What I'm reading: Missing Mark, by Julie Kramer
First -- stop reading and scroll down to Tuesday's post, "New Challenges" by Betina Krahn. She's giving away three books, and if you comment before 6 PM Eastern time today (Thursday), you'll be entered for a chance to win. Winners announced tomorrow. What are you waiting for?
I must confess I will be glad when the holiday season is past. Not being a Christmas person, I find the obsession with the holiday gets old very fast. Blogs devoted to Christmas hints, gifts and books. Everyone wants a comment about what I do for Christmas, or my best Christmas memories. Well, at the very least, they've freed up my blog crawling time, because they don't draw me in, and I move on.
We gave up sending Christmas cards years ago, and I'm pleased that the number we receive is dwindling. All those dead trees and postage used to wish us a happy holiday we don't celebrate. I often wonder what all the people whose lists we're on would think if we sent the Hanukkah cards.
But my real peeve is how many people seem to think it's worthwhile to mail a card with a pre-printed 'signature' and nothing else. All we are to most of them is an address label and a stamp. Granted, a few do address the envelopes by hand. My feeling: if we're in communication during the year, then that's enough of a gesture of friendship, and we've probably exchanged holiday greetings of some sort already. If we're not, and you don't have time to include a brief note, then how much can you really care? And this year I got a card from someone who signed it only with a first name, and I don't have a clue who she is. I do feel bad about that one, because she included the hand-written 'hope you're having a happy holiday'.
Hubby and I have our annual physicals today. We're in pretty good physical shape (at least that's what I'm assuming), but we're at the point where everything is followed by, "for someone your age." At least our doctor says, "for someone our age, as our kids were in high school together. Let's just hope all the paperwork is processed in a timely fashion, because one of our surprises last month was that hubby's retirement insurance plan no longer offers the company we're with. This comes after having to switch last year. We'll end up back where we were a year ago, but at double the cost, which had already jumped over 400% the year before. But, looking on the bright side, at least we have health insurance. And no telling what plan we'll be with when we move, and the retirement options vary depending on what state we live in. Suddenly "our age" doesn't look so terrible, as hubby is only a year away from Medicare.
Note: I've changed the way to leave comments. Do you like it better? Prefer the old way? Don't care? Let me know. I can change it back.
Welcome to Terry's Place. I'm an author of mystery and romance, happy to share what I'm learning, both about writing and anything I find interesting.
8 comments:
Merry Christmas, Terry. We're having a peaceful holiday season with no visitors, no travel, not even a tree. I'm loving it. Have a great 2010.
Thanks, Patricia - doctor visit was relatively uneventful. As always, he runs late, so I got some reading time in. And a clean bill of health, which is a wonderful gift.
I told Sweetie that next year, we're sending out Festivus cards if I can find any. Most of my friends are atheists, anyway.
I read Missing Mark last weekend. Splendid book.
This comment box doesn't allow use of the arrow keys, Home, or End. Nor copy, cut, paste. Eek.
I can't imagine sending someone a Christmas card if they didn't celebrate! Odd.
Hope the physical went well!
The comments section thingy seems good to me! But then I can't tell what's changed....
Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
Sam - try this link.
Arrow keys work fine for me. Likewise, cut, copy and paste, as well as home and end. However, I had trouble logging into any blogger blogs for a while; maybe that was behind your trouble. Or your browser? All this tech stuff befuddles my brain.
Elizabeth, people have always sent us Christmas cards. Sometimes downright religious ones. I take that as an indication that they're either too lazy to get different cards for different people, or don't realize that we don't celebrate the holiday (let's face it--the name doesn't scream "menorah, not Christmas tree).
I used to send New Years cards, then got too far behind and sent Valentines. Now I send e-cards to a select few who understand, and snail mail cards to my mother-in-law and aunt who are computerless.
The problem with sending Hanukah is finding them. Borders finally got in a vast selection of four the last day of Hanukah. I didn't see any elsewhere.
Then too, this year I finally had it with the enforced Christmas spirit and got my favorite grocery store to stop playing it. I was amazed and delighted. The staff was thrilled.
So happy anything and everything.
Comments seem tidier, but much the same, other than it added a long zero to my name. Maybe it won't print.
Elena, I know what you mean. When we lived in Miami, we could go to the card shops and have a wide selection of both cards and wrapping paper. When we moved to Orlando, there was one kind of paper, period, in the Hallmark shop.
When I worked at a local theme park, they piped in their holiday music loop (all PC, so it was Alvin & the Chipmunks, Grandma Got Runover by a Reindeer, Rockin' Around the Christmas tree, etc.) The loop was about 20 minutes long. In an 8 hour day ... impossible. I told them they either disconnected the speaker in our office or I'd blast it myself (the only time I've felt justified in wanting a gun).
Well that was a nice post. I liked it.
Bathmate
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