Christmas Past

Kost Radio has been playing Christmas songs since Dec 1, and when I get aggravated with Talk Radio, I turn it on and sing along, when I can. Sometimes I don't recognize the song or the singer. Yesterday, I heard Johnny Mathis' "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas." Words & Music by Meredith Wilson, 1951. (can you believe he has been singing for 50 years?) Now that is a song I know, and I have heard all the recordings over the years, Johnny's is my favorite.

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One of the lines is: "A pair of Hopalong boots and a pistol that shoots Is the wish of Barney and Ben; "and that really had the memories going for the rest of my commute. Because that was my wish too. Now Hopalong Cassidy is one of the first television shows that I can remember since it was on late afternoon. Forget Uncle Miltie, I wasn't allowed to stay up that late. Anyhoose, Hoppy was my first celebrity crush. He often was in the Rose Parade during the 50's and somewhere in the box of my mom's pictures there is one they took one of him bending down and shaking my hand when I was 5 or 6. I was thrilled, didn't come down for days.

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It may have been that Christmas that I got my cowboy boots, and hat and a cardboard replica of his horse Topper. It was a sandwich board contraption that had straps that hung from your shoulders and in my vivid imagination I was riding with Hopalong. Imagine my despair when I carelessly left it out side and it rained. I woke up to a pulpy mess and was inconsolable. I am sure my folks had sent away for it with a boxtop offer of some kind so it was irreplacable, even if they had the money. Now a days we could go to Ebay to find one so our children won't be disappointed, but I received a lesson from my folks when I was so disappointed at my loss. You have to take care of the things that are important to you. Well I out grew the boots and hat and the crush. However, at my age it only takes a picture or a line from a song to make the memories start to flow.

5 Reasons I don't like taking the train

I commute to work by Metrolink about 3-4 times a week. It is a great thing! Today as I took the shuttle to the station and I was enduring our resident loud mouth. I realized that there were a few things about commuting that I don't like:

1. I don't have my car with me to run errands on my lunch hour. This could also read not having an hour for lunch to run errands.

2. The aforementioned loud mouth, "Michelle" is vulgar, chews with her mouth open, laughs like a donkey, and if I were the evening shuttle driver guy, I would sue the city for creating a hostile working environment. Subtle flirting is not a concept with which she is aquainted.

3. I have a job that I love, however, many of the women on the shuttle work for the county department of social services and they do not LOVE their jobs.

4. My shuttle driver to and from my home station, (my husband) won't let me drive to the station 'cause he does not want to leave the car or truck in the parking lot all day. So I can't run errands on my way home. Taking me and picking me up are things on his to do list and there is no deviation from the to do list.

5. I could only think of 4 things, but it occurs to me that I really like taking the train, it is the Shuttling I don't like.

Oh well, maybe tomorrow it will be 5 things I like about taking the train,
since there is nothing good about the shuttle.

UPS and Fedex at my door

One other new thing I am doing is ordering about 90% of by holiday gifts on line. I am not a newby to shopping online, however, I search all my catalogs in October and November, promptly toss them and then forget to order. Not this time!

It is ironic that this year I am on top of online shopping, however, with 2 of the kids going to be in Hawaii on the 25th. I could shop the after Christmas Sales. I still might. We are going to celebrate Serbian Orthodox Christmas on Jan 7th in Santa Barbara with my oldest daughter and SIL. That should be interesting!

My UPS guy delivers about the time I get home and I love to have the packages pile up at the door, and the thrill of opening and inspecting the contents, marveling at my ability to select just the right thing for everyone on my list AND as an extra bonus, here in sunny CA our UPS guy is still in his shorts and he has nice legs and a cute behind. AHH, Holiday Blessings ........!

Well I finally screwed up the courage

To Blog...
This is my first attempt, my daughter has a blog and she seems to have a great time. As I was looking through the other sites here I finally found some that weren't twenty-somethings and so I decided to take the plunge.

Christmas is fast approaching and I just have 4 more days until I have 3 weeks off. With my 23 years + at my job I have finally accrued enough time to really vacation. One week is not enough time I have to go back to work to get a`rest, two weeks are restful, three weeks a luxury, I probably won't want to go back!

I have a retired husband and our empty nest was very cozy until youngest chick decided to go back to school and come back to the nest. So we will be taking some time away from home for a few days. Oldest daughter and hubby are going to Hawaii, we are going my brother's for Christmas Eve, so Christmas Day will be a restful no company day.

Well this was a booring, first post. I will have to gather thoughts to post. I am looking at this as a chance to journal, vent, and remember.........