Just In Time For Christmas...

 

...a shiny new <Camp Snap 8> video camera. 

Made to look like the old super-8 hand held movie cameras of the '80s and '90s, it's actually a very simple point and shoot digital movie camera.

Believe it or not, this isn't my toy...

...but rather something Karen insisted on.

It takes decent video and audio, easily downloaded to your phone or pc:

No special lighting; it was early morning and I just turned it on pressed the trigger for 15 or 20 seconds.

Lots of reviews on line, most very positive for its simplicity and nostalgic look and feel.

In my world it would be perfect if they made a shoulder mounted version that mimicked the full size VHS camcorders I used...

...when videotaping all my sons' sporting events 30 years ago.

I suspect this will get some use at our upcoming Christmas night get together with family.

More to come.

In the Rip Roaring Great News department, today is the winter solstice...

if those stones could sing, they'd warble that old standby, "nobody knows the crazies I've seen"

...when we celebrate the official start of winter, while maintaining a judicious distance from all the looney toons who celebrate the official start of winter.

Is that confusing?

Allow me to explain:

Today is the shortest day / longest night of the year, which 'round these parts translates as 9 hours and 1 minute of daylight, and 14 hours and 59 minutes of night.

That means from now on the days will be getting longer!

If that doesn't merit a resounding Woo-hoo! I'll be a <yellow-bellied sapsucker>'s uncle (granting the monkeys a well-earned literary day off here).

Eagerly counting down the <days until Spring>...

In spite of Ol' Man Winter's early shenanigans...

...we're headed for a green Christmas after all:

Not exactly sunny and warm, but still beats snow and ice.

Well, unless you like to do any of these things...

...in which case you have my sincere sympathy.

But not my empathy, because I'd rather do this...

another adventure in the Vale Of Everlasting Sorrows

...than that any day of the week.

This week's version of Twenty Three Skidoo has been canceled due to lack of interest.

Instead we're moving directly to the <farewell and adieu Spanish ladies> segment...

...where Captain Q bids his favorite mate a pleasant journey.

Here's one that's a bit more sincere and well-meaning:

24  The LORD bless thee and keep thee:

25  The LORD make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:

26  The LORD lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

    - Numbers 6:24-26

later, mcm fans...

If The Weather Geeks Are Right...

...over the next week all of this: 

...will turn into this:

Well, maybe not right away, but I can dream, can't I?

That means in spite of all the snow we've had since late November...

...and we've had plenty - we could be looking at a green Christmas this year.

If I was 10 that would break my heart - but somehow, in the ensuing 6 decades that have zipped by since then, I've managed to get over it.

So I say let's have a tropical Christmas:

<Mele Kalikimaka>, y'all.

No matter the weather, Christmas is fast rushing upon us so it's time once again for my annual PSA*:

Less than 2 weeks 'til Christmas...

...and every mouse...had fled frozen fields for the warmth of my house.

My wife found their droppings and said, "I'm not pleased, to think that these varmints are taking their ease...

"...inside my warm dwelling; this outrage won't stand!

What will you do?"  Then I raised my hand:

"These mice, they are finished!  Kaput and Kersplatz!

No way they'll survive 'cause we have 3 cats!"

Then we beheld our three desperados...

Kitty...

...and Loki...

...and Buddy El Gato.

Disciples of Garfield were these lazy creatures,

with eating and sleeping their dominant features.

Ignoring these three hebetudinous chaps,

I scrounged all around 'til I found an old trap.

And later that evening 'ere mice came a-creeping,

I set the cruel deadfall then got busy sleeping.

So early next 'morn, at dawn's early light,

I sprang from my bed to find what I might.

But what did my wondering eyes finally see,

but a clean, empty trap and a note left for me:

"Thanks for the cheese, but what would be better,

instead of old muenster, could we have fresh cheddar?"

"And what's with this platter?" my mousy pals asked.

"We might have been killed if we hadn't been fast!"

'Twas then that I thought of the great Robert Burns

and his famous lament to a mouse that he turned,

Out of warm hearth and home as he plowed in his field.

Did I want to partake in his life time of guilt?

The best laid plans, it is easy to see,

Gang aft agley and I think you'll agree,

There was nothing to do but give them their cheddar.

After all, 'twas Christmas, and what could be better,

Than showing the love God has for His swarm,

by letting them stay inside where it's warm?

So out went the trap, but the mice?  Man alive!

We're quite overrun but I guess we'll survive.

And lifting a quote from St. Nick's yearly flight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!"

original artwork by Diane Dempsey

* not the prostate thing; a Public Service Announcement.

you're welcome.

Well this has been a bunch of fluff, so in keeping with the spirit of just going through the motions, let's...

...to wit:

no idea who these people are but at least the dad had the decency to wear a suit and tie while enjoying an informal singalong with his 1950's family

recently risked life and limb to put a star on top of our blue spruce Christmas tree at the edge of our yard.  one slip on the ladder...

...and I would have been a big snowball at the bottom of the hill.

best chicken pot pie in the universe, courtesy of Karen

a couple of young bucks and their escort wandering the neighborhood

a rare glimpse of a winter sunrise

no blog entry is complete without ragging on the worst people in the world.

Q: does the big blue D stand for dishonest, disgusting or delusional?

A: you bet it does.

I've been reading through the Old Testament lately, jumping around a bit.

Currently plowing through I Samuel and the depressing story of King Saul.

Described as physically very impressive - 

"there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people"

    - I Samuel 9:2

- yet he was found lacking in the most important quality for any of God's children:  that of obedience.

When given a clear command from God, he disobeyed; the prophet Samuel was sent to deliver the bad news:

"22  And Samuel said, hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

"23  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.  Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, He hath also rejected thee from being king."

    - I Samuel 15:22,23

There are two great truths in Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation:

* one is salvation is the free gift of God; it can't be bought or earned, only accepted by faith in His Son Jesus Christ, <Ephesians 2:8,9>;  - and -

* the other is if we want to enjoy this free gift, we must obey.

later, mcm fans...

December 7, 1941...

...a date which will live in infamy. 

<NEVER FORGET>

On a personal note, it was Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor that prompted my father to enlist in the Army.

A native New Yorker, the Army gave him a taste of southern life when they stationed him at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana.  It was his job to train pilots in celestial navigation.

He was engaged to be married when he enlisted, but over the course of the next few years he met and fell in love with a Southern Belle from the tiny town of Haughton, Louisiana.

An honorable man, my father sent a letter to his betrothed in New York and said they needed to get married "now".

She replied it was too soon; they could finalize their nuptials once the war ended.

He sent a follow up letter telling her in essence, it was now or never; she wrote back with her firm decision:  never.

So one sunny June day in 1944, my father and his southern delight said "I do".

A decade later they were busy raising three sons, of which I am the middle child.

I eventually raised 5 sons, and between all of them, they're raising my 15 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren.

In a real sense, if not for this day 84 years ago, none of us would exist today.

My story is hardly unique; it was repeated in various forms and different places thousands of times then, and continues today.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."

    - Roman 8:28

God's truth in action.

Just how dumb...

Senator Mark Warner, D-VA

...are democrats, really?

Unless you live under a rock (or have the IQ of a typical democrat senator) you're aware the FBI recently arrested the <J6 Pipe Bomber>.

ever a slave to "The Narrative", here's more crack reporting from Jake Joke Tapper, this time on the J6 Pipe Bomber: "white man" Brian Cole, Jr.

Since January 6th of 2021 the case had languished under Biden's FBI, unsolved for four years and officially a "cold case".

There was plenty of evidence, but like Biden himself, the FBI under Chris Wray was both impotent and incompetent, not to mention highly politicized.

Enter FBI Director Kash Patel, along with Deputy Director Dan Bongino, and now, less than a year after taking office, the case has been solved and the <perpetrator arrested>.

Great news, right?

Democrat Senator Mark Warner from Virginia was interviewed about this and incredibly, he wondered why Patel and crew hadn't solved it before now.

Paraphrasing the half-wit, he said if they hadn't diverted FBI agents to immigration issues, they could have had the suspect in custody sooner.

Democrats had the White House and the FBI for the past four years, and couldn't solve this case.

Trump is elected, takes office in late January, and the case is solved before Christmas.

Democrats are neither serious nor intelligent.

May the good Lord in heaven protect us from morons.

Also filed under the category of "Hmm, Things That Make You Go", we recently ordered some woodland creature ornaments for our Christmas tree:

Our order was split into two shipments, and here's one of them:

I kid you not; the tiny little ornament you see was the sole occupant of that oversized box.

You have to marvel at the thought process resulting in that shipping decision.

If things don't work out for them in the private sector - and obviously, they shouldn't - they have a bright future feeding at the public trough in government.

On the subject of decorating, this year Karen decided to tamp down the Christmas Tornado intensity from EF5 to something more akin to gentle snow flurries.

I give you the 2025 version of The Castle Frankenstein at Christmas...outside:

...and in:

It's true, she has sprinkled some of her pixie decorating dust on most places in and around our home, but compared to years past this is pretty low key.

Surprisingly, that suits both of us just fine.

We'll be packing it up and putting it all away in 3 weeks anyway.

Now there's a thought.

When faced with the onslaught of unrelenting winter...

...there's only one thing to do - 23 skidoo:

more outdoor decor...courtyard wreaths

Larry shared this with me:

a snow day when we were kids...

...and a snow day now.  pathetic.

and speaking of Larry...last sunrise at his cottage in 2025...he closed it up for another winter.

helpful schedule for your winter days from now until New Year's

don't know about you, but suddenly I'm a big Hoosiers fan

Interminable winter has been tightening its grip lately, rendering the warm breezes and verdant scents of summer a distant memory.

Even so, I'm still swinging my hickories - outside - after shoveling off one of my tees and clearing enough space for a full swing.

Not hitting anything, of course, but working on muscle memory, grooving my swing in hopes - when Spring does finally return to our currently frozen climes - I won't be starting from scratch - again.

Now, if I can just apply that same dedication to my spiritual life - being steadfast in reading God's Word and praying - I might make some progress in things that actually matter.

"For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

    - I Timothy 4:8

later, mcm fans...