Last Post of 2005...

...probably.

One of my many, many readers sent an anonymous post a day or two ago, saying "You suck" because I haven't posted in a while. So, here you go, Paul.

It's almost Christmas, and what has this world come to? There are now arguments about people saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." I, for one, will say "Merry Christmas." If you don't like it, go vote for John Kerry.

There. A new post.

Yes, we need a little Christmas...

...right this very minute. NOT!

What is wrong with these retailers? Yesterday it was October, and today there are Christmas decorations and promotions all over the place. I heard an analyst on the radio today saying that the traditional "day after Thanksgiving" shopping day would still be the busiest of the year, so why do they want to start promotions now?

As an adult, I have come to hate Christmas, but I loved it as a kid. Even though it meant fighting my way to the tree through my eight siblings, and then having my brother break my transistor radio, after which he then sold me his transistor radio for the eight dollars I got for Christmas (until Dad found out and intervened), and suffering through the post-Christmas depression because I didn't get that...whatever it was I didn't get. On top of that, my birthday is on the 12th day of Christmas (January 6), and most of the time, I got the Christmas/Birthday combo gift. Bummer.

That's why I used to put LSD in the eggnog. Not because it was right, but because I could.

Dead in the Water

Alas, another boating season has come and gone.

The boat came out last week, it's already been winterized and shrink wrapped, and all I have to do now is pull the batteries off and bring them home for the winter.

The perch fishing was dismal this year. It got too hot too fast, and the weather didn't cooperate most weekends. There were maybe 5 good weekends for fishing...when the weather was comfortable and the waves were less than 3 feet. That accounts for this year's small catch. We caught 212 perch this year, with nearly half of them coming in the last weekend (97 perch on October 1 and 2). That compares to 475 perch last year, and 574 in 2003.

My usual practice of taking perch to my local watering hole on OSU football Saturdays will be reduced to one game this year, most likely the Michigan game. I'm not sure why I do it, many people eat it that don't even say 'thank you.' Some do appreciate it, and they show it by buying me a beer. But when I think about what it costs, in both time and money, to get that perch into the deep fryer, I'm sure I'd be better off just buying my own beer. But, hey, I'm a sharing kind of guy.

As Maxwell Smart would say...

...missed it by "that" much.

I checked out the odds on the Bucks winning the national championship while in Las Vegas last month, and those tight SOBs would give me only 5 to 1 odds, so I passed. I thought about it, though, but some invisible imp on my shoulder urged me not to do it. Looks like I made the right call, I could get WAY better odds now that they lost to the Texas Longhorns. If I see one more of those people walking around Columbus with their index and little fingers raised in the Longhorn Salute, I'm going to puke. Now I can only hope for a rematch in the National Championship game.

My daugher Natalie joined me to watch part of the game Saturday, after she had traveled the campus-area bar circuit helping a friend sell t-shirts. It took me a while to figure out the shirts, but they made sense after a few more Bud Lights. Here's a link to the site. Go to the Texas link, she is Natalie, featured in several pictures.

http://www.donkeypunchshirts.com/

HOWEVER: the sports book at Harrah's gave me 50 to 1 against the Tribe winning the World Series and I took it. Seems like a reasonable bet, they are on fire. I could be wrong about this, but I think they have the best record in the Majors since June 1. It was April and May that were tough on them, but they sure have turned things around.

The Browns...well, let's just say we're going to have another "rebuilding" year.