Bad Boys
12/12/21 07:17
I got a little ahead of myself in last week's post by posting a picture of the SS Cuomo going down in presumably heavy seas. The final nail in the Cuomo coffin saw CNN firing Fredo for allegedly using company resources to investigate the women charging his brother, the governor of New York, with sexual crimes ranging from groping to unwanted sexual advances. Another story surfaced yesterday about sexual misconduct on the part of Fredo while working for either CNN or some other network. It was a bridge too far even for CNN which, to this day, has the masturbator, Jeffrey Toobin, on air after wanking it up on a Zoom call within the last year. Fredo had to go.
These two clownish brothers, the spawn of one Mario Cuomo, who was the governor of New York and a darling of the media back in the day, had a pretty darn good run. Were it not for their oversized egos and their overactive adolescent libidos, they might still be employed in their respective careers as governor and prime time talking head. You can't unsee some of the more ridiculous montages of the two brothers yucking it up in prime time on CNN using swabs and other props to kid each other about issues that their networks wish they had probably taken more seriously. The governor was the first to be ousted only to be followed by Fredo the fool. What took them so long?
That isn't to say that we're seeing any sort of reckoning by any one or more of the networks to get rid of the resident idiots or leftists that continue to use their positions to push ugly narratives that divide our country. It is, however, a good start. I remember hearing something about the executives of CNN wanting to restore the network to a more middle-of-the-road network which was its bread and butter in the not too distant past. I'm not sure when that all changed since I'm not a big CNN watcher but they may have crossed the rubicon during the Trump era. In other words, there was no going back. They had become the defacto propaganda arm of the democrat party. The die was cast.
I haven't been following this Ukraine story too closely so you can imagine my surprise and sheer horror at waking up this morning to learn that Bumbling Joe Biden has a conference call this afternoon with Vladimir Putin to discuss what will happen should Putin proceed with his plans to invade Ukraine. Biden can't find the men's room in the Oval Office for chrissakes due to his advanced demented state so I can't imagine him having a dialogue of any kind with Putin. In fact, having Biden in the position to protect America's interests, whatever they may be in Ukraine, should be of serious concern to every American. He is the proverbial fool on the hill and Putin knows it.
You just never know what you're going to get when you get into an argument with a demented person. We've seen demented Joe fly off the handle in something as mundane as a press conference where he takes questions from designated reporters. We simply can't trust Joey to do the right thing in his call with Putin. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that he threatened Putin directly. This is how unbalanced and unpredictable Biden is as he teeters in and out of reality. Putin knows that Biden is a toothless tiger and is likely to exploit that weakness with great deftness so I suspect that he will get what he wants. The White House will never release a transcript of the call because it would not reflect well on the mental state of the "leader" of one of the most powerful countries on the face of the planet.
I have to believe that the Europeans are very concerned about Bumbling Joe's call with Putin this afternoon. Is this a call you would trust a clown like Biden to manage appropriately? Will they join the United States in whatever it is that Joey negotiates? Have they given Joey the go-ahead to commit them to whatever it is that Joey works out with Putin? Does it mean sending forces or maybe military advisors into Ukraine to assist in the training of Ukranian troops? Does that mean we will be in a proxy war with Russia? Leave it to the fucking democrats. Given the opportunity, they will send American men and women into a war where we will once again shed American blood and treasure.
The thought process is that China is waiting until the Olympics are over before going into Taiwan. This is what happens when you have a weak and demented leader the likes of Joe Biden in the White House. Bad things happen and dictators do what dictators do because they can. You never saw a shit show like this when Trump was in the Oval. They wouldn't fucking dare. No one is afraid of Bumbling Joe and the cast of leftist that he surrounds himself with in Washington. They're more concerned with the rights of the LGBTQ community and inculcating our troops with Critical Race Theory nonsense and that isn't going to end well for anyone much less a great nation like ours. God help us.
I had a couple of errands to run this morning but I think I'll stay close to home where I can listen to Steve Bannon and his War Room show on the Real America's Voice app. He'll break it all down with military precision as only he can seeing as he is ex-military. If you think I sound like a doubting Thomas when it comes to Biden and his abilities as a Commander-in-Chief, Bannon is likely to rip Biden a new one and then some. As Steve loves to remind people, "elections have consequences and stolen elections have catastrophic consequences." He's like to say that this is the moment that we as a nation feared would come sooner rather than later. Well, it's fucking here now. We should be scared. Very scared.
So, now we wait. The call between Putin and Bumbling Joey Biden was not very productive as far as we know. Russia is likely to do whatever it is they planned to do all along with Ukraine Biden and his buffoonery be damned. Russia now has some 200k troops amassed on the border of Ukraine with all the necessary supply lines in place to support a war for however long it takes to conquer a country the size of Ukraine.
The taking of sovereign countries by other countries can't be a good thing but it's important to remember that this is what happens when you have a superpower like the United States hobbled by having an illegitimate president sitting in the Oval Office. Biden and his minions are a laughingstock on the world stage and it's game on for the Russia's and the China's of the world to do as they damn well please.
We cut and run in the backwater of Afghanistan and left our own citizens behind while airlifting tens of thousands of Afghan citizens to safety here in our country. That is not what superpowers do. What has always been a dark day for our country when it comes to our involvement in Afghanistan became even darker after Biden's mismanagement of the pullout. How about those 13 dead marines, bumbling Joe?
For whatever reason, I didn't feel like my usual espresso this morning so I made a cup of coffee using my Melior pot. It's a different vibe to be sure. Will I lay off the espresso for a bit now that I've had a taste of what a cup of coffee actually tastes like? You know, an actual cup and not one of those little espresso cups that leaves your pinky dangling when you lift the cup up to your lips. I do like getting my daily dose of caffeine in maybe two or three sips so there's that. It's extra strong so I like the jolt it gives me and there's a bit less of that when I have a 12 ounce cup of coffee. If I sound like I haven't made a decision yet it's because I haven't. One day at a time, Johnny Boy. One day at a time.
There is snow in the forecast here on the Seacoast. The local forecast doesn't always extend to the seacoast since it's just a few degrees warmer along the coastline and that means little or maybe less snow when the snow finally does arrive. Hell, it may just rain for all I know. Whatever it does, I'm hoping it does it later in the day so I can get my bike ride in. The cold has been less of a problem this season and I'm finding rides in the 30's to be tolerable. It probably has to do with what I've been wearing on my rides. It's not ideal but it seems to be doing the trick so I can't complain too much. When you have to wear too many layers, which I sometimes do, it makes for a less comfortable ride.
Before I forget, I was looking at the coffee I received from Peets for my usual monthly delivery and I noticed that the roast date was November 1st. Considering the fact that I received my coffee the first week of December, that means my coffee was some four to five weeks from the roast date. Is this what I'm paying for when I pay Peets a monthly fee for my "subscription"? Hell, I can find fresher roast dates in my local supermarket for the same damn brand of coffee. Have I never noticed the roast dates of prior deliveries? Did I notice them but they were fine so no flags went up? I'll pay close attention to the next delivery and I will compare roast dates to coffee from the same company on my supermarket shelf. If they are close or similar, I may have to jettison my relationship with Peets. Enough of this bullshit.
The Ev man sends me texts of things that pop up on his car dashboard on occasion. The most recent example was when he sent me a picture of the wording that implied that the battery in his FOB was low. I know he doesn't know how to change the battery in his FOB but he does know how to Google things or look things up on Youtube so I wish that he would take a little more initiative sometimes. I'm often equally in the dark but have to forge ahead because these are things that require somebody's attention. I guess I'm hopeful that if he sees me tackling something that he'll be more comfortable taking off the gloves the next time it happens. That is, even if he isn't looking over my shoulder which he rarely does.
I had an appointment this morning to go have my oil changed. The appointment has been on the books for the better part of a month. I received a text from the dealership last night cancelling my appointment due to the unavailability of loaner cars and some such nonsense about parts not being in stock. First of all, I didn't ask for a loaner. Second of all, the only part I need is an oil filter assuming other work doesn't need to be done. I gave them a call and they said something about maybe having to leave the car for a couple of days. We're talking about an oil change here. When I asked about rescheduling, they gave me a date some three weeks out. I'll say it again. For an oil change?
Does this have anything to do with the cargo ships parked off our western coast that haven't been able to unload their cargo? Does this have anything to do with places not being able to hire enough people to staff their business? Maybe some businesses are affected more than others. I've not seen bare shelves when out and about food shopping so that's a bit of a relief. Are they out of things that I have no need to buy? Possibly. I'm overdue for an oil change so I'm not exactly a happy camper as I sit here this morning faced with going to one of those quick oil change joints. Needless to say, that makes me a little bit uncomfortable. Just a wee bit.
Are they going to know what oil to use? Are they going to charge me an exorbitant amount just because I drive a European car? Will they replace each and every bolt they removed from the shield that sits beneath my oil pan when they're finished with the oil change? I remember a time when that specific cover fell off one of my older cars in my driveway. It only fell off because someone somewhere didn't replace the proper bolts on the shield. My guess is that it happened when I had my oil changed. It was an older car so I wasn't going to the dealership to have it done. Maybe I'm just uncomfortable with change and I need to learn how to go with the flow.
We picked up our tree yesterday afternoon. She's a beauty. She's not so tall that we had to trim her height and not so full that we had to wait a day or two just to see the branches drop. In fact, she's a tad on the trim side so we'll not have to go far and wide around her just to avoid getting tangled in her branches and maybe knocking an ornament or two off. She might be the thinnest tree we've ever had truth be told. Her shape is near perfect so I extend a tip of the hat to the trimmer whoever she or he may have been. Had we waited much longer to buy a tree, judging by how few trees were left to buy on this and other lots around town, we might have been left with some very unsavory choices.
How much is too much to pay for a tree and is tipping the guy who sells you the tree a thing? At the start, the trees practically walk off the lot by themselves given that the beauties haven't been cherry picked and there are more buyers of trees than there are sellers of trees and trees themselves. See how that works? With inflation roaring this year, it seems trees were flying off the lots sooner than usual.
We're here in the first week of December and the choices are already starting to look scrubby. It's no longer sufficient to simply say to your customers, let me know which one you want and I'll trim the base for you. You need to walk the customer from tree to tree cajoling all the way and extolling those features which may still qualify as "interesting." Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Never mind that you'll be asking them to pay maybe more than they've ever paid, and I mean ever, for a tree that will stand for a week or maybe two and will then be thrown out with the trash. The word "fleeting" comes to mind.
It may have had something to do with the fact that we were the only customers on the lot but the vendor spent what seemed like an inordinate amount of time helping us sort out what we thought we might like. Who doesn't like and maybe even appreciate personalized service when making decisions about buying this or that? He pulled several trees off from their resting spots and stood them up so we could get a good visual sense of the tree. At one point, he stood two trees side by side so we could choose between the two.
I probably knew we were going to give him a tip before we ever decided on which tree, if any, that we were going to buy. It was our version of offering a little Christmas cheer, if you will. It's what you do when you want to show your appreciation for a job well done. I also knew that we would probably walk away with a tree one way or another and not having to continue running around town looking for something better had to be worth something. Right? What do they even consider a good tip these days? Is it, or should it be, a percentage of the price of the tree? Do other people tip him? Does he make more in tips than he does in salary?
We visited Mrs G and didn't have a gift of sorts for her for the first time in a long time. It wouldn't have killed us to pick up a muffin or something along those lines but I suppose it just wasn't meant to be. It is true that the Lord works in mysterious ways. In case you're curious as to how that applies here, it's important to know what happened once we arrived on Mrs G's doorstep. We were well along into exchanging our usual pleasantries when Mrs G said something or other about holiday lights and how they were especially nice across the road and up the way at the Ridge. Or, maybe it was the Boulders.
My lips started moving before my brain engaged and I suggested that we all get in the car and go for a look-see. It was barely past five in the afternoon but it was pitch black outside and really just ideal for taking in holiday lights in the neighborhood. No sooner did I mention the ride than Mrs G was off the couch and on her feet and ready to go. Well, almost ready to go. Once in the car and underway, she said a couple of times just how nice it was to take everything in as a passenger instead of being behind the wheel. It was dark as all get out but that didn't seem to matter. She was like a kid in a candy store. Speaking of candy stores, this is where the "Lord works in mysterious ways" comes into play.
I'm not sure that any of us thought that the holiday light extravaganza that Mrs G was selling was all that extravagant once we got around to making a proper assessment. I kept thinking to myself as I was driving along that maybe it will be better over the next hill or maybe around the next corner. It just never cut the mustard but we were out and about on a cold but otherwise lovely December night so that would have to suffice. I think it was the missus who said something about driving into the town of Exeter where Mrs G might enjoy the lights and all the frills and fanfare that one sees during the Christmas holidays.
We weren't wrong about what awaited us in Exeter. It was almost too much, quite honestly. You know how it gets hard to focus on anything in particular when your visual field is flooded with glittering lights and tinsel. To say that the town of Exeter was lit up like a Christmas tree would be an understatement, but that it was. I don't know who brought it up first but no sooner were we through town than we were beating a path to the local Rite Aid so that Mrs G could pick up a few things.
Once in the store, Mrs G proceeded to fill her basket with candies of one sort or another. Maybe that shouldn't have been surprising given that we failed to arrive on her doorstep earlier in the evening without any goodies. In a roundabout way, we were now delivering on our promise to ourselves to never show up on Mrs G's doorstep without a gift however small or maybe insignificant. If that means driving into town so Mrs G can make her own selections, then so be it. In the now infamous words of one George Bush, it was the Christmas time version of "Mission Accomplished." I still can't believe that idiot became president. That's a story for another day.
These two clownish brothers, the spawn of one Mario Cuomo, who was the governor of New York and a darling of the media back in the day, had a pretty darn good run. Were it not for their oversized egos and their overactive adolescent libidos, they might still be employed in their respective careers as governor and prime time talking head. You can't unsee some of the more ridiculous montages of the two brothers yucking it up in prime time on CNN using swabs and other props to kid each other about issues that their networks wish they had probably taken more seriously. The governor was the first to be ousted only to be followed by Fredo the fool. What took them so long?
That isn't to say that we're seeing any sort of reckoning by any one or more of the networks to get rid of the resident idiots or leftists that continue to use their positions to push ugly narratives that divide our country. It is, however, a good start. I remember hearing something about the executives of CNN wanting to restore the network to a more middle-of-the-road network which was its bread and butter in the not too distant past. I'm not sure when that all changed since I'm not a big CNN watcher but they may have crossed the rubicon during the Trump era. In other words, there was no going back. They had become the defacto propaganda arm of the democrat party. The die was cast.
I haven't been following this Ukraine story too closely so you can imagine my surprise and sheer horror at waking up this morning to learn that Bumbling Joe Biden has a conference call this afternoon with Vladimir Putin to discuss what will happen should Putin proceed with his plans to invade Ukraine. Biden can't find the men's room in the Oval Office for chrissakes due to his advanced demented state so I can't imagine him having a dialogue of any kind with Putin. In fact, having Biden in the position to protect America's interests, whatever they may be in Ukraine, should be of serious concern to every American. He is the proverbial fool on the hill and Putin knows it.
You just never know what you're going to get when you get into an argument with a demented person. We've seen demented Joe fly off the handle in something as mundane as a press conference where he takes questions from designated reporters. We simply can't trust Joey to do the right thing in his call with Putin. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that he threatened Putin directly. This is how unbalanced and unpredictable Biden is as he teeters in and out of reality. Putin knows that Biden is a toothless tiger and is likely to exploit that weakness with great deftness so I suspect that he will get what he wants. The White House will never release a transcript of the call because it would not reflect well on the mental state of the "leader" of one of the most powerful countries on the face of the planet.
I have to believe that the Europeans are very concerned about Bumbling Joe's call with Putin this afternoon. Is this a call you would trust a clown like Biden to manage appropriately? Will they join the United States in whatever it is that Joey negotiates? Have they given Joey the go-ahead to commit them to whatever it is that Joey works out with Putin? Does it mean sending forces or maybe military advisors into Ukraine to assist in the training of Ukranian troops? Does that mean we will be in a proxy war with Russia? Leave it to the fucking democrats. Given the opportunity, they will send American men and women into a war where we will once again shed American blood and treasure.
The thought process is that China is waiting until the Olympics are over before going into Taiwan. This is what happens when you have a weak and demented leader the likes of Joe Biden in the White House. Bad things happen and dictators do what dictators do because they can. You never saw a shit show like this when Trump was in the Oval. They wouldn't fucking dare. No one is afraid of Bumbling Joe and the cast of leftist that he surrounds himself with in Washington. They're more concerned with the rights of the LGBTQ community and inculcating our troops with Critical Race Theory nonsense and that isn't going to end well for anyone much less a great nation like ours. God help us.
I had a couple of errands to run this morning but I think I'll stay close to home where I can listen to Steve Bannon and his War Room show on the Real America's Voice app. He'll break it all down with military precision as only he can seeing as he is ex-military. If you think I sound like a doubting Thomas when it comes to Biden and his abilities as a Commander-in-Chief, Bannon is likely to rip Biden a new one and then some. As Steve loves to remind people, "elections have consequences and stolen elections have catastrophic consequences." He's like to say that this is the moment that we as a nation feared would come sooner rather than later. Well, it's fucking here now. We should be scared. Very scared.
So, now we wait. The call between Putin and Bumbling Joey Biden was not very productive as far as we know. Russia is likely to do whatever it is they planned to do all along with Ukraine Biden and his buffoonery be damned. Russia now has some 200k troops amassed on the border of Ukraine with all the necessary supply lines in place to support a war for however long it takes to conquer a country the size of Ukraine.
The taking of sovereign countries by other countries can't be a good thing but it's important to remember that this is what happens when you have a superpower like the United States hobbled by having an illegitimate president sitting in the Oval Office. Biden and his minions are a laughingstock on the world stage and it's game on for the Russia's and the China's of the world to do as they damn well please.
We cut and run in the backwater of Afghanistan and left our own citizens behind while airlifting tens of thousands of Afghan citizens to safety here in our country. That is not what superpowers do. What has always been a dark day for our country when it comes to our involvement in Afghanistan became even darker after Biden's mismanagement of the pullout. How about those 13 dead marines, bumbling Joe?
For whatever reason, I didn't feel like my usual espresso this morning so I made a cup of coffee using my Melior pot. It's a different vibe to be sure. Will I lay off the espresso for a bit now that I've had a taste of what a cup of coffee actually tastes like? You know, an actual cup and not one of those little espresso cups that leaves your pinky dangling when you lift the cup up to your lips. I do like getting my daily dose of caffeine in maybe two or three sips so there's that. It's extra strong so I like the jolt it gives me and there's a bit less of that when I have a 12 ounce cup of coffee. If I sound like I haven't made a decision yet it's because I haven't. One day at a time, Johnny Boy. One day at a time.
There is snow in the forecast here on the Seacoast. The local forecast doesn't always extend to the seacoast since it's just a few degrees warmer along the coastline and that means little or maybe less snow when the snow finally does arrive. Hell, it may just rain for all I know. Whatever it does, I'm hoping it does it later in the day so I can get my bike ride in. The cold has been less of a problem this season and I'm finding rides in the 30's to be tolerable. It probably has to do with what I've been wearing on my rides. It's not ideal but it seems to be doing the trick so I can't complain too much. When you have to wear too many layers, which I sometimes do, it makes for a less comfortable ride.
Before I forget, I was looking at the coffee I received from Peets for my usual monthly delivery and I noticed that the roast date was November 1st. Considering the fact that I received my coffee the first week of December, that means my coffee was some four to five weeks from the roast date. Is this what I'm paying for when I pay Peets a monthly fee for my "subscription"? Hell, I can find fresher roast dates in my local supermarket for the same damn brand of coffee. Have I never noticed the roast dates of prior deliveries? Did I notice them but they were fine so no flags went up? I'll pay close attention to the next delivery and I will compare roast dates to coffee from the same company on my supermarket shelf. If they are close or similar, I may have to jettison my relationship with Peets. Enough of this bullshit.
The Ev man sends me texts of things that pop up on his car dashboard on occasion. The most recent example was when he sent me a picture of the wording that implied that the battery in his FOB was low. I know he doesn't know how to change the battery in his FOB but he does know how to Google things or look things up on Youtube so I wish that he would take a little more initiative sometimes. I'm often equally in the dark but have to forge ahead because these are things that require somebody's attention. I guess I'm hopeful that if he sees me tackling something that he'll be more comfortable taking off the gloves the next time it happens. That is, even if he isn't looking over my shoulder which he rarely does.
I had an appointment this morning to go have my oil changed. The appointment has been on the books for the better part of a month. I received a text from the dealership last night cancelling my appointment due to the unavailability of loaner cars and some such nonsense about parts not being in stock. First of all, I didn't ask for a loaner. Second of all, the only part I need is an oil filter assuming other work doesn't need to be done. I gave them a call and they said something about maybe having to leave the car for a couple of days. We're talking about an oil change here. When I asked about rescheduling, they gave me a date some three weeks out. I'll say it again. For an oil change?
Does this have anything to do with the cargo ships parked off our western coast that haven't been able to unload their cargo? Does this have anything to do with places not being able to hire enough people to staff their business? Maybe some businesses are affected more than others. I've not seen bare shelves when out and about food shopping so that's a bit of a relief. Are they out of things that I have no need to buy? Possibly. I'm overdue for an oil change so I'm not exactly a happy camper as I sit here this morning faced with going to one of those quick oil change joints. Needless to say, that makes me a little bit uncomfortable. Just a wee bit.
Are they going to know what oil to use? Are they going to charge me an exorbitant amount just because I drive a European car? Will they replace each and every bolt they removed from the shield that sits beneath my oil pan when they're finished with the oil change? I remember a time when that specific cover fell off one of my older cars in my driveway. It only fell off because someone somewhere didn't replace the proper bolts on the shield. My guess is that it happened when I had my oil changed. It was an older car so I wasn't going to the dealership to have it done. Maybe I'm just uncomfortable with change and I need to learn how to go with the flow.
We picked up our tree yesterday afternoon. She's a beauty. She's not so tall that we had to trim her height and not so full that we had to wait a day or two just to see the branches drop. In fact, she's a tad on the trim side so we'll not have to go far and wide around her just to avoid getting tangled in her branches and maybe knocking an ornament or two off. She might be the thinnest tree we've ever had truth be told. Her shape is near perfect so I extend a tip of the hat to the trimmer whoever she or he may have been. Had we waited much longer to buy a tree, judging by how few trees were left to buy on this and other lots around town, we might have been left with some very unsavory choices.
How much is too much to pay for a tree and is tipping the guy who sells you the tree a thing? At the start, the trees practically walk off the lot by themselves given that the beauties haven't been cherry picked and there are more buyers of trees than there are sellers of trees and trees themselves. See how that works? With inflation roaring this year, it seems trees were flying off the lots sooner than usual.
We're here in the first week of December and the choices are already starting to look scrubby. It's no longer sufficient to simply say to your customers, let me know which one you want and I'll trim the base for you. You need to walk the customer from tree to tree cajoling all the way and extolling those features which may still qualify as "interesting." Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Never mind that you'll be asking them to pay maybe more than they've ever paid, and I mean ever, for a tree that will stand for a week or maybe two and will then be thrown out with the trash. The word "fleeting" comes to mind.
It may have had something to do with the fact that we were the only customers on the lot but the vendor spent what seemed like an inordinate amount of time helping us sort out what we thought we might like. Who doesn't like and maybe even appreciate personalized service when making decisions about buying this or that? He pulled several trees off from their resting spots and stood them up so we could get a good visual sense of the tree. At one point, he stood two trees side by side so we could choose between the two.
I probably knew we were going to give him a tip before we ever decided on which tree, if any, that we were going to buy. It was our version of offering a little Christmas cheer, if you will. It's what you do when you want to show your appreciation for a job well done. I also knew that we would probably walk away with a tree one way or another and not having to continue running around town looking for something better had to be worth something. Right? What do they even consider a good tip these days? Is it, or should it be, a percentage of the price of the tree? Do other people tip him? Does he make more in tips than he does in salary?
We visited Mrs G and didn't have a gift of sorts for her for the first time in a long time. It wouldn't have killed us to pick up a muffin or something along those lines but I suppose it just wasn't meant to be. It is true that the Lord works in mysterious ways. In case you're curious as to how that applies here, it's important to know what happened once we arrived on Mrs G's doorstep. We were well along into exchanging our usual pleasantries when Mrs G said something or other about holiday lights and how they were especially nice across the road and up the way at the Ridge. Or, maybe it was the Boulders.
My lips started moving before my brain engaged and I suggested that we all get in the car and go for a look-see. It was barely past five in the afternoon but it was pitch black outside and really just ideal for taking in holiday lights in the neighborhood. No sooner did I mention the ride than Mrs G was off the couch and on her feet and ready to go. Well, almost ready to go. Once in the car and underway, she said a couple of times just how nice it was to take everything in as a passenger instead of being behind the wheel. It was dark as all get out but that didn't seem to matter. She was like a kid in a candy store. Speaking of candy stores, this is where the "Lord works in mysterious ways" comes into play.
I'm not sure that any of us thought that the holiday light extravaganza that Mrs G was selling was all that extravagant once we got around to making a proper assessment. I kept thinking to myself as I was driving along that maybe it will be better over the next hill or maybe around the next corner. It just never cut the mustard but we were out and about on a cold but otherwise lovely December night so that would have to suffice. I think it was the missus who said something about driving into the town of Exeter where Mrs G might enjoy the lights and all the frills and fanfare that one sees during the Christmas holidays.
We weren't wrong about what awaited us in Exeter. It was almost too much, quite honestly. You know how it gets hard to focus on anything in particular when your visual field is flooded with glittering lights and tinsel. To say that the town of Exeter was lit up like a Christmas tree would be an understatement, but that it was. I don't know who brought it up first but no sooner were we through town than we were beating a path to the local Rite Aid so that Mrs G could pick up a few things.
Once in the store, Mrs G proceeded to fill her basket with candies of one sort or another. Maybe that shouldn't have been surprising given that we failed to arrive on her doorstep earlier in the evening without any goodies. In a roundabout way, we were now delivering on our promise to ourselves to never show up on Mrs G's doorstep without a gift however small or maybe insignificant. If that means driving into town so Mrs G can make her own selections, then so be it. In the now infamous words of one George Bush, it was the Christmas time version of "Mission Accomplished." I still can't believe that idiot became president. That's a story for another day.