Humpday Happenings...
Well, here we are people...DECEMBER FIRST.
(wow, how time flies)

We've got a very light flurry condition here in the Summit City today...nice.
And, in a little over THREE short weeks, we'll all be getting ready for the Christmas holiday.
Hard to believe it, right?
That means time to get the house looking "festive".
Now, I'll be the first one to tell you that in THIS part of town, (unless you're part of the problem, which means living the thug life and being a friend to many of the criminal persuasion), you simply CANNOT place ANYTHING outside the house to signify the holiday season, such as a animated figure, inflatable, or otherwise lighted fixture...PERIOD.
And that's a damn shame, because we DO have neighborhoods (with honest-to-God NICE people) that go all-out. They call it Electric Avenue here.
We had something similar in Philly (around the 6700 block of Jackson St)...everyone in that block went the whole 9 yards and it became a winter wonderland of sorts for the season. Mangers, lights, animated figures...it was fantastic to behold.
It was like someone turned Clark Griswold loose on a block of rowhomes...LOL.
I have to admit that even the utility bill would be worth it to be able to have some of that around here.
But, sadly...we cannot, because it WILL get stolen.
That comes from this whole ENTITLEMENT mentality.
"What's YOURS is MINE, and what's MINE is MY OWN" is their mantra.
A few years back, when we still had a few GOOD neighbors left, our late friend Billy across the street placed one of those spiral, lighted Christmas trees on the front of his property, just beyond his porch.
It was taken in the middle of the night, but they DID leave the extension cord (how nice of them...the bastards), and he was bothered by it.
Hell, I would have gone "hunting" for it...AND those who took it.
There are those that do the "easy" icicle light gig...toss it on or near the house and call it done.
The less time hanging lights on the house means more time to swig down some malt liquor..or steal from other people's houses, right?
So there IS a method to such madness.
I used to light up the front windows...not anymore.
We just have BLUE bulb candles in every window (call it a LEO homage thing, OK?), and I have to admit that it looks real nice when the weather is nasty. Those blue bulbs set the tone for the season, and are a lot cheaper to replace that the "flicker" ones I love to get.
I mean, we're not Grandma's house that's over that river and through those woods, right?
We ARE in the damn ghettohood, and have to amend our lifestyles accordingly.
I will also check each light strand to see if the "holiday gremlins" got into them.
Amazing how something that WORKED perfectly when you put it away a year ago, suddenly is NOT working when you unpack it 12 months later, isn't it?
Who's been messin' with my lights?
Damn gremlins!
That takes care of that which you can see from the street.
If you're in the area (and why is beyond me, LOL), our place is EASY to spot...look for the BLUE lights!
Hey...I wonder if the city would let me put up some WIG-WAGS out front? (they're NOT on a vehicle, so it "should" be okie-dokie.)
I could get a power converter (12VDC to 120AC) to juice them up...brilliant idea!
God, THAT would certainly keep the locals FAR away...ROFLMAO!
Remember...it NEVER hurts to dream, folks.
Now, INSIDE the house (proper) is a whole different story.
There's not much that DOESN'T get decorated, and that means for the next month of so, I can't crash on the couch in the living room...and with good reason:
There are BEARS in the house...LOTS of bears.
Wifey and I have been getting those K-Mart bears ever since we've been hitched, and that's 13 years of bears, so the sofa becomes THEIR domain for the season, and I'm relegated to the carpet whenever I wish to "relax" in front of the TV.
From a "drive-by shooting" aspect, that's not bad...I make a harder target in the PRONE position, and can return fire easily enough.
That's in case any of the local gangsta-assholes want to shoot up a house, which has been known to occur rather frequently down here.
You got to remember that these people WANT you OUT of the area, because YOU might be watching all the crap they're doing, and dime on them, and mess up their "good times" (read criminal activity)...yeah, my heart breaks for them...bullsh*t!
This was MY neighborhood a long time before it was THEIR neighborhood, and when it comes to my property, I've got a line drawn, and I'm daring them to cross it...just once, for MY aim is a lot more accurate (on a bad day) than THEIRS.
But, let's not detract from decorating...
My Mom used to do our house up (as Dad used to say)...like GAUDIO'S, which was a home decorating/improvement center back in Philly, and they always had a HUGE Christmas layout every year.
I swear there was not ONE thing that was not in tune with the holidays in my house when I was growing up.
Christmas EVERYTHING...doilies, glasses, place mats, coasters, area rugs...not one square foot of the house went unscathed.
I think if she could have found and been able to afford some CHRISTMAS DRAPES...she'd have bought 'em!
(and I'd hate to think what THEY would have looked like)
And yet, with ALL of that going on...it was done TASTEFULLY, believe it or not. it did NOT look cheap...it just looked real "Christmasey".
Today, I don't go THAT far, but we have our share of Christmas stuff around the homestead.
I have the obligatory Santas, and elves, and even those bric-a-bracs that we ALL collect as the years go by.
Wifey has a slew of TY Beanie Babies she digs out along with Puffkins (another stuffed animal set) that all have a Christmas theme to them.
I have some Garfield mini-plates and a Snoopy (on the Christmas doghouse) porcelain music box that's a collectible from a while back.
Yeah, you definitely know it's Christmas in the Bobby G. house.
(Even the shotgun ammo has RED and GREEN shell casings...LOL)
We have the stockings (properly named, including the cats) hung by our non-functioning fireplace. (cracked flue issues, but I solved that with a radiant heater in the opening...works well enough for the time being - lemons to lemonade there, right?)
Now, I don't really decorate anything UPstairs, as we spend the majority of time DOWNstairs, but I still place the blue candles in ALL the windows of the house.
Actually, after a while, you'd be surprised HOW MUCH Christmas stuff you will accumulate.
You pick up things here...or there, and the next thing you know...you're buying about 5 of those 20 gallon snap-lid BINS to hold all the stuff.
At least taking it all out and putting it all back becomes a much easier task every year, especially if you LABEL the bins.
Still, it would be nice to feel comfortable placing our animated deer outside. It was given to us by Uncle Leo and had a few bulbs burned out. I replaced ALL the defective bulbs, and tested ALL the wiring, and got it working 100% again.
But I don't want OUR deer to become someone ELSE'S deer, because there are those that watch your house, to see what they can avail themselves of.
Sure, it was free (to us), but that doesn't mean it should be "free to take" either, right?
I could wire it and tie it down to the point where it would take an act of God to remove it, or I could dig out the barbed wire and "embellish" the deer thus, making it a costly (and somewhat bloody) venture should some thief wish to purloin it from our humble house.
I haven't decided yet, but dammit all, I really WANT to enjoy the holidays, and that means making things look the way they used to.
I want to recapture a chunk of what it USED to mean to have that merry Christmas we're all supposed to enjoy.
And I feel that NONE of us should ever have to be denied whatever enjoyment of the season we can secure, if we're able to.
It's not asking for much, that's for sure.
A little CIVILITY on the part of the unwashed (and heavily-Axed body sprayed) masses would go a long way...IF they could but understand.
Yet sometimes, I think that's beyond their capability...must be a undeveloped frontal cortex problem.
That's a shame...for them.
By preying on others, they deny themselves of the reason for the season in the first place.
Anyway, we will do what WE do...and do it as well as we can, simply because WE know why we're doing it.
To do less is to make ALL those holiday seasons in our past less meaningful.
And I would never contemplate such a thing when the memories made during THOSE years brought me to this point and made me appreciate ALL that as done throughout those decades...because my folks took some time to give a damn.
Decorate we will...and be glad we did.
In the meantime...
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.