No one celebrates the shortest day of the year. Even the pagans don’t bother to hold a party for it. For Summer Solstice they’ll rent out Stonehenge and break out the Phish concert bootlegs but for the Winter Solstice the universal reaction is “Screw this, it is too freaking cold outside to do anything.” So while my idol Fitzgerald was correct in Gatsby in saying that we all look forward to the longest day of the year but do nothing to celebrate it he neglected to mention that we all dread the shortest day of the year but avoid any actions to fix it either. I mean, shouldn’t we all be out lighting candles or something in a plea to have the large yellow ball returned to our sky?
(Apologies to my Australian readership, which I apparently actually have now, as this is the complete opposite of what you are experiencing at the moment. I’d suggest pulling up one of my June 20th posts where I mention Daisy Buchanan and rue wistfully over what it means to catch a clock in one’s hands.)
What is strange is that I don’t really dislike winter. The short days do bother me and I hate driving home in the dark (though my laziness does allow me to drive to work in the sunlight). But I actually enjoy a good snowfall blanketing the world in a pure white sheen. Right now, my readers are having three reactions to this statement. 1) The people who are experiencing blizzards at the moment are raising their shovels in anger and threatening to inflict bodily harm on me once they can get their car out of the driveway. 2) The people whose only knowledge of a blizzard comes from Dairy Queen are wondering why in the world would anyone want to live in a land that requires wearing long sleeves. 3) And the three people who actually live in Delaware are going, “What do you mean, winter? There is no snow on the ground.”
Yes, even though the entire country is apparently blanketed by one of the worst storms in memory there is no snow on the ground where I live. Woke up this morning to a little bit of ice that was melting off the trees but that is it. People are complaining about a biting wind but it is forty degrees out. I’m still wearing my fall jacket. Apparently there is no winter in Delaware. Just a fall that forgot to pay its electricity bill.
Anyway, like most people this is going to be one of those weeks that exist solely for vacation purposes only. Even when I am in the office it is going to be such a sparse crowd that it won’t actually feel like work. It is a bit disconcerting that so many people have to take vacation because otherwise they would lose it (which reminds me to book my trips now) but at least it shows that people get time off. But really this is going to be a quiet week. Not sure what I’ll do on the blog though I might try to get in one more random toy post. Just all of the other odds and ends of my childhood memories as well as some Christmas thoughts near the end of the week. And who knows, if all else fails I’ll tell more dating stories. Those are always good for a laugh.
Best of 120 Minutes: We’re going to kick it old school with a video that technically wasn’t in the 120 Minutes rotation but probably should have been: Run DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis”. Yes, this song is more than 20 years old. Dear lord, do I feel old now.
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