Random Rants and Other Ramblings
It’s just past noon, and I’m about to grab lunch. Oddly, my bowl of hot chicken noodle soup has the enticing aroma of a wet hound dog on a hot summer day. Yum....This week promises to be a busy one. Tuesday night I took photos of the Walker County Christmas Parade. My weather app predicted the temperatures would dip into the 30s. Normally whenever I come prepared with a heavy winter coat, hat, and scarf, it actually hovers around the upper 60s. (It’s the same phenomenon that summons rain the second I wash my car or mow my grass. I suspect it’s easier to explain Sasquatch, the Yeti, the Sipsey Creature, or why nobody noticed they switched Darrins on Bewitched.)This time, the weather app was actually correct. I stood next to Daily Mountain Eagle Managing Editor Ron Harris, and we both struggled to get good photos. It’s not easy to keep your lens focused when you’re shivering. By the time the parade was over, my toes felt like I’d been standing in ice water....Tonight, I will be meeting with some other local thespians to do a read-through for a dinner theater production in February. Friday night I’ll be singing Christmas songs with the Jasper Men’s Chorale on the square, weather permitting. However, if the rain doesn’t stay mainly in the plain, the concert may be rescheduled....It’s the first week of December, and I haven’t made my Christmas list yet. The only thing I really want this year is for Facebook to stop hounding me about boosting my posts. They love to remind me that one of my posts is doing well BUT it would reach SO MANY MORE people if I would just get out my wallet and fork over a few Andrew Jacksons.In fact, Facebook is getting a bit too “helpful” lately. If they’re not trying to wheedle cash out of me, they’re telling me that one of my pages needs an update (they want me to add the hours of operation or select the business category or something else urgent) or reminding me that 25 bazillion of my followers haven’t heard from me in a while (three days or less) and maybe I should make a post to say hello.And why does Facebook need to know exactly where I am at any given minute of the day? The one incident that really scorched my biscuits was when I had just left a restaurant, and within minutes I got a notification that read something like “We noticed you were just in Blah Blah Restaurant. Would you like to give them a review now?”Uh, no, but thanks for stalking me....When did the Peanuts theme become classified as Christmas music? I’m talking about the lively piano instrumental heard in all the Charlie Brown cartoons. Christmas Time Is Here definitely qualifies as a yuletide song. The Peanuts theme? Not Christmas-y....Well, my Wet Hound Dog soup is all gone. Time to get back to the salt mines.Y’all have a good week. Dress warm, drink your Ovaltine, and come listen to the Jasper Men’s Chorale this Friday.Just don’t tell Facebook where you are. 78