fine whine

The previous two entries were a lot shorter than many I wrote lately, and I won't elaborate on them too much now either. I was in the thumb area of Michigan, an hour's drive from Canada, at my in-laws' place. It's a small house in a small town and I can't help but feel considerable distance from everybody and everything there. I don't think it's snobbery or some superiority complex (at least I'd hope not) but I don't feel any kinship with anybody there, her parents especially, particularly when they take us across the border for a day's worth of shopping and a hockey game they expected to be lackluster and then described as worse than boring. Their characterization and opinion of the hockey game would fit my perception of the shopping spree, and I cannot help but wonder if I somehow offended them by not buying anything. I'm not anti-consumer, I just don't want to buy anything right now.

I'm still having trouble getting into the whole spirit of the season thing. In the next weeks I will have to make or break family appointments for holiday time, and that prospect only aggravates me. I came up with a concise statement that conveys exactly what I mean: "Nobody gets what they want for Christmas" which is admittedly an oversimplification but it works for me and is somewhat catchy. I can see it serving as the tagline for a black comedy at Christmastime. It may fit Bad Santa, I don't know for sure but I can watch it to find out; I'd like to see it anyway.

I was reminded of an early topic I'd mentioned once, the Toyota Sequoia. They're still huge monstrosities and I still dislike them, but one gave me a laugh on the highway today. Its license plate was BLIGH and it was all I could do to keep myself from hopping out of the car and adding the missing T with a Sharpie. Well, the fact that he was doing 85 mph to my 75 was another good reason. And incidentally this is only the second (of over eighty) post to use a capital letter, and the first to mention "I" (though there are a couple "me"s here and there). You're welcome for that; I'm just trying to make things easier for the scholars of the future.