The Potholed Interstate Is Shameful

I would be remiss if I closed out 2009 without one final complaint, and this is a big one.

Can anyone tell me why they allow the interstate (I-29) at the south part of Iowa to be so pockmarked with potholes?

Everyone who's ever traveled that stretch of highway, the first 10-15 miles, knows it is simply riddled with crazy, huge streaks of potholes, virtually without respite. And it's been that way for years! Is there no way to get that particular stretch fixed? How can that be?

When I'm wondering whether I'm still in Missouri or not, I don't have to look for the roadsigns. I just look at the road itself. If the road's in fairly decent shape, then I know it has to be Missouri. When the road has gone completely to pot, then I know it's Iowa.

Come on, Iowa, get this stinking road fixed! It's shameful!

And everyone knows it. You can't tell me that the proper authorities have never traveled that road and that they don't know exactly what it looks like. Like I said, it's been that way for years! Whoever's in charge of these things also knows it. Why isn't something being done?

Fix the interstate!

The Zeroes

I think "The Zeroes" is a fine name for the decade just now passing.

It makes more sense to me than "The Aughts," because we don't really say the word "aught" that much.

My dad used to say it a lot, like in an old time voice, "I remember the summer of Aught Three," even though he wasn't that old. He might be telling a story. And of course we used it in reference to a famous gun, the "Thirty Aught Six."

It has an old fashioned sound to it. Whereas "zero" is exactly what the main number is from 2000-2009. So "The Zeroes" makes a lot of sense, and sounds good too.

As for everyone saying the Zeroes were terrible, yes, they had their bad side. One, we suffered with George W. Bush for most of them. Those were gruesome, terrible political times. Now we have the execrable Republicans trying to make a comeback (God forbid). Please, don't let them spoil the next decade like they did the past one!

Our big hope for the 2010s is that the Democrats rule and reign as Democrats, not Joe Lieberman- Ben Nelson-Republican wannabes. And that the Democrats always have a spine of steel when it comes to sticking up for themselves against the shameless, worthless, miserable Republicans. The Republicans, after all, are completely and totally disgusting.

May President Obama keep his head about him when the Republicans are crowing about the latest thing, whatever their hypocrisy didn't allow them to crow about when Bush was president. Wow, they're worthless.

Let's get the 21st century kicked off again, a restart, and make actual progress in the country and world. We can do it. We can make the next 10 years better than the last!

Personally, the last 10 years were basically OK for me. Not the Golden Years, but, like always, I was happy enough.

God was good, let's say. And will still be good tomorrow.

Happy New Year. The first decade I really remember turning over on was the '70s. I was a bit young to think about it that much in 1959. But I surely knew. It's tough to believe it's been 40 years ago that it was 1970, but that's the way time flies!

Have a great one!

Took My Dog To The Pennel

I usually get out of the unpleasant task of taking the dog to the kennel (the pennel, I should say), because I hate the thought of her being there.

But yesterday, with us going away for a couple days, and the roads turning out to be bad because of the snow, I had to join the effort to get the dog out there. It's in the country, where the roads are more treacherous than the normal treacherous roads in town.

So there I was, getting her situated in the building with the other dogs. The other dogs go insane when you open the door. At this point it's not territorial, it's just orneriness, I'm guessing. Or trying to get your attention to say, "Get me out of here away from all these noisy dogs," not realizing that each time they individually pipe up they're making it worse for everyone. But you can't reason with a building full of barking dogs.

I don't care about reasoning with them, but I do care that my dog has to sit there and hear that. But what am I supposed to do? She can't stay home by herself.

The kennel is a bunch of pens in an outbuilding at a farm. In my opinion they could use some sound dampeners to make it more cozy for the dogs. So there isn't the same terrible noise level.

It's interesting that the dogs -- who are always most interested in each other when two meet on the street -- aren't the slightest bit interested in each other when they're in the pennel. They're only interested in any human beings who happen to open the door.

I left behind a blanket someone gave me for Christmas, that I'd been wrapped up in for a couple days. Maybe no one else in the world likes my scent, but the dog seems to.

Losing Papou

I have Google ads on my blogs. Of course I can't click them, because that's a no-no with Google. If someone sat here clicking their own ads, of course they'd get in trouble with the program. And it'd be unethical, unless you were a very impulsive buyer, who wanted something that everyone was advertising.

But I don't think there's any rule against calling attention to some of them. One I just noticed, at my Grandma Slump blog, is on explaining death to children. This one mentions grandparents and there was another one as well. Probably because the blog is called Grandma Slump. Just what I need, having her read my blog and seeing all this stuff about grandparents dying. At 104, that's the last thing she wants to think about (I assume). But since Grandpa's sitting on a cloud up there, like in the Family Circus comics, maybe she wants to get to him.

The ad says "Comfort your children about loss of a parent or grandparent." That's important. Today's pampered child can't face death like we did when I was a kid. I had a friend whose Mom and Dad rented out their house to a funeral home to keep bodies in their living room, because it was in a different town from the funeral home, and if someone from that town died, that's where they'd be for the visitation. So we'd be over there playing and there might be a dead body in the room too!

I remember the first funeral I went to. I'm still fascinated by the guy and this was almost 45 years ago. In fact I looked up his gravesite picture online just today. True. I plan on visiting his grave when I'm in the area. Because I found the cemetery on Google Earth and now I know how to get there. I think there was less than 10 people at the funeral, including a kid, namely me. In 1965.

Of course since then I've seen a lot of death -- a lot of death. People dropping dead everywhere. After a while you start taking it in stride. It's that first one that sticks with you.

The name of the website is www.losingpapou.com.

I think children can handle death OK. "You know how Puffy your hamster is an angel in heaven? Well, Grandma had to go feed him. And unfortunately she's never coming back."

Mamou has gone to be with Papou.

Twelve Days Of Christmas

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" has to be the most monotonous Christmas song ever. I don't mind truncated versions, but the whole enchilada ... definitely not great. I'm listening to Connie Francis' version and she did the whole thing.

As far as Christmas songs that are so overlooked, and it makes you wonder what ever happened to them, the biggest one that comes to mind is the one that says, "There's a song in the air, there's a star in the sky, there's a mother's sweet prayer, and a baby's low cry." What is it about that song, that you can go the whole, entire Christmas season without hearing it once.

It seems like we used to do it for church programs or maybe in school. But it's one that dwells at the edges of existence. I've heard several Christmas songs dozens of times this year but not that one!

No More Days To Wait

Christmas Eve is that day in the song where they say, "No more days to wait. But now an even longer wait begins," meaning the wait between tonight when I go to bed and tomorrow when I wake up.

I never considered it much of a wait, though, as long as I could get to sleep. Because once you're asleep, it's over. The night speeds by.

Then Santa Claus came and worked his magic, eating all our candy and drinking our milk.

I have a tape, recorded evidence, that Santa visited us. We didn't have a fireplace but you can hear him rattling up through the furnace grate. And he talks on there about each of us kids and says "ho, ho, ho" a few times, I believe. It was recorded in 1959.

The voice sounds vaguely familiar, a lot like my late father.

A Quick Waking Dream

While I was watching a movie a little while ago, there was about 15 seconds where I felt like I was having a waking dream.

I don't think I closed my eyes, but my mind sort of drifted in a real strange way, and I was suddenly thinking of a scene from a book I read once.

I mentioned it to someone sitting there ... which of course sounded odd.

I read an old book one time a couple years ago, "Agent Nine Solves His First Case," or a title very similar to that. In the book he's followed by thugs in big cars and is threatened by them, chasing him, or something. For these few seconds, that whole thing was foremost in my mind. Then I must've cleared it out, because it all passed.

It might be kind of like that little bit of confusion just before you fall asleep. Except I was in a chair watching a movie. Why I was suddenly thinking of that book, I don't know.

Waiting For Winter's Worst

When you know winter's worst is on the way, it's like a death sentence. I think, because I've never actually been sentenced to death. Except in the same sense that everyone else has, someday, some way.

Winter's worst ... You never quite remember how terrible the brunt of winter's worst is until it happens again. I know in the summer, winter's like a nasty memory. I'll be walking around with a short sleeved shirt in the summer, and winter's far from my mind. Summer has its own problems, namely bugs.

Winter is the deadly season. A couple years ago we could've easily died on the road. It was as snowy, blustery, cold, and crazy as any day I'd ever seen. We were going 5 mph on the highway at times, and having a hard time seeing the road at that. It was simply the craziest thing I'd ever experienced. Then, fortunately, out of some kind of weird luck, we found a little hole-in-the-wall motel that was like Paradise in light of the situation. The big problem was what we would do in the morning. And it was so cold, it looked like one of my tires was going flat. A mechanic told me they sometimes do that. But we made it fine the next day, with the wind abated.

It's different when you're at home, which I am now. Then it's just a matter of waiting for it to do its worst and dig out.

Oh, one other complication, I have a dog that needs to go out, like dogs do, several times a day. That means many additional obstacles and misery.

But hopefully we shall all survive it. Like we have before.

The Republicans Are Such Vermin

Michael Steele, the head of the dysfunctional Republican party, now says the Democrats are "flipping the bird" at the American people by passing health care reform legislation.

Of course we know what the Republicans want to be accomplished: NOTHING. Got that? A big fat goose egg is what they would prefer, not just on this issue but every issue. And that's God's honest truth.

Why do they want it that way? So they can stand back and crow, "The Democrats didn't get anything accomplished!"

So, yes, probably to this bozo and his band of bozos, getting something passed is very bad news indeed.

But as to "flipping the bird" at the American people, he might go back and revisit the election of 2008. It was big news at the time. In that election, more Democrats were elected. In that election, a Democratic president was elected. And in that election, one of the campaign themes and campaign promises was health care reform. By enacting health care reform, it is a fulfillment of what we voted for.

"Flipping the bird" at the American people would be to know that's what we voted for it and to seek to deny us getting it. Which, as we know from the last several months, is precisely what the Republicans have done.

The Republicans are despicable vermin.

Dirt Against Black Clothes

When will I ever learn?

I went and got a sweatshirt this year before winter, because I like to wear one all the time, to stay warm. If I can stay warm with a sweatshirt on it means I can keep the furnace turned down a little bit.

But I wasn't thinking when I bought a black sweatshirt. That means it shows every grain of dust that gets on it, every hair (mine or pet hair), and all kinds of dirt and smudges. If I get another one next year (note to self), I need to go for the gray one they had.

Then I also got a new computer this month. And guess what color it is? Black! It didn't occur to me that I would be looking down at hairs, dust, dirt, smudges, and all the rest! But that's the way it is. And on this computer if you're not careful when you're wiping it, it takes you offline. There's a touch strip toward the top, and if you rub on that, it clicks off the online status. It also affects the sound and the volume.

I hate the thought of it being clogged up with dust and dirt. And also I hate the appearance of overly dirty things.

So black is beautiful. It's just not the color you need to avoid seeing dirt, hair, and all the rest.

The End Of A Decade

Of course I remember all the discussion around the turn of the century as to when a decade starts and ends, but none of that makes any difference. We obviously go by the beginning number, not by the idea that the 10th is the end of the series. So the '60s are 1960-1969, etc.

But the 2000s don't have any number like that, so I still don't know what we call this present decade. The zeros, I guess. Or the 2000s.

It suddenly occurred to me the other day that this will be the end of the decade, as reckoned above.

Meaning there'll have to be a radio channel for it, just like there is for the '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s. Now the '00s! Because we're moving into the '10s or Teens. Awesome.

I hope I'm still around in the '20s, because that's where you have a decade where it's completely obvious what you call it. I won't make it to the '60s again, but I have memories of the last '60s. So I either picked the right time to be born or the wrong time.

In the end we all picked the wrong time to be born, since we're going to drop off just before we get to whenever. Mom and Dad had something to do with it.

Loreena McKennitt

Hey, here's my chance to search Amazon.com and see if they have this CD set I got tonight by Loreena McKennitt.

I got mine at Goodwill for $3, but it was unfortunately missing the bonus disc. Still, it's three nice albums, which I believe it said were Loreena McKennitt's first three albums.

What did I know about Loreena McKennitt before tonight? Absolutely nothing.

But I got these and they're on my computer and I'm listening to them. Listened to "Elemental," now "Parallel Dreams," and the other one is called "The Visit." I might not have time to listen to "The Visit" tonight.

I like the other two, maybe "Parallel Dreams" a little more, because I've been more relaxed, whereas with the other one I was only half listening. It's background music because I'm working. But it's pretty, relaxing, and nicely textured. And I've never been a big fan of Celtic music, but this is very cool.

There's some tape stuff, like effects, people talking, sound effects behind the very gentle acoustic music and vocals.

I wish I had the bonus disc. Because I hate to have sets where something's missing. But I didn't want to pass up the three CDs. I could tell just by looking at it that it looked good.

It comes in a nice red box, a two-piece thing.

I'm Testing Out My Amazon Links Thing

Friends, help make me extremely rich, by buying books, CDs, maybe even a complete stereo set at Amazon.

Yes, I'm going full bore as a proud purveyor of merchandise. I've tried some of their merchandise myself -- I have shopped there -- and I think it's every bit as good, maybe better, than the merchandise I have bought at stores in town.

One of the big selling points I like about Amazon is the boxes you get. You know, if you go to Walmart and buy a few CDs you don't get a box. But with Amazon, you buy something, it automatically comes in a box. These boxes are real useful. I've been cleaning up the house -- this is true -- and putting my old stuff in my new Amazon boxes, then taking it to the basement. Try that with a plastic Walmart sack!

Plus, shopping at Amazon keeps the postman in business, and, I believe, is the only thing standing between us and a four-day week for the post office. They wouldn't dare go to a four-day week if they had to deliver a million packages (locally) after three days off.

One other thing I like about shopping online, with Amazon (mind you), is that you don't have to leave home. I remember the first mall I went to. It was a mall in every sense of the word but it didn't have a roof. They didn't think of that back then. So you're walking through the courtyard, store to store, and no roof in the middle. Then they improved mall technology to such an extent that they invented the roof. That was good. But it still wasn't perfect until they could find a way for you not only to have a roof but to not even have to leave your home. Amazon gives us that.

The last thing to fall will be having to open the door for the postman. Because that can be cold as well as tiring. I want a way for there to be pneumatic shutes all over town, then for the package to just drop out of the wall, sent to me within seconds after it arrives at the post office. In fact it might even be shot over to a package unwrapping service, then sent on to my home, with the box of course. Got to have the box.

So what's my link? Something futuristic.

Well, guess what. This is serious. My Amazon linking thing didn't work. It just set there. So they need to work the kinks out of that before we trust them with a pneumatic delivery system.

UPDATE: 10 minutes later and it's still "searching." I was searching for a book on the future. Maybe it couldn't find one because they haven't been written yet.

I figured out the problem. It doesn't like Ad Block. Here's a futuristic link for something you could buy:

LOL, that worked like crap.

Checking Out Usenet

I've been checking out Usenet the last couple of days, but halfheartedly.

I used to have a real get-up-and-go for this, downloading so much stuff I couldn't keep track of it. I had tons of stuff, which, I burnt to CDs. This was before we had all these great external hard drives that store so much more.

Finally one day, feeling so overwhelmed by the whole thing, I put them through my shredder, which shreds CDs, and I felt a huge weight lifted.

But, like I said, I was over there checking out the downloads, and downloaded a few things, but I just haven't got the heart for it. Too much effort for such a small payoff. Or something like that.

One thing I got that I'm keeping, the Jimi Hendrix CD "Band of Gypsies." I have this CD, which looks to be in mint condition, but on one of the songs there's a skip. I haven't listened to this MP3 I got to see if it skips, but I'm figuring it won't. There must be a flaw in it. And if I hear it skip, whenever I get around to listening to it, then I'll know it was in the original and not just in my bad copy.

Other than that, I just haven't got the desire for it anymore.

The Incredible Access Otis Had

I've been thinking about the incredible access Otis has in the Mayberry jail.

He could show up at night, let himself in, sleep it off, reach out, get the key, and let himself out.

Making me wonder, at this point why worry about locking the cell? Since it was an open door policy anyway, why not leave the door open?

That's the way we need to run the criminal justice system in the rest of the country. It's more or less the honor system. If you think you've been bad, come on in. Then if you think you're rehabilitated -- who would know better than you yourself? -- just pack up your stuff and go home.

But what would we do with violent offenders, the hardened criminals? We'd have to ask them, looking them right straight in the eye, "Are you absolutely sure you're rehabilitated? Cross your heart?"

I Came Up Against iTunes DRM Last Night

In the last year or so I've had periodic trouble, some of it my own fault, messing up my iTunes library, then I switched to a new computer and am not using my old one anymore.

As a result, some of the stuff I bought at iTunes didn't get transferred over, didn't make the jump somehow. And some of it I fully expected to be there when I opened iTunes. I definitely don't remember deleting it. But all these troubles have happened.

One thing I bought at iTunes (and I don't buy much there, since I like Amazon a lot better) was Stephen Colbert's Christmas album, which is basically rotten but I wanted to hear a couple things off it. Well, it wasn't there ... and except for a single backup I had of it on a hard drive, unknown to me except it was found by searching ... I wouldn't have it now. That was OK, I reloaded it and it worked fine.

But I had another song from a little longer back, when they had protection on all their tracks. And it was the same situation, suddenly missing. Still, I found the backup and transferred it over, and guess what, it wouldn't play ... not until I typed in my password to prove I'd bought it once upon a time, at which time I was informed that I could put it on 3 more computers! Meaning I only have 3 more shots at losing it and needing to get it back. This a track that I bought.

Too bad about that DRM crap. What a bad idea that was. You'd think somehow, now that they don't do that anymore, that they could make it retroactive on these older tracks.

I don't like any of those shenanigans. Which is why I started getting tracks at Amazon in the first place.

Whither Lou Dobbs?

Has anyone missed Lou Dobbs yet? Me either.

Pray As You Go

I've been listening to some of the meditations at a website called Pray As You Go.

It's pretty good. They're very low key. They don't say much, but if you're really paying attention they're saying a lot.

It's from an organization in England, I believe, and they're some kind of Jesuit fellowship. That's Catholic, and they quote the Pope pretty often. Who, really, I can take or leave. But that's neither here nor there. He's their leader, so they quote him once in a while. His quotes are all pretty normal sounding. He's not excommunicating anyone over political differences in the quotes.

The format is the same for the five or six meditations I've heard. They have a theme song for the day. It plays for a while. A guy with a breathy, intimate voice comes on and makes a few comments about their theme, getting you ready to hear some verses from the Bible. Then maybe a little more of the song. Then a woman, whose voice is like the women on History channel documentaries about the Bible, in the way she reads, comes on and reads a passage of Scripture. The man comes in and says a few more things, sometimes with big gaps between his sentence, allowing the listener time to meditate on it. Then toward the end they replay the woman reading the verses. Then he, another woman, another guy, and some other people say, "Glory be to the Father," etc.

I like hearing it. I didn't like hearing Friday's meditation quite as much, since it was some African group doing a chant, the same thing over and over for the whole time. With the volume down for when the man was talking. But the message is pretty good. It makes me think.

The neat thing is they take some of these verses that go in one ear and out the other when you're reading them from the Bible -- like God chastising Israel for something in Isaiah -- and they have a good spin on them that makes you feel like you're being addressed. I'm always interested in compelling applications for such things, and they do a good jog. And like I said, it's all very low key. They're not beating the thing to death but seem to trust you're going to catch their drift the first or second time you hear it.

Personally, I would prefer hearing a little more of the man talking and a little less of the music. Also a little less of the big huge pauses. But that's just me. Maybe geared a little more toward hearing the application and explanations than having to fill in the gaps myself.

Check it out.

A Couple Good Bing Crosby Songs

These are good ones. I've had them for years but never listened to them today, on a 45 record.

"A Time To Be Jolly" and "And The Bells Rang." Both are very cheerful and pleasant. Bing was in great form.

My record is crystal clear on these. Very nice and lively.

Alexander The Great

I'm watching a movie, "Alexander the Great," starring Richard Burton, made in 1955.

It's pretty good, a biopic, of course, of how he was born, grew up, and eventually died. His place in history was a long time ago, 300-something BC.

I have another VHS set somewhere about going "In the Footsteps of Alexander," of which I watched one of the tapes years ago.

He conquered Tyre, you know? Nebuchadrezzar tried it, of course, as told about in Ezekiel, but didn't get the job done. But Alexander built some kind of land mass out to the island and finally got them. If you look at it on Google maps (or maybe Google Earth) you can see it's just jutting out there still yet today.

Alexander is a terrible thug, as far as I'm concerned. Just people going around trying to conquer the earth, whether it's him or Dr. Evil, it's such a crazy thing to do.

Alexander would have been "greater," in my estimation, if he would've left people alone, stayed at home in his own backyard, and been happy. We might never have heard of him, but big deal. There's more in life than being heard of.

"Jezebel" starring Bette Davis

I finished the movie "Jezebel," which is from 1938 and stars Bette Davis, with Henry Fonda.

The setting is Louisiana in the 1850s. It was interesting to see some of the customs of the time represented, including the great privileges of the white folks and the constant service of the black folk.

They had a dining area and a big fan over the table, hooked to a rope, and a black kid is over by the wall constantly pulling a rope to move the fan slowly back and forth.

Bette plays a spoiled brat young woman, who provokes her boyfriend (Henry Fonda) and practically everyone else. Their romance consequently goes on the skids and that's it. He leaves town.

When he comes back, she's very optimistic that they'll get back together. But by now, a year later, he's married, and brings his New York bride with him. So that sets up some conflict.

The men are in various honor tiffs and there's a duel in one scene.

Toward the end, yellow fever strikes in a bad way, and everyone's world is turned upside down. Bette redeems her spoiled brat character by caring for the dying, one character in particular.

It's a good movie. Black and white, and not just referring to the kid manning the fan.

Trying To Rip Christmas CDs

I have a box of Christmas CDs and I was trying to rip them. It turns out it's not as easy as it sounds.

For any semi-obscure Christmas CD, the odds of Freedb finding it in their database isn't good. I had three in a row. A couple of them I thoroughly expected it. Because lots of local groups, gospel groups, performers who go church to church, have their own CDs. And somehow they don't end up in the databases.

Plus, I like to get the tags and titles right. And it seems like there's so many flaky ones in the databases. To get them right is a long and dreary task.

Several made it, of course, big sellers, like Carpenters' "Christmas Portrait" and Bob Dylan's new Christmas album. I'm listening to the Carpenters MP3s. I love Karen Carpenter's crystal clear voice. Very pretty. Antiseptically pretty.

Up Late Again

I've been up since 5:30 a.m., and like to go to bed by 9:30 p.m.

But once again, I'm not making it. I needed to go do my exercises at the health club. Then get some groceries. Now I'm checking out the computer world, seeing if it was able to live without me the hour or so I was gone.

I still have a few things to do before I hit the hay. So I better get to it!

I'll be tired when I get up tomorrow at 5:30.

Queen

I've been listening to a little bit of Queen, the rock group.

I got a couple CDs at the thrift store. I already had the LP of "Night at the Opera," but that's about it for my collection of Queen. So it's nice to fill in some of the gaps as far as my collection goes and also to enjoy them.

I was listening to the Greatest Hits CD on my iPod last night. Doing so, of course, you're right up close, with it pressed against your ears. I could hear lots of great stuff. Tonight I'm listening to the "Night at the Opera" CD on the CD player. At first I was right there, now I'm in a different room, so it's just a muffled bit of sound. Still sweet sounding.

I hadn't paid any attention to the song "Fat Bottomed Girls" before, though I knew about it. I've listened to it four times or so, and I had part of the chorus stuck in my mind. It's a great one. Give me 30 years and I can catch up!

If I Don't Eat It, No One Will

My dog likes to be with me. I'm in a particular room. But we feed her generally in the kitchen. So, to allow her to be with me and to allow her to eat, I've been going to the trouble of getting her food and bringing it to where I am.

That's fine, but she seems uncomfortable eating (only sometimes) under those circumstances. At least she's not always so picky with her food. Still, she knows it's hers and she knows she might want it later.

So whenever the cats get within 10 feet she gets upset, growling, and making even more threatening noises and moves than that. It's scary enough it keeps the cats at bay. And it scares me too because it's a sudden outburst in the course of a quiet room.

I was in two rooms, so I moved it to the other room as well. She picked at it, otherwise she kept a fairly loose guard over it.

Finally we went to the kitchen, and the bowl was moved again. This time, in the kitchen, where it seems she is more comfortable eating, she finished it off. Once the food is gone, she doesn't care about the empty bowl. If the cats get near it, that's OK.

The Blog Tweets Were All Messed Up

This is the first time I've seen this. I had Tweets on some of my blogs and they were suddenly all messed up, like they were hacked or something.

Usually (always) it's just my own little things, Twitter updates, but suddenly it was a bunch of strangers.

Someone needs to look into it. I didn't give my password to anyone.

My Christmas Expenses

I dropped $225 for some gift cards for Christmas today and I'm barely started.

I still have around $450 to go, approximately. Christmas is an expensive holiday.

Bah humbug is about right.