Frostbite

 Finally finished the tree today.  Plenty of ornaments; I kept finding ones to put on, including some cute ones, and, dare I say, the glass ones with my parents' name on them, as well as one for my Mom and Favorite Niece.  Again, I became...well, misty eyed.  Not good.  I think it was the George C. Scott version of "A Christmas Carol," the one where at the end he has the sense of... joy of finally being able to celebrate Christmas with the family, but sad over all of the good times he missed?  I guess that is a perfect encapsulation of how I feel.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/12/14/national-film-registry-2022/?utm_campaign=wp_todays_headlines&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_headlines&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F38923d6%2F6399acc9ef9bf67b231e021f%2F596cf07dae7e8a44e7fd0781%2F44%2F59%2F6399acc9ef9bf67b231e021f&wp_cu=157f7da43ebae6b425b06f864ac9774c%7CC0E52F16EC2F7BB2E0430100007FD996

This happened when I was out in New Mexico, and I am not ashamed to say that I have only seen one of these films in entirety -- "Carrie."  Hell, half of them I had never heard of, but that is nothing new!  Anyways, this now brings me to 798 of 850, but I suspect I can knock off a bunch.  I do have a whole week off -- the office is closed between Christmas and New Year's -- and while I will work a day or two to catch up on stuff, the off time can be used to read and watch films.  So that, at least, excites me.  

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/12/19/mike-pence-identity-crisis-00067939

I guess you could say all this crying is Boehner-esque.  :)  More seriously, I read the article and the first person I thought of was Richard Nixon... if you recall, he was Ike's veep, lost in 1960, lost the CA governor's nomination in 62, did the old "you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore" bit, and went into the wilderness...as did the GOP.  Anyways, after the debacle of 1964, everyone decided that maybe he wasn't so bad, and the rest of history.  Now, to be sure, everyone seems to think DeSantis is very viable, and Biden is... not exactly Reagan.  But I wonder if a longer period in the wilderness, if you will -- going around, campaigning, being normal, letting Trumpism run its course -- might just not be the best case here...

It was impressively cold today!  I didn't even go outside, but could feel it when I was tossing the orange peels outside (animals have to eat, and I am keeping organic materials out of the landfill, so I don't want to hear it); the wind was strong (at least the power stayed on, long may this continue!) and I could feel my fingers cracking just from the four seconds of exposure.  I cranked up the thermostat a bit, not that I want to consider the bill this month; yes, it will be 50 in a few days, but...now, of course, I hope the roads are good and the car starts.  I didn't think about leaving the house today -- no Festivus Chinese -- and were it not for the Christmas festivities, I wouldn't do it, either...