My daughter is having a big Xmas party today, and she doesn’t sound thrilled about it — the in-laws are coming to visit, and she’s doing all the cooking. We’re not adding to the burden though, because she’s in Madison, and a 7 hour drive is just too much for us this week.
Middle son is really far out of reach. He’s in Korea for two weeks!
We were planning on visiting our oldest son in St Cloud, only two hours away, but then we saw the weather alert for Christmas day: “Mixed precipitation expected. Total snow accumulations of up to one inch and ice accumulations of around a tenth of an inch. Winds gusting as high as 40 mph.”
I think Mary and I are trapped together, alone in an icebound house for Xmas day. I don’t exactly have a Xmas feast prepared either, but I did make a simple lentil soup. It’ll help us stay warm.
Meanwhile, several of the webcomics I follow have a tradition of taking a week or two off this time of year, and they make low-effort filler strips that can be weirdly entertaining. Oglaf (NSFW!) has True Slut Adventures, Unspeakable Vault (of Doom) has a Mandatory Xmas Strip, and Questionable Content features a week of Bembo the Bembarian which, this time around, is perfect for me.
We’re all taking it easy (except for poor Skatje) today and this week. I hope you’re all enjoying some slack for the holidays!
Why do we choose to do all of this celebration and traveling at the worst time of the year? This time of year I just crawl into a hole in the ground and hibernate. My fam wants me to come home but I don’t drive and I hate the bus. Also rural Oregon SUCKS. There’s a reason I never leave Portland.
Meanwhile in Oz the east coast has been battered by storms for the last three days. Where I live, there have been 3 thunderstorms with hail in the last 36 hours.
On the other side of the continent bush fires are destroying people’s homes.
Mid 70s and rainy here today. Will drop into low 40s this weekend. We had a brief flurry of snow or ice rain in 2010. Very rare.
Reading stuff and maybe watch some football and/or basketball later on today. Happy holidays to all.
Ray Ceeya @ 1
(I know this was a rhetorical question, but:)
For most of its history, most people didn’t travel any farther than they could walk in a day, and the celebrating was all within the same village — walking door to door. Back then, it was an excellent time of year — farming was done for the year, excess livestock were being slaughtered and salted down, and because of the dark and the weather, you didn’t want to travel very far, so what else was there to do but annoy the neighbors with carousing and extorting liquor and food from the better-off folks (i.e., “wassailing”)?
Ugh… I got press-ganged into a 5 AM to 1:30 PM CST shift. I’ve only taken one call in the two-and-a-half hours I’ve been on the phones. It’s peaceful, but I’d rather be back in bed right now.
Mmmmm… Sleep. That’s where I’m a Viking!
Just stepped outside to fill up the bird feeder.
It’s still quite warm around here, but the horizontal rain makes it quite unpleasant anyway.
So my Christmas plans are: Stay at home, read and watch the new Doctor Who episode later today.
Also looking for a new bike helmet online – decided I should better get a new one after the encounter with the low branch last summer.
I am visiting my sister’s family, now that my branch of out extended family is nearly extinct in the town where I live. It is fun meeting younger relatives.
Reading: Try “Peripheral” or “Eversion”.
Recreation: I like watching “abridged” fan-based versions of anime/comics, you can try the stuff by Team Four Star : “Hellsing” abridged is fun (and the Vatican is getting what it deserves).
Other recommended watching at Youtube: Hazbin Hotel.
I’ve been watching my favorite Holiday-themed MST3K and RiffTrax episodes and shorts off-and-on all weekend. Tonight, after dinner, I’m planning on watching “The Lion In Winter.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z97fk4mIJwU
Wife off to visit her family for the day. Roughly 30 people (3/4 of them Trumpers) packed into a manufactured home designed for three. Myself, I’m gonna skip this super-spreader event and stay home. Take a walk around the block, read a bit, maybe take in a video game, nap …
Blame autistic social anxiety and good sense.
I’ve campaigned for years for a low key Christmas. When our son was a little guy that wasn’t happening. To put some perspective on it: one year when he was 6 or 7 we had 8 Christmas trees in our house, two or three of them fully decorated. Most of that was done on Christmas Eve because Delancey Street Foundation did a tree give away for donations on Christmas Eve.
That was a lot of work.
This year is a little calmer. No tree…not even the fake one we used the last couple of years. No present exchange between my partner and I, so I don’t have to come up with something that she’ll hate. A simple meal with our son this afternoon, and later a walk with him and the two guide dogs we are fostering at this time.
Still there’s a fair amount of stress over even that. I’m not a big fan of Christmas.
Yeah, good idea.
We did the same thing long ago.
Xmas is a very stressful time of year for many people for many reasons.
A lot of people are estranged from the parents or on the run from them and this just reminds them of their horror childhood. It’s high, 27%-a little over one quarter of the population, are estranged from at least one parent.
The gift exchange for adults is also pointless. The adults in our family just buy what they want or need. They don’t need a wild guess for something they wouldn’t buy themselves. And the presents they really want, I don’t care to buy for them. A new SUV car? Pay off your kid’s $80,000 student loan? That RV vehicle that costs $200 to fill up with gas?
Here is the data on adult child-parent estrangement. The USA can be a hard place to live in.
Today is just another day for me. I plan to spend it getting some C++ code I’ve written (an unbounded integer, a big decimal, and a rational number) all tested and posted on my website.
My extended family are pretty much all Trumpistas, and I don’t interact with them any more.
I don’t watch enough TV to justify getting cable, so all my TV watching is over the air. Tonight will probably be just DW News and BBC World News America on PBS’ World Channel. I’m able to receive a TV station in downstate Illinois* that shows the classic Doctor Who stories; but tonight will be parts 2 and 3 of The Mark of the Rani which I don’t like very much.
*WPXS-TV, Mount Vernon. The on-line TV Guide lists it on channel 13-2, but I get it on 51-3, no doubt a repeater for the St. Louis market.
Just as well, norovirus is making the rounds with a vengeance in this region (at a minimum, looks like continent wide, to judge by some reports I’ve found). Granddaughter got it last week, just was released from the hospital yesterday for intussusception that reduced during diagnostic imaging (which is also the first course of treatment, as inflation frequently will displace the intestine into its proper position) and then last night, I began to show symptoms and being over two hours away, had no familial exposure.
Only exposure route I might have is contact via elevator controls and at the store. My money’s on the elevator and missing a hand washing upon return to the apartment.
mordred @ 6, personally, been looking at a 22 quart pressure cooker, some quart canning jars and some replacement LED lightbulbs (found a 24 pack of daylight bulbs for $24).
I would love to spend a quiet day at home with my wife…but as of Thursday, it will 18 months since she died.
whheydt @ 16, same here. Lost mine two years come the tail end of March.
I usually visit my brother and his family who live less than 20 miles away, but this year I started testing positive for Covid a few days ago and still tested positive this morning, so it’s Christmas at home alone for me. On the plus side, it has been a very mild case, perhaps because I just got a booster shot in early November.
Well, a holiday gift for all, courtesy of the Michigan GOP.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/20/politics/michigan-gop-financial-turmoil-infighting-invs/index.html
Witness them eating their own, as their farthest right blow up their house.
My brother lives next door.
We see each other at least twice a week.
Nice relaxed Christmas family lunch for me. Boxing Day already here and watching the traditional Test cricket match now. Well, listening on radio anyhow with TV on but muted. Australia batting first against Pakistan are now 1 / 90 at lunch with Warner out caught Babar bowled Salman for 38 and Usman Khwaja not out 36.
Hope everyone else here and all the regulars have had or are still having good day and festive season whether and whatever y’all celebrate. Enjoy, refresh and find some happiness. Best wishes and hopes for an actual bit of peace and goodwill unto all.*
.* Okay, almost all. All the good people anyhow. The nazis, Repugs and our LNP scumbags, Trump cultists and the likes of arms dealers, etc.. not so much. But otherwise and still..
PS. Happy 55th anniversary for the Apollo 8 flight that flew the first humans beyond Earth’s orbit , circled the Moon and took the iconic Earthrise photo :
https://www.space.com/apollo-8-moon-mission-55th-anniversary-artemis-2-astronaut-exclusive
Lentil soup sounds nice.
Should I cook the lentils first or cook them in the broth?
I always cook my lentils in the broth, so that they can take up some of the flavor from the broth.
I’d be surprised if no one has mentioned this before, but you might enjoy the manga “Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?” (So I’m a Spider, So What?) About a girl who dies and reincarnates in another world as a spider monster. Got a nice mix of action and comedy, definitely a good read.
Oh, a vegetarian suggestion for soups and stews, artichoke bottoms. A bit of a nuisance to find, but yummy!
Got some from a food bank donation to our apartment building, been searching for the damned things ever since. I want at least 3 cans on my pantry shelf!
it’s just you, mary, and the spides. sounds like a wonderfully relaxing holiday.
Dunno if PZ is into Timberwolves basketball, but I’m watching a 3-pointer battle between them and the Thunder. Don’t really know what the backcourt rolling thing is about. Too much like soccer.
“The plan is dead, long live the plan!”
I visited my family for brunch and my wife’s family for dinner on Christmas eve eve. Obligations completed. As a veteran of the war on Christmas, I have to say: Happy Holidays, comrade!
Here in the frozen wastelands of Canada, we had rain on the permafrost regions at the extreme North of Quebec on Christmas Day. In Montreal we might have frost Friday night. And the leading candidate for the next prime minister doesn’t believe in climate change.
we had a small, quiet family christmas with my wife, our daughter, and her mother. it was pleasant. we got a few cm’s of wet, sloppy snow just in time for going back to the office today
A lot OT, but…
Daihatsu, the Japanese automaker owned by Toyota, has halted domestic production after admitting it forged the results of safety tests for its vehicles for more than 30 years.
This, on the heels of Cummins, a diesel engine manufacturer being fined 1.6 billion dollars for faking emissions testing and facilitating falsified testing post-production.
Of the two, let’s review. Cummins admitted to no guilt, just paid the fine and hopes some rug sweeping under will make things right.
Toyota placed a third party in place to review irregularities in safety test data and other practices and self-reported.
Who do you think I’m more inclined to trust in the future? If you said Toyota, we’re of a like mind!
I would trust Cummins way more. They can’t really do another emissions scandal given they have to switch to making electric drivetrains. Whereas Toyota has shown they are quite capable to have the wheels fall off an electric car, not just gasoline ones.
I dunno, I’ve more faith in Tesla, whose autopilot behaves more like a guided missile dedicated for impacting emergency vehicles and the latest recall, for ejection seats (car door locks open in an accident).