A Quiet Christmas - Alone

The tantalizing aroma of roasting turkey woke me this morning. Not from my kitchen, but wafting up from the neighbor's below, who must've been taking it elsewhere because the expected smells of side dishes cooking to follow did not.

Outside, the parking lot was nearly empty, most residents already gone to the homes of family or friends.

My own car was in its spot, and would remain there. I've never understood the primal need to risk life and limb on icy roads or endure long delays in airports simply to be with loved ones on the 25th of Dec. Why not in June or July, when the weather is predictable and people aren't grumpy from the stress of The Holidays? Plus, when you reach a certain age, you realize the hypocrisy of making such trips to see "loved ones" who can't remember you're alive in any month but December.

I'd already exchanged Best Wishes with those I do see (or talk to) throughout the year. And I and my friend Lisa, who has MS, had had an impromptu celebration on Saturday after an exhausting afternoon of grocery shopping. Exhausting because the frigid temps of recent days had killed the battery of her van that has the hydraulic lift for her electric wheelchair. So we used the collapsible - non-electric - chair instead, which if I nose a certain part of it in first, slides rather easily into the trunk of my car. Alas, I never remember which part that is until after our second or third stop. Not a problem when temps are above freezing, but becomes one when the windchill is -20, as it was that day. Errands done and back at Lisa's, we turned on the tube and discovered a Blue Collar Comedy Tour was on, with a second (different) to follow. So we settled in with snacks and RC - the only beverage in the house besides water - and decided this was a our "Christmas".

So there was no place I had to be today.

Not a bad thing really. I happen to treasure being alone on Christmas. I can sleep in, even stay in bed all day with a book. I didn't, but I could. Instead, I did major computer housekeeping that I've been putting off after recently changing internet providers. Which meant a new email address, which I'd sent it to friends and family right after the switch, but I'd not yet changed it at the many online national newspapers and newsletters I subscribe to.

Today was perhaps not the best day for such things. Easy enough at large papers like the New York Times and Washington Post, or the smaller Sacramento Bee. But after many tries, I couldn't access my account at the Sioux City Journal, perhaps due to the snow and ice there or, since they don't publish on Christmas, the last IT employee to leave yesterday turned off the server it resides on. I don't live anywhere near Sioux City, and only subscribed to it last year to look up archived obituaries, then kept it for the daily Opinion feature, one-liners submitted by locals. President-elect Obama, sad that the presidency will restrict interaction with "regular people", would do well to read it too, as it's an amazingly accurate indicator of how "regular people" in the Heartland feel about local and national issues.

Today's football games? Didn't watch any - another advantage to being alone on Christmas. Football, of course, became part of the observance of the birth of Jesus as a way for families to be "together" after Christmas dinner without having to actually talk to each other.

But enough of that. Here's hoping however you spent the day, it was everything you wished it to be.