Over the number of Christmas past, the spirit of this magical holiday has been slowly slipping away from my world. This is what happens when your children grow up and move on with their lives leaving you with the task of 'going through the motion' of Christmas. Now, I am surrounded by children throughout the year at work but they come and go in hour long blocks. As hard as you try you never really enter their world or experience their daily highs and lows...that's just the way it is.
For reasons beyond understanding I made arrangements (with parental permission) for Santa to visit our 'Great 8's - Learn to Play' hockey kids after their end-of-season awards game this past Sunday. With help from Sweet 'T' the deal was to have Santa come onto the game floor and present our Great 8's their player trading cards, a small gift (donated by Coca-Cola) and their Gold Awards Metal. Sounds simple enough and in the end all went off without a hook with one exception. When Santa entered the game floor from the far end and started walking toward us at center rink, every child's eyes light-up like a 1,000 watt bulb and their jaws dropped to the floor with whispers squeaking from them, "Santa...It's Santa!" It was hard not to embrace the magic being surrounded by these Great 8's. I have to admit I was experiencing a major case of goose-bumps and happiness watching these kids being what they are, kids at Christmas.
I would like to thank Sweet 'T', the parents & family members (for allowing us to do this) and especially the kids for giving me the best Christmas present I could ever ask for or receive. You all have re-fueled my Christmas spirit for years to come.
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can tell by the side street traffic, jammed pack parking lots at local stores and the increase in the one finger hellos that many of you have not been keeping an eye on my 'Countdown to Christmas' ticker. Once again I am amazed how many of you all just don't get it..."Christmas IS an ANNUAL event". There is nothing, I mean NOTHING that should surprise or sneak-up on you regarding this holiday. Maybe it is just me getting old or old fashion when I see the huddle masses going from store to store pissed off because they could not or can't find that special gift. Case in point...
A man and his wife had a store clerk in tears the other day because they did not carry or even have the Play Station video game machine. They stood there and berated this poor young lady and made an absolute fool of themselves. Their language and voice inflections reminded me of a Jerry Springer show and all this young lady could do was stand there and take it. She had nowhere to go since she was the keeper of the cash register with a line of holiday shoppers just wanting to get the hell out of the store.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
p.s. The store was an office supply box store...THE END.
p.s.s. To my family and fellow bloggsters, please have a save and happy Christmas. I'll be talking to most of you all in a couple of days.
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 Here is to wishing all a very Happy Thanksgiving holiday. May you travels be save, your visits with friends and family filled with happiness and that every touchdown celebration does not spill the gravy bowl.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
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I just finished booking a round-trip flight from Greensboro, NC to Portsmouth, NH on the Skybus website for a grand total of (are you ready for this) $31.80! Now for those who don't know me, I hate to fly. In my past life as an Account Executive for an international publishing company, I flew in and out of Chicago on what seemed to be a daily basis when we lived there. It was nothing to book a flight to Somewhere, USA and hop around the fruited plans of our great nation and return days or weeks later. Turn around and do it again the following week heading in an all new direction to see all new clients. That was my very existence and lifestyle for most of the years we lived in the Chicago metro area. Somewhere between flying and falling out of the sky, I developed a real fear for this mode of transportation that has stuck with me for the remainder of my adulthood.
The next question on your mind must be, WHY NOW? What has changed in my life to suddenly want to take up flying again? The answer lies in my first sentence, $31.80! If for reasons beyond my control that I chicken-out and don’t cash in this ticket, what am I out of? For this amount of money, I can’t drive round-trip to Raleigh or Charlotte for less then this. I can’t go out to a nice restaurant for less then this. I can’t belly rub our new dog over a nice bottle of wine for less then this. In short, there is damn little entertainment I can enjoy that would cost less then this round trip ticket to Portsmouth, NH on Skybus. Oh, lest I forget, Portsmouth, NH is my home town where my mother, sister and her children, Uncle Wendell and half brother reside. A place that I visit all too infrequently and a place I still call home in my heart. I believe that for $31.80 I will be able to ‘suck-it-up’ and live to tell about it after a few Dr. Help-me pills for a two hour roller coaster panic attack. Wish me luck!
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| | A t a press conference at Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTI) Skybus announced that they will position a Base of two aircrafts here with a third in February. For the complete story read the News & Record article on their web site. This is good news when you take into account where Skybus plans to fly beyond their Columbus, OH hub. Starting around mid-January they will be offering two non-stop flights to Portsmouth, NH along with a single flight to Gulfport-Biloxi, Miss. Now, what used to be a 20 hour drive home to Portsmouth, NH has dropped to a two hour hop (est. round-trip ticket $150.00). The non-stop flight to Gulfport-Biloxi, Miss. is a big plus with Scott (our one and only) now living in Austin, TX. Like the hop to Portsmouth, NH, this flight will be a two hour flight then we would add an additional 9 hour drive to Austin. That’s a 14 hour drive time commitment drop if we were to drive for a visit.
All of the local news is praising this announcement as a major economic boom to the area and PTI and rightly so. I see it as a major non-stop family connection that we have not had in our backyard since moving to North Carolina. A big southern HEY to Skybus and all those who were involved in making this happen.
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