose forecasts of White Christmas had me tingling the week before. Instead, I was greeted with just over par temperatures (that’s 33 to you), the ground a muddy, gravelly mixture of dirty snow and thawing ground. And flat.
I didn’t read Little House in the Big Woods, about winters so harsh the government eventually had to outlaw them, for nothing as a child. You can bet I demanded a recount, and quite stridently. The Supreme Court of Winter has seemingly spoken, however. The weekly forecast shows temps in the high thirties the rest of this week.
Gypped once again. I blame Bush (global warming son of a so-and-so).
Yes, I know gypped is politcally incorrect. Let’s move on.
Despite my red eyes prompted by both sickliness and the flight (having not slept at all), I still managed to enjoy Christmas with my sister and her family, including two very excited kids, though I sacked out early afternoon and dozed on the living room floor for a couple of hours, which caught me up until after the evening meal, after which I retired and slept a blessed twelve hours.
I have more to blog yet, including more observations from the airport, but that can wait. I stand to get a good nine hours in tonight, and hopefully by tomorrow morning I will be feeling better.
Merry Christmas, in case you didn’t hear.