Getting in the holiday spirit

as presented by Nate

Hello chums.  It's that time of year when there's lot of family gatherings to go to, delicious wintry food to eat, and hopefully, plenty of celebrating.  

The reason I'm feeling all holiday-ish is because I just listened to A Charlie Brown Christmas, and up now is John Denver and the Muppets. My two absolute favorite xmas albums EVER.

This year looks to be the first time I'll be spending the holidays in California since I was too young to remember.  Last year was an awesome xmas: back home in Montana, wonderful snow, almost all of my brothers, my future wife, my best friend, it was amazing.  I suppose since I spent basically all of my childhood christmases in Montana, it is pretty much my ideal place to be for the holidays.  And I LOVE the cold and the snow.  Careening down a hillside over fresh fluffy snow and wiping out is one of the greatest things ever.  (As long as you don't break your kneecap on the way down!) Also, make sure to bring hot chocolate (in the metal thermos, so it doesn't get cold too fast) and some snacks.  I always thought bringing extra socks would be excessive, when I was getting ready to go, but I always wished I had them for the ride home. 

Side story:

Bros! Do you remember the winter when it snowed 2 feet ON xmas day?!  Pretty much one of the sweetest days ever.  

We piled the snow up in a heap beside the garage and slid or jumped off the roof.  It was like landing in a giant stack of pillows.  

Man, this time of year is easily my favorite.  Some people like the springtime when everything is blooming and green, but for me nothing beats the late fall/early winter.  This is the best time to bake tasty treats to enjoy, tea and cocoa are more delicious, I get to wear sweatshirts...  most of my favorite clothes are a little heavier and basically impossible to wear in any other season, especially since I tend to feel more on the warm side than most other people, it seems.

Bros! Remember listening to the Denver + Muppets xmas all the time on the old silver stereo on tape? Man, so sweet.

I suppose some aspects of winter can become more of a burden when you get older. Snow tires, driving conditions, things freezing...   But thinking about those days when you're only job was to play (homework? who needs homework?) just makes me feel good.  Like decorating the tree with mom.  Or sneaking cookies out of the downstairs freezer.  Or playing four player Diddy Kong Racing.

Sigh. Man, the holidays sure are awesome, right?  I was super lucky while in New York to be able to have some excellent christmases with my sister in-law's (Jen's) parents.  Joe and Nancy are super hospitable and really awesome to take in an extra guest.  I hope they know how much I appreciated being able to go up there.  I should really send them an xmas card...

I might be starting to sound sappy or something, but I'm just feeling grateful for my super kick-a** family.  Family is definitely what makes the holidays special.  Man, this John D and the Muppets really makes me feel all sentimental and reminiscent and peaceful.  The Muppets effing rule.  Same with Chuck Brown and the Vince Guaraldi Trio.

And on that note... check out this awesome video from youtube. (if I embed it right!)

Inside joke of the week:  'Are those your house keys or your car keys?'  (Nick referencing Pat living in his car, which our mother was not aware of at the time)

Potpourri

thoughts by Nate

What's weird now is that, at least around here, you have to buy gallons of milk two at a time.  Well, you don't HAVE to, but if you don't it's more expensive per gallon. it's like 3.89 for one or 5.19 for two. 

I hate the term BOGO (buy one get one).  Mostly because it's annoying, but also because it's incomplete.  It should be said BOGOF (buy one get one FREE, as that is the damn point).  This also irks me because I used the acronym bogof before stupid JCPenny used bogo in their annoying commercials. 

I'm a fan of acronyms.  Unless they suck.

Fall is Julie and my favorite time for specialty flavored treats.  Pumpkin spice and eggnog everything.  Delicious.

I like it when it's cold enough to wear sweatshirts.

Why do a lot of the things that are necessary to lead a healthy lifestyle such a pain in the a**?

I haven't had a good scary dream in a while.  Like one containing monsters or fiends.  I wonder when this stopped.  I can't remember the last time I confronted a ghoul or a beast in my dreams.  It's mostly adventures now.

Is anybody else worried about the apocalypse of 2012?  The Mayan calendar, everybody.  Winter solstice, 2012.  I should do more research on this.  I never gave the 2000 thing a second thought.  Hmmm.

It is going to suck to walk slowly when I'm old.

When we have kids, we're going to have to go to their holiday concerts and such, and it's going to be boring.  Or maybe because my child is in it, it won't be boring.  If I had to watch the same concerts that I was in when I was young, I would have hated it.

I'm tired of doing things in increments of five.

The end.

Fun word to say of the week:  Amalgamation.

Vote Today, and other things

as written by Nate

The election is upon us.

For the first time, I actually got out there to the polls. Before, it's not that I wasn't interested in voting or politics, but I definitely felt like my single count didn't matter. Especially in the presidential election. I was also, and still am,  opposed to the two party system. I don't know how it would be changed for the better, all I know is that I don't like it. For me it doesn't work to only vote Democrat on everything (although I tend to lean more that way). I dunno. I guess I don't have a good argument against it, I just don't love the system we have in place. But thinking about it now, I suppose that it's good that there are only a couple main candidates to choose from. Having too many choices would make the decision more difficult and more muddled.

-tangent alert-

Speaking of making decisions quickly, everyone should read the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.  It's about snap-decision making using your unconscious brain.  The book opens up a whole ton of stuff you probably didn't know about before. How the unconscious can affect what we think, while consciously we declare something else entirely. Far from a dry read about the brain and thinking, the author puts in a ton of anecdotal evidence and makes the book completely enjoyable. It would definitely be of interest to my poker-playing friends out there. There is an interesting test you can take online called the IAT (Implicit Association Test) that can shed some light on unconscious prejudices.

go to:   https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit

-tangent over-

Anyway, this time around I decided to vote. I don't think apathy or defeatism is the way to go about a wise and healthy life. A quote by one of my favorite bands helped me along with this thinking.  'People say, well, if they don't care, then why should I care?  I say, if I don't care, why should anyone care?'  I am taking that to heart. I'm definitely fired up about a few of the issues here in CA, and it's about time I started speaking my mind.  I don't want this to be a political issues blog, so I'll just say I am fed up with discrimination and closed-mindedness.  

That being said, time to get to the polls. It's an exciting feeling to be able to speak your mind about whatever issues you want and not be put in jail for it, like in some areas of the world. So, I am celebrating that fact by putting my opinion out there, be it right or wrong.

Anyway, this might be sounding a little preachy or something, even though I'm not trying to make it like that.  I might say 'anyway' too often. Oh well. Time to go.

The Blazing Apartment Building

As told by: Nate

I awoke in the middle of the night with the need to use the bathroom.  I staggered out of bed towards my goal, when I noticed a strange light coming through the frontroom window.  It looked like a rotating orange light, like the one you see on top of some types of work trucks.  I thought to myself, 'who the hell is working on stuff at this time in the morning?' (It's about 3AM) So I walk to the sliding glass door by our balcony to try and look out into the courtyard to see what is going on.  When I came up to the glass, I saw the palm tree between our apartment building and the next completely ablaze.  Not just a little bit on fire, but like a complete raging flame.  Needless to say, I was stunned and a bit scared.  I hollered for Julie, still in bed, to call 911.  She brought the phone out to me, saw what was going on, and then opened the sliding door, yelling for everyone to get up.  In my groggy state, I fumbled with the phone until I remembered I have to hit 'send' for the call to actually work.  While I was on the phone with the dispatcher, the roof of the other building caught fire.  Julie was already heading out the door to wake others up, and to get the apartment manager who knows everyone and could make sure everyone is outside and safe.  I threw on some clothes and ran outside when I saw someone from the building across from us training a hose on the fire.  I hooked up the hose on the backside of our building and started spraying water towards the flame.  It didn't take very long for the garden hose to become completely useless, as the entire frontroom window of the top apartment was completely orange with fire, and the glass started popping from the heat.  I managed to put out the palm tree and bushes that were burning, hoping to stop the spread of the fire to other vegetation and other apartments.  At this point the fire was getting really intense and we were directed to go get some things from our place before getting outside and across the street.  The fire trucks arrived shortly thereafter and everyone made their way around the backside of the other building to get to the street safely.  At this point all we could do was watch.  It was a good thing that the fire fighters entered the scene when they did because the fire was contained to one building.  The top two apartments were completely destroyed, but they actually saved pretty much all of the furniture from one of the bottom ones.  The other bottom apartment was actually unoccupied as the tenant moved out only a day or so before!  

If you could look outside our window to where this palm tree is, you would agree just how lucky Julie and I are.  We could feel the heat from the flame when Julie opened the door to wake the neighbors.  There are bushes lining the front side of our building, as well as shrubs and trees on the side.  I haven't heard any conclusion to the investigation, but the word on the street was that it could have possibly been a stray cigarette tossed into the ground by those bushes in front of the building.  Crazy how one tiny little thing like that could cause so much destruction.

Tip of the week:  Count your blessings.