So apparently, a lot of people are very upset with Comair Airlines right now… Evidently a computer glitch caused the cancellation of all of their Christmas-day flights. So instead of spending Christmas day with their families, thousands of travelers got to sit out the holiday at the airport.
Maybe if Comair ran Linux they wouldn’t have issues like these!
It’s nearly Christmas day, and I think everything’s in order. The gifts are wrapped, the cutout cookies are baked and frosted, the Angel is atop the tree, there’s a dusting of snow outside and Kelly and I are soon to head out for the 11pm candle-lit Christmas-eve service.
She’s upstairs sleeping, and I’ve just finished making a Santa-style strafing run on her apartment. The stealth mission is complete, the gifts have been arranged, and I’m about to clean up the mess of wrapping paper scraps, bits of tape and cookie crumbs from the kitchen table. But not without a celebratory Christmas-eve brandy. Yes, the good stuff. From the back of the cabinet.
So tonight, I’ll share my drink with you. I’ll raise my glass to toasty apartments and frosty windows, and to waking up to a white Christmas. I’ll toast to Christmas memories wrapped in the warm glow of firelight and the comforting embraces of family members and friends. To hearing the Christmas story, retold for two thousand years, and to the wonder in the way it never, ever gets old.
But most of all, as I prepare to raise my glass tomorrow to celebrate the birth of our Savior, I’ll raise my glass tonight to Freedom. To the Freedom we have to enjoy tomorrow’s celebrations, to the Freedom we have to believe what we choose, and to the Freedom we have to reflect our Savior’s love for each other – tonight, tomorrow, and always.
So, with a classic Dave-style parting grin, I say… Cheers. And I wish you a very, very merry Christmas.
A few days ago I wrote up a little blurb about (and blatantly made fun of) a guy who was killed when he fell out the moonroof of his Mercedes-Benz. I decided to go read the article (which I linked) again this morning. It was different.
The article that appeared was a lot different than the original – it said that a well-liked Phoenix CFO had committed suicide by “climbing onto the roof of his car while it was still moving…”
So now I feel like a douchebag for making fun of the guy. I guess there are two possibilities here – first, the swapout that KPHO pulled was legit, and this really is the same guy, and I totally deserve to feel like an ass. Second, this is a totally different article written about a totally different guy and that first guy really did deserve a good mocking.
But chances are they’re probably the same person. I mean – how many guys fall off the roofs of their moving luxury sedans in one month? Friggin’ figures…
While completing my baccelor’s degree, I lived on campus. Yep, 5 long years, some of which long-time readers of daverea.com might remember. The site went up sophomore year.
I had a variety of room mates through those years – and one of them was Keith. Keith was a cool guy – one of those guys who knew everybody, had a great relationship going on, was smart, funny, etc etc etc ad nauseum. We originally met in my EMT class, and even rode together at RIT Ambulance for a while. He was a great room mate and a great friend, and we remained freinds after he moved out to a place called Rustic Village.
Rustic Village is an apartment complex about 10 minutes from the school. It was there that we first discovered… The Security Kia. Yep. They slapped amber DOT lights and “Rustic Village Security” stickers on a Kia Sportage and drove around the sizable complex 24/7.
We, of course, found this amusing to no end. Piping up with “RVPD – On the Prowl!” in your best John Walsh voice never seemed to get less funny with time. I mean, normally you see Chevy Blazers, or Impalas, or Ford Rangers – or maybe even the inemitable Vickie – patrolling with their yellow security lights. But a Kia Sportage?
Well, today I topped The Security Kia. I was driving to work, minding my own business. I stopped at a red light, and what crosses on the opposite road? A Security Prius. I’m not kidding. ‘Turns out Wegmans, a major supermarket chain in this area, threw a big yellow light bar and “WEGMANS SECURITY” lettering on none other than a Toyota Prius.
I laughed so hard my eyes started watering. And I missed the left-turn arrow.
I think one of the best possible starts to a day is probably waking up and having your back scratched. Being treated to a beautiful fire-orange sunrise shortly thereafter is also quite nice, as is taking a good hot shower and eating a hearty breakfast.
I guess sometimes everything just comes together for a nice morning. No stupid people on the way to work, three to-do items knocked off before 10AM, and a steaming hot cup of Jasmine tea warming me up as I tackle a fourth before lunch.
Maybe someday I’ll figure out the secret to making every day go this well…
While I’m ranting about the topic of the DeJesusification of Christmas, there’s another thing I want to complain about. I have yet to see a single nativity scene this year. I can usually count on a few of the local churches to set one up, and some years I’ve even beheld the rare treat of a live nativity scene…
But this year it seems like most of the churches around here have opted to put up some red and green flood lights and maybe go for a cone-shaped Christmas tree made from strings of white bulbs.
What happened?
I rant about this every year, and this year is no exception. I checked two different stores today, looking for some good Christmas wrapping paper. I don’t want paper with santa claus or christmas trees or “Happy Holidays”, “Seasons Greetings”, or snowmen and puppies. I don’t want winter paper, I want Christmas paper!
Would it be that hard to print up some paper with some angels on it? Maybe a little nativity scene? After all, the gifts it’d be wrapping are being given to the glory of God. Yes, God. How difficult would that be? Even just “Merry Christmas!” But no.
I thought I might have finally found something when I saw some rolled-up angels at a local store. But when I got closer, I realized they were all holding up signs with secular phrases. More “Seasons Greetings” crap.
Hello – I’m giving Christmas gifts here people. I’d really like to find some wrapping paper that owns up to that.
I should be eating lunch right now. I have a can of soup, and a bag of saltines, and there’s a microwave in the break room where I should be heating it up instead of typing this. But instead I’m here bitching, because I’m not about to go in there and get the ball rolling.
Everyone else is in there, ya see. Including the two bosses who are mad at me. They’re not mad at me because I messed something up, or cost them money, or did something wrong. They’re mad at me because I’m the scapegoat – they messed up, and can’t seem to own up to the fact that their problem is their fault.
You see, when you’re trying to build an electronic product, it generally helps to give the company that’s building it for you (I mean actually putting the stuff together) a general idea as to when you’ll be actually ready to build it. Then, they can buy the parts and have them ready when you give them the big ‘ol “Go Ahead!” on (or near) the date that you told them you anticipated giving them the big ‘ol “Go Ahead!” But that didn’t happen. So when the big ‘ol “Go Ahead” was given, the parts weren’t in stock.
Somehow, this has become the fault of the guy who designed the board. Which is where I come in. Because I’m that guy. So for some reason, when management can’t come up with a realistic production schedule, and thus can’t give an honest date to manufacturing, somehow it’s engineering’s problem when the parts aren’t there. This is starting to sound like a scene from Office Space…
Which brings me back to the far more important topic of my mid-day sustenance. If I go into the break room now to heat up my soup, the bosses will take their shots at me for not cleaning up their mess fast enough. If I try to defend myself, the other engineers will sit quietly by watching, and won’t back me up. And if I stay out here and eat my lunch later, then I’m obviously not working hard enough at fixing management’s problem. I think I’ll take option 3.
Don’t get me wrong – I like my job, and I accept situations like these because they’re part of life when you work for people who can’t grasp their own accountability. I just needed a few paragraphs worth of venting time. All set now. Have a nice day, drive on thru…
Loading ...