Happy New Year
Hi Guys:
Think back to when your kids were little and you know what Christmas was for me this year. While I dislike Christmas and its commercialism, cliche though that sentiment is, in particular it bothers me that my kids have so many things, and so many of the same kind of things. I often feel at odds with Charlene, if not the entire free world, about this. It's bad enough that those weaselly marketers have figured out how to advertise and package every toy to produce a predictable Pavlovian response in my kids, but then my wife conditions them with "rewards," albeit small ones, every time they go out shopping (which seems to be more days than not). And the irony is, that when I play with them, which is a great deal and I now have the bad back to prove it, we hardly use any of that stuff. When Brindle was alive, she got an immense amount of my attention and affection, but her "toys" were rocks (literally), and she taught me that what dogs and kids really want is your time and love. Now, I bought the Playstation and computers, and I don't have too big a problem with Barbie and Transformers, but how much of this stuff do they need? It is to the point where their rooms are so crammed with stuff that it is tough to move around. Maybe I'm just aggravated because it took me over two hours to put together the latest Hot Wheels track (32 pages of bad instructions!).
On the positive side, this was my "off year" regarding visiting the in-laws, whom I actually get along with fine. We have an agreement that while Charlene can visit her family in San Diego whenever she wants, which is usually once or twice a year and certainly at Christmas, I only am obligated to go every other year. This is my off year, so that means that I get a "vacation" (a week or so after XMas) where I finally get a chance to sleep (When the family is here, I generally get 5 hours or so, though rarely without interuption) and catch up (a little bit) on various tasks. I did get a chance to go to my brother's and then cousin's for New Year's Eve and learned that my car (I've had a Prius for a couple of years now) will not engage its gasoline engine when in traction-control mode. Translation: snow and hills don't mix well for that car, but despite a couple of close calls and inconvenience, made it there and back OK.
No New Year's resolutions for me; how 'bout you? I still haven't heard from Kip and Greg, but I'll try to contact Kip and get that technophobe to take a look at this blog. As for Greg, I haven't gotten a response of any kind from him in years; don't know why. I'll try again. While I just invited you guys to join this blog as you're the ones I care about, if you feel like there's anyone you'd like to join, that's fine with me. So feel free to send out invites to others if you like, and if you can't, let me know and I'll do so from this end. In any case, I don't think any of us have the time to post frequently, but my goal is to get a little something up every couple of weeks or so. I look forward to your posts, guys, and wish a Happy New Year to you and yours.
Dave
Think back to when your kids were little and you know what Christmas was for me this year. While I dislike Christmas and its commercialism, cliche though that sentiment is, in particular it bothers me that my kids have so many things, and so many of the same kind of things. I often feel at odds with Charlene, if not the entire free world, about this. It's bad enough that those weaselly marketers have figured out how to advertise and package every toy to produce a predictable Pavlovian response in my kids, but then my wife conditions them with "rewards," albeit small ones, every time they go out shopping (which seems to be more days than not). And the irony is, that when I play with them, which is a great deal and I now have the bad back to prove it, we hardly use any of that stuff. When Brindle was alive, she got an immense amount of my attention and affection, but her "toys" were rocks (literally), and she taught me that what dogs and kids really want is your time and love. Now, I bought the Playstation and computers, and I don't have too big a problem with Barbie and Transformers, but how much of this stuff do they need? It is to the point where their rooms are so crammed with stuff that it is tough to move around. Maybe I'm just aggravated because it took me over two hours to put together the latest Hot Wheels track (32 pages of bad instructions!).
On the positive side, this was my "off year" regarding visiting the in-laws, whom I actually get along with fine. We have an agreement that while Charlene can visit her family in San Diego whenever she wants, which is usually once or twice a year and certainly at Christmas, I only am obligated to go every other year. This is my off year, so that means that I get a "vacation" (a week or so after XMas) where I finally get a chance to sleep (When the family is here, I generally get 5 hours or so, though rarely without interuption) and catch up (a little bit) on various tasks. I did get a chance to go to my brother's and then cousin's for New Year's Eve and learned that my car (I've had a Prius for a couple of years now) will not engage its gasoline engine when in traction-control mode. Translation: snow and hills don't mix well for that car, but despite a couple of close calls and inconvenience, made it there and back OK.
No New Year's resolutions for me; how 'bout you? I still haven't heard from Kip and Greg, but I'll try to contact Kip and get that technophobe to take a look at this blog. As for Greg, I haven't gotten a response of any kind from him in years; don't know why. I'll try again. While I just invited you guys to join this blog as you're the ones I care about, if you feel like there's anyone you'd like to join, that's fine with me. So feel free to send out invites to others if you like, and if you can't, let me know and I'll do so from this end. In any case, I don't think any of us have the time to post frequently, but my goal is to get a little something up every couple of weeks or so. I look forward to your posts, guys, and wish a Happy New Year to you and yours.
Dave
posted by Dead Man Blogging at 2:22 PM
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