eggwards | Dec. 22nd, 2004

Yesterday it was partly sunny and 70. Today it's raining, and the temperature is dropping, expecting to land in the 20's by Friday, bringing a holiday chill to the air. At it will seem like Christmas. Hopefully it won't be a problem traveling tomorrow night.

Last night I made a run around town to finish the Xmas shopping. I spent time in a semi-crowded mall with a whole bunch of other people wandering aimlessly looking for a gift. My main mission was trying to find a decent present for my two upline bosses, which are both women. I have to admit that I don't buy a lot of women's gifts, so I'm not good at knowing what women want. I'm even worse at knowing what they want under $15 (because I found, under $10 was really unrealistic). A trip to Bath and Body works finally did the trick.

I also found something for my mother, which will really turn into something for my Dad, which will be fine for me if they both enjoy it. Books are good. It's a book about the life of George Washington that I heard about on NPR, and knowing that Dad's already read the John Adams book and a few other books about the founding fathers, I'm sure he'll pick it up eventually. my big quest was to get Mom away from the constant flow of radio talk-show host books she's been reading, so this should do the trick, nicely.

As I was traveling around town, I heard not once, but twice ads about "You can't have Christmas without Christ". Someone is actually buying ad time for that, not only that, but it's filled with a cheesy 1980's sounding rap in the background. I don't know whether to be offended of sad. All I want is Santa Claus and jingle Bells and Peace on earth and you to leave me alone, dang it! Geez! It's gotten worse!

I know I hear this more than most of you, simply because of my listening habits and living here in wonderful Texas, but it does hit like a hammer sometimes. What ever happened to tolerance? now that conservatives have won, it went out the window. As Elvis Costello said, "What's so funny about Peace, Love and Understanding?"

I also heard that those that don't love christmas and the commercialism of it are unAmerican. The new Mccarthism grows.

Otherwise, as I was doing a couple of long laps around Memorial City Mall (which is a large mall), my back was starting to tell me it wasn't having a good time of it. Still, I had to trudge on, shopping away. Even this morning I'm having a little more trouble than I've had in the last few days. I had talked to Spanky (Greg is his real name) at Tubachristmas about my back problems and he suggested a book of exercises that I ordered last night, having not found it at Borders last night.

I got the results of the MRI yesterday, and I've got a disc in my back that's acting up in some way. I'm not sure what it's doing. My doctor is recommending I see a neurosurgeon about this. I'm seeing dollar signs.

I'm also seeing a problem in scheduling time for that, having to make a special trip, and with Christmas, New Years, and Tucson all coming up, wedging in another day for that consultation, and possible surgery(eeep!) is making my head spin right now.

And what I really wanted was Lasik, darn.

Oh, happy birthday to cubby Robert (