How I spent my Christmas vacation,2009(Travel)

I did not get the following things for Christmas: the chicken pox, a new or used jet airliner, or greater insight into my propensity to stress what I didn't get in life.

I did get some great time in the Twin Cities though. There was snow this year that made Christmas Eve and Day like a Charlie Brown Xmas with my family. Landing at Mpls/St.Paul Airport was like landing into a blizzard, since there was a blizzard. Each plane on the tarmac had it's very own de-icer assigned to it making the planes look like sharks with pilot fish hovering around them. This was all seen through the haziness of the snow. Plows were busy everywhere and the place seemed alive!

At the house I grew up in we had a great time, my sisters, brother-in-law David, Mom and I, minus Peg, my youngest sister who spent Xmas with her family in Atlanta. My Uncle Dick visited for Christmas Day from Stillwater MN. Great conversation and it was great to be around family and friends.

Some topics of conversation that came up included how the federal income tax developed and how the Athenians wanted to get rid of Socrates because he was a crashing know-it-all bore who couldn't keep his thoughts to himself. Not that I know as much as Socrates, or as much as Kimble-the-Street-Person for that matter, but I do like to weigh in on social and political topics myself. But Oscar Wilde once said, "If you want to tell the truth you better make people laugh otherwise they'll kill you." I agree with his sage advice and for my part tried to leave the heavy stuff alone. The thing about being in Minnesota is that there are some that talk more than I do so I join the scream fest to feel at home. There is no shortage of opinion in my family and friends there.

I also played some hockey. I don't skate very well since I grew up playing basketball but I like to get out with my friend Pete. Mostly I occupy the goal since if I try to skate with the hockey people I find myself falling a lot. Pete says I look like a starburst when I fall; first I lose balance, usually skating backwards, then slip up parallel to the ice sending my arms and legs out like a starburst then I hit my butt and head and feel that somethings never change. It used to be that others would ignore me when I fell but I have now reached the age where the kids skate around me perplexed asking, "Are you all right, Mister?". I'm usually cordial and don't ask them to buzz off or to mind their own business.

I also got invited to watch Pete, his sons Mike and Joey, and our friend Bruce take the engine out of a small Chevy truck. What a cool experience; I never got to do this as a kid and it was hellishly interesting. Disconnect all the tubes and pipes, take the stick to the transmission out, unbolt some stuff, get an engine winch, and presto! it's out. I helped Mike with the transmission and took the water pump off...and ate donuts while Pete, Bruce and the kids did most of the work. I mainly asked questions. John Robinson was there for legal advice. He's a paralegal and consumate friend. John and I agreed by noon that neither of us could feel our toes since we did this in a garage with the temperature being about 15 degrees F. We all went to Matt's, home of the Juicy Lucy(two patties of burger with melted yellow cheese boiling hot between) for lunch. Nobody leaves without a scalded mouth.

The day before I left I accompanied my Mom on a search for a bookshelf since this was my present to her for Christmas. We had a nice mother-son time and she didn't complain about my driving once, except to comment on how close I come to cars when I turn.

All-in-all a great time.