Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Holiday Rant #185

I try hard not to let myself get bogged down by holiday angst or pettiness. But . . . not the easiest thing to do. Take this afternoon, for instance. I get home from work and remember that my first obligation is to free up the mailbox . . . again. The poor thing has been held hostage by snow terrorists for weeks on-end this winter, the upshot of which is we may not get our mail. I grab my trusty shovel and dig in.

After the township plow has had its way with the snow in the road, it's not quite as fluffy and light as it may have been while falling. Such was the case today. I worked at it for about 15 minutes and was making great progress until . . . SNAP! my trusty shovel broke off right at the base of the shaft. Alas, I don't have a spare shovel so that's all I can do today.

On my way back to the house, I look up to find that the string of lights that I put up YESTERDAY is dark over 30% of its run. Now where's the justice in that? I realize that I only paid $6.99 for the damn thing (300 lights, roughly $.02 per light BFD!), but I don't want the cheapest price I can find. I'm fine with paying $50 if I get something that will work for the next 10 years. I'll never understand the rationale for the lowest possible price. Never.

OK, so my next challenge is trying to find a way to secure the holiday card cum tip for the newspaper carrier to the mailbox referenced earlier. Yesterday I placed it in the slot for the paper and in the dark, he missed it. Tonight I thought I'd tape it to the box. The box being plastic and all, and the temp being below freezing, that didn't work either. I finally grabbed some push pins and used a hammer to pound the pins through the envelope into the plastic. Now unless some joy rider sees it in the middle of the night and lifts it, my guy should get his just reward. I need this guy to be happy since the daily newspaper is holy to me. I know most of the world doesn't get that anymore, but whatever.

I'm 45 minutes into my evening and striking out on every front. However, I'd just come from meeting two friends at a local watering hole and learned that one was leaving tomorrow to meet up with his extended family in the UP (Michigan) and he was SOOO excited. The other was glowing about his two weeks in Ireland last month and the fantastic music he heard in the country pubs. They tell me that the English pubs are dying, but apparently they're getting on famously in Ireland. At any rate, my little domestic problems pale compared to folks enjoying their families and their cultural exchanges with new friends. That's what counts after all.

2 comments:

  1. Fantastic. We broke a shovel this week as well, but we didn't hammer push pins into our mailbox! Kudos!

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  2. It sounds like a scene from "Christmas Vacation."

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