Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The Girl From Snowy River


As promised, I got snow! Up in my neck of the woods there was about 8-10 inches of it. It is gorgeous out there - 360º views of picture postcard perfect! It started Friday night with big chunks of snow falling from the sky and by morning the world was covered in white crystals. It was magical. It continued snowing most of Saturday.

Nino and I just mostly hung out (where were we gonna go?!) and played in the snow down by the river, cuddled by the fire - I read aloud while he kept my feet warm, made soup - I chopped and simmered while he drooled... it was a perfect weekend. Nino loves, loves, loves the snow - I just knew he was a kindred spirit. He bounds and leaps and laughs through the stuff; catches snowballs in his teeth; rolls around in it, shakes it off, then rolls again. It was obvious that he took great delight in how entertained I was by his antics. I swear... that dog... he's quickly becoming the greatest love of my life. Serious.

Ok... I can't end this without airing a peeve. Actually, it's more'n a peeve, but I won't go into full Tannenbaum Tirade mode on ya. I'll try not to. Yesterday I walked up to the mailbox and retrieved a handful of assorted stuff - junk, bills, my paycheck (woo!), and some greeting cards. Yeah, you're on my train already, I can tell. One of the cards was addressed to me with an address label. I can look beyond that, what with today's zippy databases, etc. I opened the envelope and there was a gilded picture depicting the manger scene with the announcement: Christ is Born! (Old news, but I was still behaving, still chill about it in my own sardonic, "yeah, whatever" way.) On the inside was the sentiment: Celebrate the Season! (...and began the slow simmer. Y'all know how I love generic references to "The Season.") Underneath that, pre-printed was: Holiday Blessings, Gertrude & Heathcliff (names have been changed because... huh...) That was it. No personalized note, no nothing. Hell, the 36 daily catalogs I get from L.L. Bean have more personalization than that. I mean, why even bother? Did I feel cheered? Nope. Was I warmed by their thoughtfulness? (*polite cough*) Hardly. What a waste of postage. For me it was just another example of the overly commercialized Christmas we've come to expect. It angered me. I had to throw the thing in the fire before I scribbled mean thoughts all over it and mailed it back to the people who sent it. I'm sure they would have been horrified at my hostility - hell, I was.

Thank all the gods I had a loving dog to distract me and some fine snow to cool my heated temper.

1 comment:

  1. Barb, if I had remembered in enough time you'd have gotten a hand written envelope, the card may have been semi generic but I'd have personalised it at least..
    I'm not surprised Nino loves the snow I used to have a lap sized collie cross and well rain - no chance in hell of getting her to go out, snow, well she'd only come in because she was cold... snow ploughed through it, ate snowballs etc... looked at me funny when you threw one she missed and of course she couldn't find it. Yup than and kept my lap warm while I tried to read, actually just kept me warm, reading was not possible..

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