Friday, December 25, 2009

Peace On Earth

... goodwill to all. I have spent some time in the past few hours attempting to copy a suitable picture of our Christmas-Lights viewing venture last night from the cell phone to the blog. Eventually I managed to convey the picture, but you don't get the picture, because the focus was less than optimal. Trust me; the light displays in Houston's upscale River Oaks neighborhood were what one would expect: at least the wealthy do some good with their money. One thing all of us observed is that the lights were well over 95 percent... um... white. But whatthehey; good will to all, including those who live on estates big enough to support whole cities inside.

Amusing note: I went searching for a bunch of 15th-century English carols, in part to introduce Stella to the whole genre. I searched Amazon for "Marvel not, Joseph," one of my favorites. Amazon's wonderful search facility delivered: an old New York Pro Musica recording (somewhere I have a copy on vinyl), a more generic recording of old English carols, and... The Adventures of Captain Marvel. "Who's your hero? Do you like Joseph?" "Marvel, not Joseph!"

We will be celebrating Christmas dinner with Stella's stepmother, who of course lost her beloved spouse of 26 (?) years last year. She has a very supportive church community, so she will be celebrating with a dozen of her closest friends, two daughters one of whom has kids, and us. I am not Christian, and she is fairly fundamentalist, but over 12 years we've gotten past most of the unease. She knows what she knows; I know what I don't know... I remember a UU bumper sticker with the text, "Honk if You're Not Sure" ... and I cede the day to her.

To all of you who are Christian believers, Merry Christmas to you. I have to admit Jesus was clearly a remarkable man, whatever his divine status. To the rest of us, Merry Christmas; now go out and shop those post-Xmas sales... you might just save our economy!


Samantha reminds Santa that her name contains his...


I'll post another picture or two when I get them.
Posted by Steve Bates at 10:01 AM

3 comments:

  1. hipparchiaDecember 26, 2009 at 10:00 PM

    i went computer-looking today, but didn't spend any money. if i end up having to replace this one, i expect to pay [for the exact same size/speed] less than what i paid for it 4 or 5 years ago, rather than more. alas, the retailers are apparently hoping to make their losses on the backs of us dinosaurs.

    here's hoping you are all having a merry holiday season of whatever stripe!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mustang BobbyDecember 27, 2009 at 1:37 PM

    hipparchia, I replaced a $750 HP Pavilion with 160 GB RAM that I bought in September 2007 with a $525 Toshiba Satellite with 320 GB RAM and Windows 7 in November. At this rate, in five years I expect to pay $200 for a laptop and be able to run NASA.

    ReplyDelete
  3. oldwhiteladyJanuary 1, 2010 at 7:12 PM

    We (the kitties and I) hope Santa brought Samantha all the things she wanted.

    ReplyDelete

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