We survived Christmas
Despite a 7mm kidney stone we had a good Christmas. Naturally, things didn't go quite as we had planned (kidney stones are like the Spanish Inquisition, no one ever expects them) but that's the good thing about retirement, we are free to change plans at the last minute.
I thought that, what with all the last minute changes, I had missed the broadcast of my favorite Christmas movie, "A Christmas Story", but apparently it wasn't shown this year. We couldn't find "It's a Wonderful Life" in the TV listings either. Despite my yearly grumping about the 24 hour a day showings of these movies I find myself missing "A Christmas Story". We made it a point to watch it at least once during the season. Altho' we are much younger than Jean Shepherd, we could relate to his Christmas memories and watching with the grandchildren always led to some nice reminiscing; about furnaces, great big cast iron monsters that lasted for 30+ years and could be fixed by a reasonably handy man, in fact, most of the things in our childhood homes could be fixed by a reasonably handy father or grandmother with some help from a child who enjoyed taking things apart to see how they worked; who was the Red Ryder?, who was little Orphan Annie and did boys really listen to her?; the wonderfulness of department store window displays with miles of trains, the real O gauge trains with all the wonderful detailing and made of real steel, and crowded with toys and mannequins that moved; I may have to buy myself a copy of "A Christmas Story" just for the pleasure of talking about the good old days. Of course, in the interest of honesty, every time we see the scene of the dad changing the flat tire the Grand Pooh Bah has to tell about how much better tires are now, how the manufacturers have improved the stuff they're made of and the design, reminding us that parts of the good old days weren't so great after all.