Classic Rant #1,332 (December 1, 2014): "Potpourri"

Funny, I was thinking of this word last night when I was deciding what I was going to write about today.

Remember on the old "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" show, where Dick Martin would have fun with this word with Dan Rowan?

Dick would say "POT-pourri," with the emphasis on the "Pot" part of the word, and we would all laugh?

And I am not talking about that smelly stuff called Potpourri, either.

Well, today's Rant--the first one since Thanksgiving--has nothing to do with "POT," or really anything much.

It is just a conglomeration of some thoughts about stuff that has happened over the past few days, a virtual "potpourri" of thoughts and actions that have taken place during the past few days..

As has become a personal tradition, I did my holiday shopping on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

I like it that way. Nobody is in the stores, and you can pretty much do everything you need to do in a relatively short time.

So I didn't wrestle with either Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday or Black Friday weekend crowds, and I won't bother today, on Cyber Monday, to shop.

Thanksgiving Day could have been better, could have been worse.

My sister got pneumonia right before the holiday, so the brood that we were expecting at our home for the holiday never materialized.

At first, we thought we would only have my family and my parents, but two of my nephews did come on the holiday, one with his girlfriend, so it was kind of a subdued feast.

My wife had to work Friday and Saturday, and I was off on Friday, so on those days, I did pretty much absolutely nothing.

I did food shopping, and yes, I went to my local record store for Record Store Day, which is on Black Friday, so I did do some shopping--admittedly for myself.

I did get some bargains, or what I think are bargains, but that was pretty much that.

Even with my wife home yesterday, we just took it easy, watching TV and I never really even ventured out of the house.

Yesterday was my father's 83rd birthday, so we gave him his gifts, wished him well.

And before we knew it, everything went back to normal today.

We are in the stretch run of the year, basically 90 feet away from home plate.

To me, December is the longest month on the calendar. It seems to take twice as long for this month to end, with all the holidays we are looking forward to just a stone's throw away.

It is a busy month, and we are almost there.

Honestly, with such a lousy 11 months behind myself and my family, I simply hope that December just comes, and goes, pretty quickly.

And you don't know the half of it.

I tell you a lot here, but I don't tell you everything.

This has just been a very poor year for myself and my family, in all honesty, and I just hope that December flies by.

I have to be an optimist, and I have to believe that 2015 will be better.

But at least one hurdle in the stretch run has been jumped over, and that is Thanksgiving.

I hope you had a good one.