I don’t hunt. However, my husband would have taken you out to his hunting range. 44 acres of West Texas scrub brush, with a tiny cabin on it, just big enough for a few people to sleep and eat in. Marginally better than a tent, or so I’m told. I have declined, with various amounts of grace, all invitations to ride 4 hours out to the middle of nowhere, where there IS NOT EVEN DIAL UP INTERNET ACCESS!!!
When the dog bites. When the bee stings.
Now why did I have it in my head that you were a guy?
However you do sound like my wife when I suggest camping… 
Her idea of roughing it is a hotel room without a coffee maker.
I firmly believe that a weekend without electricity is a wonderful thing.
I need to go the offices of the two major local radio stations and ask them all to marry me because I have yet to hear a Christmas song on either. I do have an iPod but when it’s cold enough I have to wear gloves to drive I tend to listen to the radio because it’s easier than messing with plugging the thing in. Not one Christmas song yet.
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes would be awesome. We’ve hardly gotten any yet.
And on the subject of the weather, it’s supposed to get down to -25C tonight and my car wouldn’t start at all today and I suspect won’t tomorrow either. It’s way, way, way too fucking cold! And they keep predicting it’ll warm up starting the next day (a couple of days ago it was supposed to be up near freezing today, lying bastards), and then they decide it won’t…it’s supposed to get up to near freezing Saturday but I won’t believe it until I see it. Then I will run around with my coat unzipped glorying in how warm it feels and the tourists will look at me like I’m a loon. And they can bite me.
When I was a kid (60s and 70s) “Over the River” was a Thanksgiving song. I don’t remember any others, but it seems as if there were at least a few other generic ones.
Who are these people? Is she like the “case of the Mondays” woman in Office Space?
Hey, I’m around all year, and I don’t want to worry about being beaten with any bells.
PS I’ll be home in 3 weeks. Is NH just like I left it?
Last night, I saw a minivan with flashing Christmas lights strung around the ski rack. The car was parked, so the genius who thought that up is likely to come out to a dead battery at some point. And it’s cold outside.
No. Now it is covered with snow if the news reports to be believed.
I have dim memories of singing one that started:
We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessings.
And, yes, the “over the river” and a couple of others I’m blanking on. I suspect what has done in Thanksgiving songs is three fold:
The ever encroaching Christmas (obvious)
The decreased tolerance in schools for religion. Requiring students to sing praises to a “Lord” is iffy, even if you might be able to argue that the “Lord” in question might possibly be Allah or Brahma or, indeed, the Invisible Pink Unicorn.
Greater cultural sensitivity. The entire relationship between settlers and natives is not taught in quite the monolithic way it used to be. Or maybe that’s regional, I grew up in Massachusetts where information about Thanksgiving was very much all about the “first” thanksgiving, big feast with Pilgrim settlers and Indians sitting down together.
Of course, the whole idea of ‘first’ is wacky. Harvest festivals no doubt go back to ancient times when the whole idea of agriculture got started.
So? There’s reports of Sanfermines bullruns from the Middle Ages, but the first official one was in 1915. “The first Thanksgiving” is not the same as “the first time someone gave thanks” or the same as “the first harvest festival.”
Is that what we in the biz call a “deadline?”
I have one simple response to those who want to “put the Christ back in Christmas.” It’s to reply, simply, “Some of us never took Him out.” It works nicely if you’re a Christian and it can imply you’re even more of a Christian than they are because you haven’t allowed yourself to get distracted by the hype. I see people who gripe about Christmas being too commercialized the same way. How commercialized one lets Christmas become is up to the individual. You don’t have to get wrapped up in the hype.
I have a gripe, but it’s not holiday related. The local blood bank has called me serveral times during the past few weeks asking me to donate again. Now, I apprciate their work and I’d be happy to do so but, as I told them the first time they called, donating blood wouldn’t be a good idea right now. You see, a while ago I caught the H1N1 flu which turned into pneumonia and I’m still not quite in good shape. I swear if they call one more time, I’m going to take them up on their request, turn up to donate blood, and then tell them I kept telling them this was a bad idea!
Take good care of yourself, Siege. And Merry Christmas.
Why do you think I’m not a guy now, just because I mention a husband? 
I do have a lot of interests that were considered traditionally masculine, and Lynn is an epicene name, though many women use the Lynne variant. I think that Lynn is becoming more of a girl’s name these days.
When I was a girl I loved to go camping, either with the Camp Fire Girls group I was in or with my family. This was before I became allergic to the whole damned outdoors, and before I started having other medical issues. This was also long before all sorts of electronic games and pastimes became common. I am still an avid reader, but I prefer to read in a climate-controlled room, with a cat or three next to me.
The last time I stayed in a hotel room, I never turned on either the TV or the coffee maker. The TV because I just don’t watch that much TV, and the coffee maker because I don’t drink on a regular basis…and because the hotel had a very nice free breakfast, which was well worth getting up early for.
Siege, I don’t know about your blood bank, but I have had good luck with giving mine a specific date after which they may call me again, even when the date is far in the future. (“Sorry, I’m pregnant, and I’ll be breastfeeding for about a year, and I don’t like to give blood while I’m breastfeeding. Can you put me on the list to call in about a year and a half?” And they did, right on schedule. I’m back in the routine of donating every eight weeks now.)
Ooh, that’s not bad. Putting it on my playlist - thanks!
Ended up going with Selah’s version for my CD. There’s a bit of funny business at the beginning, but WOW. The rest is absolutely beautiful.
I apologize if this is a duplicate rant because I didn’t have time to go through every page…
But I can’t be the only one who hopes that the woman in the chalet (Kay Jeweler commercial) who is frightened by the stupid thunderstorm gets struck by a lightning bolt. Repeatedly.
and that her spouse is with her and fries too! hell yeah!
Minirants:
First off, to those who have called me a GRINCH or a SCROOGE since we don’t celebrate Christmas with the kids, screw right off. You see, if you had actually followed both of the stories to their conclusions, you would have seen that the Grinch and the Scrooge had a change of heart. I, however, have not nor will not.
Second, to my lovely SO. No, I will not go to your family’s house for Hannukah without you. I am more than happy to drop off and pickup the kids so they can go. But if you choose to work instead of go, that’s your choice (he has full autonomy over his schedule). It’s not like we don’t see your family at least once a week as a group.
Third, to the AFA who have been complaining incessantly about stores like the Gap using “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”. I don’t get it. Seriously, why would you want to have them use something that you allegedly hold as sacred to sell cheap clothing?
And the one who spent all of the family’s rewards points on a dress can go with her. I have to say, that is not the way my husband would react if I bought a dress instead of taking us to Paris.