It's That Time Again

Poe and the lights
I could swear that we just took down all of the Christmas decorations from 2003. Wasn't it just yesterday that Jenne and I packed up all of the ornaments, lights and artificial garlands, climbed the ladder into the attic and neatly stacked it all? Time is most definitely an illusion.

When I was a little kid (both mentally and physically) it seemed that time passed at the blazing speed of a tortoise... on it's back with it's little legs kicking in the air. Now, as an almost forty adult (physically, not mentally) eleven months has passed at the blazing speed of a hare on... well on speed. It's tradition in our house to decorate on the Friday immediately following Thanksgiving. Except that one time about two years ago when I had to work that Friday at the SLJ* known as Mike's Train Hell. Anyway, this year was no exception, except that instead of starting and finishing all in one day we spread it out over three days. Mostly this happened because we had a lot of stuff planned this year with family and friends. To me, and most guys, the most dreaded part of decorating is stringing up the lights. We all know how this usually goes. Unpack lights, plug them in and make sure they light up, replace burned out bulbs, put strand on tree, plug in, try to figure out why they won't light, remove from tree, plug in and the little bastards light up, put back on tree, plug in and the little bastards don't light up, remove from tree and trash them, go to store on the day after Thanksgiving cursing the holidays and buying new lights, and so it would go. Fortunately that didn't happen this year. Only one strand, the last one, didn't light after I put it on the tree, but a non-cursing, non-swearing systematic check of the bulbs resolved the issue. Only one minor glitch this year and no need for holiday therapy... yet. Our cats Poe and San have, as usual been very well behaved around the tree. They feigned interest in the lights and ornaments as if it were obligatory for them to do so. "Oh look shiney things, lets bat at them and get shooed off". They sniffed around a bit, lazily batted at a few lights that we had layed on the floor for testing, and then off they ran to catch up on their daily seventeen hours of sleep. Generally they have enjoyed lying under the tree or sitting on their cat perch staring at the lights. Crack for cats. So far a good start to the holidays.

*Shitty Little Job