The Day After

 

Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk December 2025

Phew! 

Finally, Christmas is over for another year. 

I am so relieved. 

I'll be honest with you folks, I really don't like Christmas. 

Sure, I like the pretty colors and some of the Christmas songs but so much I don't like, especially the forced "Peace on Earth" thing. We'll never have peace on earth. Always a battle between good and evil, good generally winning out but then the battle resumes.

The only thing that gives me hope is that I know there are good people in this world. People that care for other people, don't cheat and steal from them. Are kind to children and animals. There are a lot of those people. Then there are the Others. I won't go into that now other than to say that our country (America) is going through the most difficult time in our almost two hundred years history with the evil forces in charge of our government. Good will outlast this evil but not before a lot more damage is done. But this is life folks, one big learning exercise.

I just hope before I pass on from this earthy existence I live long enough to see these people who haves betrayed America held accountable for their traitorous and lawless actions. And the cowards who let this happen. They are beneath contempt. 

But enough of going down this negative road. We have another week of going through a retrospective of the last year (which I dread and hate each year when they do these retrospectives). 

Then we're off to a new year. 

I have a feeling this is my last Christmas, for which I am thankful. This Christmas was probably the worst for me in my eighty-four years. I got so depressed that all I wanted to do was sleep. I know this isn't what some people want to hear but it's the fact here at Casa Tipton-Kelly. 

Both of my neighbors on either side of me were gone. Even though we all basically keep to ourselves I did miss their activity. I treasure my quiet around here but it was really quiet this Christmas. Not even a church mouse........

Next blog post, more upbeat. I'm working on it. But you know me, I let flow what I'm thinking and right now I'm thinking I'm very glad this Christmas season is gone.

Christmas Day 2025

 

December 25, 2011. 

Here we are again folks. 

Another Christmas Day.

I hope everyone reading this blog post has a wonderful Christmas Day.

I will be spending my Christmas Day here at home by myself which is fine with me. Even when Bill was alive and I wasn't working, we always preferred staying at home for a quiet day. This year Bill is with me but in spirit only. 

Christmas Eve 2025

 Good Christmas Eve everyone!

Here I am alone at Casa Tipton-Kelly on this perhaps my last Christmas Eve. 

I had a nice quiet day. Did some more yard work and looked after both of my neighbors on either side who have traveled far and wide to celebrate Christmas with their families. I, who have no family (don't cry for me Argentina) will celebrate alone here at my wonderful, comfortable and low tax home here in southern coastal Delaware. Just the way I like it.

I talked to one of my old classmates earlier this evening and just got off FaceTime with Pat. 

This evening I made myself a stove top (as opposed to crock pot) beef stew. Delicious! I think I'm going to start a new Christmas tradition at this late stage of my life. Make home made, stove top beef stew. 

Now please excuse me while I update my online Scrabble games with Pat and I complete my New York Times games (Connections and Strands, I did Wordle earlier today).

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

The Eve of Christmas Eve 2025

 

Just came in from my walk around the neighborhood. All is quiet as a church mouse in the belfry (or something like that). 

My neighbors on either side of me are away celebrating Christmas in warmer climes (Florida and Georgia) than the thirty-one degree temperatures here in southern coastal Delaware. I'm collecting their mail and also checking in on the boy cat my neighbor left in charge of her house. My other neighbor took his poodle/Australian border collie mix with him. He said "We're joined at the hip. Where I go she goes." He said she's very well behaved. I think that is wonderful, his companion can go with him. Except when he goes fishing which is usually once a week, then I look in on her and talk her out for a pee break from her napping. 

I'm on FaceTime now with Pat, who is at his home in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. No, we won't be spending Christmas together in person (that would be nice) but this works for us. Pat's planning on coming down to visit me again for a few weeks in early Spring, which as you know will be here before you can say "Ho! Ho! Ho!" There! I said it. I almost got through this Christmas season without hearing that phony Christmas cheer that somebody (I wonder who) laughs. Actually I've only heard the dreaded "HO! HO! HO!" Once in the background in a random Christmas commercial and of course my dear friend Spo sprinkles "HO! HO! HO!" sporadically throughout his Christmas season blog postings. Seriously though, have you ever heard anyone except Santa say "HO! HO! HO!" Me neither. Frankly I've heard more people say "BAH! HUMBUG! than "HO! HO! HO!" Thankfully, only a two more days and we can put this false cheer to rest for another year. Besides, with the current political chaos in America today (you all know what I'm talking about) I'm not in much mood to "HO! HO! HO!" Maybe next year when Trump is gone, and he will be gone because there is no way he's going to last anther year at the rate he's going now with his lawlessness, I'll be in a "HO! HO! HO" frame of mind.

Oh my, how did I delve into this? Time to go. Nicer thoughts tomorrow when it would have been my Mother's 103rd birthday. 

Note:

The photo at the beginning of this blog was taken about six or seven years ago during one of me and Bill's visits to Lowes. Oh how Bill loved to visit Lowes and Home Depot. I so miss our daily rides and visits to our local stores. 

One day soon Bill. 

Remembering Bill This Christmas

DEATH IS NOTHING AT ALL

December 14, 2021

Death is nothing at all.

It does not count.

I have only slipped away into the next room.

Nothing has happened.

Everything remains exactly as it was.

I am I, and you are you,

And the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched,

     Unchanged.

Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.

Call me by the old familiar name.

Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.

Put no difference into your tone.

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.

Play, smile,, think of me, pray for me.

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.

Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.

Life means all that it ever meant.

It is the same as it ever was.

There is absolute and unbroken continuity.

What is this death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you, for an interval,

somewhere very near, 

Just round the corner

All is well.

Christmas - Five Days To Go!

 

Got all your Christmas shopping done? 

Me neither. 

In fact I don't Christmas shop. Haven't for years. Bill and I stopped exchanging gifts over forty years ago. We both had everything we wanted. As Bill often said "Christmas is for kids!" I agreed with him. 

Thinking back to my Christmases as a kid, I always felt let down. The promise was always more than the reality. I got over the "I wish I got this for Christmas" vibe by the time I was nine or ten. The only Christmas present I can remember that I truly enjoyed and appreciated was a Kodak camera. That started my picture taking journey which continues to this day with my iPhone. God! Imagine if I had received an iPhone when I was twelve years old. I would have literally over a million pictures, if not more. Maybe it's just as well I was born when I was (1941), when a Kodak Brownie camera was state of art.

I'm not complaining about "poor me" at Christmas time though. The things I fondly remember about Christmastime was the smell of the fresh Christmas tree (they cost about $5 then) and the bubble lights. I still have bubble light, over my fireplace mantle now.

When I got older and had money that I could buy presents I tried to capture the Christmas Spirit but alas, that spirit eluded me again. The promise was always more than the reality. I would often spend my whole Christmas bonus of a couple thousand dollars (this was in the Sixties when a couple thousand dollars could buy substantial Christmas presents) on my nieces and nephew and my parents. My father was always hard to buy for so I gave up after a couple years. My Mother was easy because she never brought anything for herself and she always appreciated what I got her. Probably because I put a lot of thought into her gift as well as her birthday gift which was on December 24th. My brothers? I have no idea what I bought them. I don't remember. Probably nothing. They had, like Bill, pretty much everything they wanted.

So this Saturday morning before Christmas I think of Christmases past and what always comes up is the promise wasn't the reality. Even the whole "Peace On Earth" myth. I figured that early on too.

So put me into the "Bah humbug!" category. I do like the 1950's black and white movie about Ebenezer Scrooge though. Not so much for the message but for the well crafted movie. 

These days of chaos with "you know who" (I can't bear to put his name in this post), Christmas means even less. I believe in the message of Christmas but my difference is to practice it all year not just at Christmastime. 

Christmas 2025

 

Kyle, Glenn and me at Rehoboth Beach, DE 2023

This photo popped up on my iMac screen saver this morning. 

It's a photo of my friends Glenn and Kyle from Palm Springs who visited me two years ago. 

Just another reminder of how fast time goes by.

In less than a week another Christmas will have passed. With all the turmoil in the world today it hardly seems like Christas anymore.

The only time this Christmas season I even felt "Christmasy" was when I visited my favorite thrift store and they were playing Christmas music. 

It was just a brief vibe, seeing all the somewhat worn Christmas decorations and listening to some old Christmas songs being played on a donated record player but enough to trigger my memories of happier Christmases.