Category Archives: christmas

christmas, weather

The Weather Outside Is …

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The weather outside is frightful, …

Not really. It is cold and starting to blow, but the snow has not yet started. The weather critters are now predicting the snow to start in the early AM tomorrow. That is a shame because the funeral and interment of our friend’s mother is tomorrow morning. We’ll have to see if it is as raw and blustery as predicted. I hope not. I would be happy if it held off until Christmas Eve, but I suspect my wishes will have little effect.

Today it got up to a blazing 35 after yesterday’s 60 degree balm. Since most of the snow was melted for the first time in a while, it was a good opportunity to perform poop patrol in Molly’s yard. I’ve never figured out how a medium sized dog can poop so much. I think babies and dogs must poop their body weight every few days. In any case, since the temperature was above my shorts threshold of 20 degrees, I was out cleaning the yard in shorts and jacket. Is it any wonder my neighbors think I may have a few screws loose?

L heads down from the mountains tomorrow for Christmas here. I am really looking forward to that. The Son will be working in the mountains over the holidays. For some reason this year seems not to have the normal Christmas feel about it. I’d assume it was just me, but other people have mentioned the same feeling. Maybe we are all just turning into old curmudgeons.

Time to get some real work done.  I’ll leave you with this thought:

christmas, image, santa

How does he do it?

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In todays Frazz (a comic) the suggestion is made that Santa can afford the toys he gives every year by licensing his image. At first glance, it seems like a pretty good idea. But then, the scientist part of me wants to check it out a bit more in depth. So …

According to the International Database (IDB) , the current world population is between 6 and 7 billion people. Further looking at the age demographics for several countries and making an eyeball guess, we discover that less than a third of that population is “Santa eligible” (that is under 18 years of age). So Santa has to get gifts for approximately 2 billion kids.

Now let us be somewhat conservative and assume that Santa’s burdened cost per kid for gifts is $25. That is, the cost of the gifts and delivery totals $25. (After all there are costs associated with keeping a team of reindeer and a supersonic sled in operational shape.) So Santa has to make
          ($25/kid)  X (2 billion kids) = $50 billion
just to cover the gift and delivery costs.

There are 365 days per year (ignoring leap years), so each day Santa has to make
          ($50 billion) / 365 = $136,986,301.37 per day =~ $136,986,301 per day
from his image licensing.

Let’s be generous and assume that Santa gets his image out there 100,000 times each day on average around the world. Then he has to get
        ($136,986,301) / 100,000 = $1,369.86 =~ $1,370
 per licensed image display.

Now if we go to a site like Phototour and fill out the form for licensing as a full page cover photo in an ad for a press run of 100,000, we find out that the fee for a photo of a farm and barn is around $650. I assume that personal images like Santa would be worth more. Likewise, TV appearances would be more expensive. So coming up with an average of $1,370 per image exposure might indeed be possible. (Always assuming that Santa doesn’t become so overexposed that no one will pay for his image anymore.)

So there you have it. Santa pays for the Christmas extravaganza by licensing his image for all the advertising every year. Now we know how he does it. {*grin*}

christmas, park

Merry Christmas

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Walking home from the radio show this morning was a winter wonderland. Even at 9am it was still below zero and the hoar frost covered all the trees and bushes. Since the journey to the station and back is only a couple of miles, I usually walk to the park and do a few miles there before returning to the house. That way I get my daily mileage in and get some private time since I don’t (or won’t) answer my phone while walking in the morning. The only bad thing was the breeze that dropped the wind chill down to -35 or lower. Made it painful to take off my gloves to use my cell phone to snap pictures of the wonderland I was walking through. But I did it for you, my loyal readers. So without further ado, here is some what I saw as I wondered the park this morning.




Merry Christmas to All
And to All a Good Night
christmas, council, meeting, radio show

Christmas is almost here …

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… and I just got home from the last city council meeting of this year. We had to meet tonight to have the second readings and public hearings on a couple of items that needed to be signed and in force before the end of the year. Mostly contract related. We also allocated some remaining funds for projects that can be done with money from this year next year. One of them is an eagle scout project in one park, another is an expansion of the seating at the veterans memorial in another park, and the last is the minimal buildout of a curb cut on a state highway whose permit will expire if not built shortly. Pretty much standard end of the year stuff.

You know you live in a small town when … someone asks your mother if you are OK since you didn’t blog last night. Just to alleviate any concerns, I am fine. I was busy working on some computer stuff last night and it was too late to post by the time I finished up. But thanks for the concern. Mom called this afternoon to finalize plans for Christmas Eve and she mentioned that she had been asked about the absence of a blog post and was I OK? That is encouraging to me for several reasons, not the least of which is that there are actually people reading what I write. I always have the underlying fear that my blog bears a closer resemblance to post-nasal drip of the brain than a readable flood of interesting words. It is also nice to hear that people care!

I am waiting for my wife to get home from the mountains as I write this. It will be so nice to have her home for a few days. This time of the year can feel very lonely when you are batching it. But at least I got most of the cleaning done and tomorrow we can finish decorating the tree for the group gathering tomorrow night. Christmas will be pretty low key here at the homestead this year. The son is up in the mountains working over college break, so it will just be L, Molly, and me along with our moms and maybe a few other guests that would otherwise be alone over the holiday.

Tomorrow doesn’t look to be too busy. I’ll get up and walk down to the radio station for the radio show early in the morning. Speaking of which, I sometimes think that people care more about the radio show that about the city council actions it features. I can’t believe the number of people I run into that tell me that they heard the show and really look forward to it each week. That is amazing on several counts: 1) they actually listened to the show rather than turning that dial, 2) so many of them don’t live in this town,  3) the topics that they heard on the show prompts them to ask questions, and 4) they will at least listen to the radio show even if they don’t attend the council meetings. I was talking to the president of the local community college the other day and he was very complementary on my use of the radio show to keep the community informed. I found it kind of amusing. I do it because I like to hear myself talk! {*grin*}

After the radio show, I’ll walk back home and get some last minute wrapping done.  Then I need to start our traditional Christmas Eve oyster stew cooking so it can simmer and be ready to eat early. There is the church service for people to attend and then the gathering of people here to snack and talk and await Santa. Any more, the number of Santa unaware kids has shrunk to a few, so I doubt Santa will show up here at the house. He’ll catch them overnight at their own houses. On Christmas day we are migrating over to mom’s house for Christmas dinner. My MIL and mom worked it out amidst themselves so Thanksgiving was at MIL’s house and Christmas Day will be a mom’s house. (It pays to live in the same town as your mom and MIL – there is some else to cook!)

Well, Molly seems to think she hears a car so L must be here. Later.

christmas, grandpa, winter, writer's challenge

A favorite winter memory

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Mama Kat’s writer’s challenge for this week allowed me to choose to write about a favorite winter memory. I figured I would also combine it with Christmas and kill two birds with one stone.

I remember the winter season around Christmas the year when I was 9 or 10 with special fondness. That was the year that I got my first shotgun for Christmas and my brother got a rifle. It snowed afresh a few days after Christmas. We were living in a small Nebraska town at the time, across the street from Grandpa and Grandma J. The fresh coating of snow and subzero temperature made for perfect rabbit hunting weather. The snow meant that the rabbit tracks would be visible and easy to follow in the overcast dimness of the day.

Grandpa, dad, my brother and I went down to the creek bottom and began hiking along the creek looking for fresh tracks. Looking back on it today, I realize that grandpa and dad didn’t even bring their guns, a pretty sure hint that they were doing this for us boys rather than for table meat. Over the years I have become pretty certain that the whole hunting trip was more to instruct and check out how responsible my brother and I were with our new guns than to bring home anything edible. At the time, no such thought even entered my head. My senses were full with the crispness of the day, the joy of traipsing along the creek bank, eagerly looking for signs of game, the seemingly endless variations in shades of gray and brown in the dim overcast light, and the time spent with grandpa and dad.

Although we saw several rabbits, they remained safe from both my brother and I. Our aim was pretty poor, even considering how excited we were and the fact we were using brand new guns. My brother and I tried out each others guns with no better result. It didn’t matter to us. We were hunting with grandpa and dad. The world was a good place.

After several hours of walking along the creek, it was time to head back home. We were happy and tired. And I think we all got something out of the hike and talking. Sadly, it was one of the only times I would ever go hunting with my grandfather. The next year we moved back here to the town where I now live and about 100 miles from grandpa J. By the time I was old enough to drive, he and grandma had begun to suffer ill health. They were eventually moved to a house down the alley from where we lived so that there was someone to take care of them.

(Writing this brought to mind how different my two grandfathers were and yet how they shared certain things when it came to the grandkids. I’ll have to use that as a topic in the future.)


Editted to add: The next post, Grandfathers, does just that.