2023 : We Hardly Knew Ye

Hello Folks. We’re officially one week out from Christmas. What does that mean? Well, it means that we’re only two weeks out from New Year’s Day. That means that 2023 is an old geezer of a year and that 2024’s water is about to break. My sense of time and the passage of time has […]

Christmas, 1988 : The Stockin’ Was Rockin’

Christmas, 1988. I was a newly-minted 15-year old, in the prime of a dorky and awkward teenage existence. I didn’t play sports, got bi-weekly allergy shots, had a mere handful of friends(the kind you spend lots of time with, not the kind you bide your time with in Algebra or English Comp), and spent most […]

“The Stockings Were Hung, On The Wall With A Nail…”

Now that I’m nearly 50-years old I can say Christmas doesn’t really do it for me anymore. I’m not religious, so that’s a big mark against the true reason for the season. But really, it’s a just a big hassle; expectations, expensive, the clutter of the decorations all thru the house, and Christmas songs. I […]

Christmas Blues : Clapton, Beck, Page, Dad & Me

It was the Christmas of 1988. I was a budding guitarist who had just received his first electric guitar, a 1986 Fender Squier Stratocaster, for his 14th birthday a mere three weeks before. Prior to that, the last two years were spent toiling on a generic dreadnought acoustic with the kind of action that’s meant […]

Baby J And The Reason For The Season

I’m not a religious person. I grew up in a house with the vague understanding that there was a God that would smite you if you didn’t behave, so you always tried your best to be a good person. What does that mean to be a good person? Think of others over yourself, help a […]

Post-Christmas Post

So how did you all fare? Did you survive the Christmas push to insanity? Did those kids of yours appreciate the underwear and cheap aftershave(or perfume) you left in the stockings with care? How did that experimental, gluten-free fruit cake turn out the wife made? I bet you couldn’t get your uncle Frank to put […]

“Mom’s cooking chicken and collard greens”

We’re just a mere few hours away before midnight hits and Santa comes down the chimney(or for us chimney-lacking folks he uses the key under the “welcome” mat.) So make sure you’ve got those milk and cookies waiting out for the big guy and the dog is secured, otherwise you’ll be getting coal in your […]

Holidaze

Man, it’s been quite the holiday freakout. It’s been a haze of paint fumes and Sauder manuals since last Saturday but it all came to a head on Tuesday night when everyone had moved into their own little corner of the world. I don’t think my son even remembers what it’s like to have space […]

Christmas. It’s finally here(did it ever leave?)

It seems like it was only yesterday we were frantically trying to finish those last minute touch-ups in the kids rooms before Christmas. Wait, that was yesterday. That was the big gift, you know. That the kids all have their own rooms. That doesn’t seem like much of a gift, but when you have a […]

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year(?)

It seems like it was only yesterday that we were arguing about who was going to go outside and take Christmas lights down in sub-zero temps, carry box after box of ornaments and decorative Santas back downstairs to their place of slumber under said stairs, and find a spot in that torn up Christmas tree […]