I'm not sure where the time has gone. (If I'd kept up the journal, maybe I'd know!) I do know that I went to Wisconsin to give a speech because the really important people weren't about to go to Wisconsin in December. It snowed and I had to drive a rent-car in the dark. Even one of my competitors skipped this fun and I volunteered to fill his time, too, with another speech.

Driving on the snow was easy, even if ice was forming on my windshield unless I ran the defroster at a rate that instantly chapped my lips.

Driving on the newly formed ice on good old US 183 the other day proved trickier. I saw the ice and cars about fifty feet ahead backed up from the exit and at a dead stop. Tap brake. How silly. However, it did induce a slow motion drift to the right and shoulder. I was already going pretty slow. I thought 'turn into the skid' but also 'go straight and you'll go up that guy's tailpipe up there.' So I let it drift to the shoulder and the front right tire settled into the concrete barrier and I was stopped. Whew. Ka-boom. Oops. My back end was in the road and someone came zipping along, braked to no avail. A quick exchange of insurance stuff during which I thought I would fall and kill myself on the ice. (Thank goodness for hiking boots.) A couple of calls to the police concluding with the fact that something else would freeze over before they could attend an non-injury accident on this day. No one was hurt.

Well, not much anyway. I babied my right knee with ice. My knees apparently found the steering column or something. I discovered the left one hurt a little, too. After about twelve hours I had a pretty stiff neck. I used heat on that and it went away.

Today I got on the floor to hold Chalow while she got her medicine. And I rested on my left knee getting up. Ouch. Well, they never swelled up and I can walk on them. But remind me to not get down on my knees and pray!

Which brings me to Chalow. She has a liver infection. Also her vet says she's overweight. And he can't clean her teeth because he can't put her under because of the liver thing. So she's all doggy breath and begging for treats we aren't supposed to let her have. She's licking the bowl clean from the reduced rations. She doesn't seem sick. The vet thinks it isn't too bad and will clear up. I hope so.

I'm on vacation until 2001. I'm sure I'll wonder on January 2 where the time went. We have a bunch of social endeavors. Dinner at people's houses. Invitations to receptions on New Year's Day and on Christmas Day. We'll take the parents out and also spend some time with them, opening presents and visiting. I plan a few ritual jigsaw puzzles with my parents. I've found that Dad will play if the puzzle is actually a map. On the agenda for this holiday is a Texas road map we've put together before and a map of the Middle East I ordered from an ebay trader. We've done the Texas one a few other times. I'm always amazed that Dad knows where all these places are in the state. We'll see how he fares with the Middle East.

Things like putting together puzzles and playing games are my best holiday memories. The giving and receiving of gifts are overrated activities.

I decided at some point in the last couple of years that I would give gifts when I felt like it, on cue from no one. That I'd spend as little or as much as I liked. That I'd receive heartfelt gifts gratefully. That I'd accept gifts as the symbols they are and disassociate the material thing.

Has it worked? Yeah, I think so. I don't make a list with bazillion people on it and then desperately try to get them something, get it wrapped, get it delivered.

We bought our parents things to open, since we will be with them on the day. Mostly we got them at the BookStore and we gave a donation for some Girl Scouts to (inexpertly) wrap them. I bought Baby Jack, my great nephew a couple of toys and books. I let my Mom put her name on one of them and she did the wrapping.

I bought my friend LG something the other day. But I didn't wrap it. And it wasn't really a special occasion. And I only paid eight bucks. It was a great gift, though.

Mom wanted to send people presents. So I did go through my Christmas wrap and supplies and got her some stuff to use. I helped her pick out some small presents and picked up some local candy for my aunt and uncle. She made sugared pecans for some people. And some cookies. And I stood in line at the mailing place with one pile after another to be boxed and mailed.

As usual I made a bunch of my relatives a birthday calendar. My aunts (Dad's sisters) like the calendar and always thank me for it. My sister likes it, too.

Maybe I'm a scrooge but I like this attitude. When you get a present from me, it isn't duty. I'm really thinking about you. Really.

I got some presents, of course. Homemade candy. Some cool socks. Mom wanted to buy me something so I took her to Borders and pointed out two calendars I wanted. And a book I thought Forrest would like. She picked some calendars for other people on her list and got a book for Dad, too. Even if I have rejected the commercialism of Christmas...I can be an enabler!

And then there is the matter of holiday cards. Let me just say that I like the idea of cards.

For one thing, if you do it then you kind of survey your acquaintances, friends, relatives, etc. once a year. This is useful for pretending to keep up. Even if they don't send one, the fact that the P.O. doesn't return the card says something. They are still where you last left them.

Of course, my list is an Access data base. Every year I let people start sending cards. I stack up the ones with return addresses and I cleanse my list, correcting addresses. Then I go through it and flag the ones I plan to send. I eliminate the deceased. (It seems I have at least one to eliminate each year. That always gives me the proper pause to understand that life is finite.) I have lots of acquaintances and even friends who aren't on the list. Just never got a mailing address in there somehow and they don't send cards. Still, the list is a monster. After an initial culling of ones I planned to send a card, I still had 238 names to wrestle through the integration with WORD to put on labels. I decided against a few after labels were printed.

There are always people I don't recognize on the list. Sometimes FFP knows who they are. Sometimes not. Puzzling.

Then there is the matter of cards. We could go buy some. Or we could stick Santa clip art around a snappy 'Happy Whatever Holiday You Celebrate' in an obscure font. But no. We won't send a card unless we come up with something, um, sort of clever. This is in the eye of the beholder, of course. We think they are clever. Until we've printed and folded over 200 and written something cheery in real handwriting at the bottom of each one. Then it seems trite and stupid. But other people like them sometimes. Already we received one note, kind of a long one at that, from someone who doesn't send cards but just got this supposedly cleaver thing from us and sent this nice note talking about books she's read and everything. And it had been a while and I almost, almost didn't send that card.

So, what was our card this year? Well, it pretended to be a printout of an e-mail from me to Santa, cc FFP. It was all about I don't need anything. And so it wouldn't be all boring and black and white and so I could use up an entire color ink cartridge printing them...I decorated it with ebay Santa collectible pictures. (Of course, I cleverly tied the ebay collection into the e-mail. Well, not so cleverly maybe.)

Even though I'm all tell-all-every-day here, I can't bring myself to write one of those Christmas letters that give a blow-by-blow. Don't get me wrong. I love it when other people do it. I avidly read about other people's travels and kids and illnesses and epiphanies. I read every word of everyone I get. I just can't send one. Can't do it.

And while I'm on the subject. The holiday. In the matter of decorating. I usually don't do much. Last year we had an elaborate outdoor display. We didn't put it up this year. We are going to build a driveway and the driveway people have been going to show up for about three months. Still haven't. But we didn't think flamingos pulling a sled with Santmingo needed to be where they were going to work.

And I need that driveway, too. Because my old Civic is not exactly driveable because one turn signal assembly hangs by a thread and the back door won't close now that I foolishly opened it. An adjustor came today and wrote it up and took pictures. He was amazingly cheerful given that the ice storm means he probably won't be doing his Christmas shopping on time. I have, of course, already moved on. Yes, a new 2001 Civic Ex. So, anyway, I need that driveway to display my junk car while I await insurance action. Heck, I could put some lights on it and...

Which reminds me of 37th Street. Our locally famous lighted chaos. Drove the old folks down that street the other night. It's so great. SuRu and I hope to light the dogs and take them on a walk down the street the night after Christmas, weather permitting. Walking allows you to fully appreciate it. Lighting up yourself and your dogs really adds to the spirit. See I told you I had great plans for the holiday.

Oh...but before I got on that tangent, I was talking about decorating. Well, at work I displayed a gaggle of Santas including the ones shown on the chalk tray. I'm redecorating at work. I removed six boxes of bendies and Gumby memorabilia. (At the moment, our ten-by-ten climate-controlled storage unit has only these six boxes in it.) People were shocked. The flamingos and flying pigs are still there. Now. The problem is, no one ever dusted. I have to redecorate to clean the place. But I'm prepared for the future because I bought a Texas ostrich feather duster. So whatever gee-gaws I display I can dust them. Why the company can't clean my office, I don't know. Well, maybe I do know.

As to decorations inside the house. I put the cards we got around the fireplace. And I artistically arranged a bunch of ornaments on the dining table. Well, anyway, I got out the ornaments, treeless though they are. There are some cool ones and I like to display them but trees are too much trouble.