1. I was doing a bit of cleaning. More like collecting junk to throw away. I came upon a night light I probably hadn’t used in 10 years. I can’t remember why I got it unless I was afraid monsters would get me when I went to the bathroom at night. It had been sitting with a pile of stuff bound for the trash for days. I had second thoughts and figured there must be somewhere I could plug it in in case it was needed. So I plugged it in. I flipped the switch and the bulb immediately blew out. I don’t know what I was expecting after 10 years, but the night light is now officially in the trash.
2. From the ‘good problems’ department. I got a Christmas bonus this week from my job. My boss wrote out a check. Naturally, I wanted to go and cash it. If you don’t have an account at the bank the check is from you just present your driver’s license and sign the back and you’re good to go. The ‘good problem’ came from the fact that the check was for a pretty nice chunk of change. The woman who was helping me actually had me wait while she left and got on the phone. It turned out she was calling my boss to make sure he had written the check and that I wasn’t some thief trying to fleece him with a forgery. That’s the first time that’s ever happened.
3. A fun little game I like to play includes having my chat window open on Facebook. What I do is look at my friends online, typically 12 names fit without having to scroll down. I then imagine what a get-together including all of them would look like. I wonder what types of friend groups I’d have, whether family would get along, or having to introduce strangers to each other. Hey, it could be worse. I could do that same sort of game but have little dolls representing everyone and reenact scenes.
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| Getting ready to play Facebook Chat. |
4. I waited until Christmas morning to wrap the gifts I had. There was one large gift and the rest were all smaller in size. I decided to wrap the smaller ones first since it would be quicker. Big mistake. While wrapping the big gift, one for my mother, I ran out of wrapping paper. I needed a solution rather than bringing the gift over half-wrapped. My brilliant idea was to use a few promotional posters I was given with one of my books. I put them blank side up and finished the wrapping job with them. Foolish, yes, but also resourceful.
5. Hilarity ensued on Christmas. It began with my sister Ashley’s dog Buddha barking nonstop at our aunt who he rarely sees. This went on for probably two hours. The true hilarity came when it was dinner time. Buddha who had been barking at her nonstop decided to be good and go beg for food from our aunt once he ran out of options with the rest of us. As you can see his hunger tops any stranger danger he might have. Hopefully, no white vans offer him candy on the streets.
6. As many of you know I have been sober for going on 4 ½ years. That fact became a superpower on Christmas Eve. As everyone at the party was getting various degrees of inebriated I was standing back and taking notes on some of the fun and foolish things being said and done. Obviously, they’re all my friends so there (likely) won’t be any blackmailing. Plus I’m staring down 50 in a few years I can’t go acting like a rowdy teen anymore, no matter how young I might appear.
7. I hadn’t been into Vitamin Shoppe in quite a while. In the days before COVID, I was in there a lot for supplements, etc for my own fitness. In the time since COVID, it’s been more of finding things in the supermarket or ordering online. That meant that when I went in and the young girl working asked if she could help me I had to actually ask for help rather than knowing what I was looking for. This could have been dangerous if she wanted to try to upsell me on the most expensive products. Luckily I got out of there with only a few things.
8. I have become a big fan of the Outdoor Boys YouTube channel. It’s a father in Alaska who does lots of cool survival camping sometimes with his three sons. They have nearly 12 million subscribers so a lot of others like them too. Perhaps the greatest thing I have learned from the Outdoor Boys is how good putting butter on oatmeal is. That has changed my world. If you haven’t tried it I highly recommend it. If you don’t like oatmeal just try it with loads of butter and cinnamon and sugar, maybe chocolate, or peanut butter. It’ll be just like candy, very healthy.
9. I’ve been on a kick of watching Larry Bird highlights. It makes me feel lucky that I grew up where I did and when I did as I got to watch him in his prime. An unintended side effect is my realization of how much I love the old 1980s sports uniforms, not just basketball. Maybe it’s just the old logos but I love the Mavericks and Cavaliers in basketball. The Padres, Expos, Astros, and Pirates in baseball. The Oilers, Buccaneers, and even the old Patriots uniforms in football. They all remind me of my childhood.
10. I’m a big fan of the hydromassage beds at Planet Fitness. It makes my Black Card membership worth it. Anyway, I was next in line for one of the 2 beds. They said a 5-minute wait. I sat down and waited and noticed a man leaving the hydro room. So I went in. For some reason, he had left before the 10-minute massage time was done. Rather than let that go to waste I jumped on and got 3 extra minutes. Then when that was finished the other bed, the one I was signed up for, was ready. So I got 10 minutes there. Before my time was done I saw the other bed was ready to go again. I figured this was for another member but when my 10 minutes was up nobody had come in or was in sight. I debated getting another round of hydro but figured that I’d jump on that bed and someone would show up and yell. So I just left.
