home for the holidays

[nostatic]

OK, I'm going to hijack my own thread before it starts, but too bad. Three reasons *I* know there is a higher power:

1. I didn't die on 24Dec83
2. I didn't die on 18Aug06
3. I'm dropping down into Malibu on Kannan Rd, and just as the Pacific comes into view, this song comes on the radio:



Oh people, look around you
The signs are everywhere
You've left it for somebody other than you
To be the one to care
You're lost inside your houses
Theres no time to find you now
Your walls are burning and your towers are turning
I'm going to leave you here and try to get down to the sea somehow

The road is filled with homeless souls
Every woman, child and man
Who have no idea where they will go
But they'll help you if they can
Now everyone must have some thought
That's going to pull them through somehow
Well the fires are raging hotter and hotter
But the sisters of the sun are going to rock me on the water now

Rock me on the water
Sister will you soothe my fevered brow
Rock me on the water
I'll get down to the sea somehow

Oh people, look among you
It's there your hope must lie
Theres a sea bird above you
Gliding in one place like jesus in the sky
We all must do the best we can
And then hang on to that gospel plow
When my life is over, I'm going to stand before the father
But the sisters of the sun are going to rock me on the water now

Rock me on the water
Sister will you soothe my fevered brow
Rock me on the water, maybe I'll remember
Maybe I'll remember how
Rock me on the water
The wind is with me now
So rock me on the water
I'll get down to the sea somehow

---

It's been a f*cking long year. Job changes. Deaths of friends. Motorcycle accident. My cat killed in front of me. The BS with my dad. Final papers done on the divorce.

But today was all about home. For most people that meant a trip to see the family, open presents, eat turkey. Some of us don't celebrate that way though for a variety of reasons. And "home" can be an abstraction that is hard to pin down. But today, I made it home...



And the rest of the day taking pics and driving the SC. Life is great. Merry Christmas. And may '07 be better than the last one...

[DonDavis]

Started off the day with my 7 year old jumping into our bed yelling "IT'S CHRISTMAS"! Just got home from dinner with my wife's parents and it was great!

Glad to see you had a great day too!

Best wishes from my family to yours!!

[Bob's Flat-Six]

Keep on Keepin on.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Most excellent Jackson Browne song! One of several true classics by him.
I also very much identify with "The Pretender". He could have been writing about what happened to me in my life since my divorce 6 years ago after 20 years of marriage. The whole, "I'm gonna get myself a house in the shade of a freeway, gonna pack my lunch in the morning and go to work each day...."
Fortunately or unfortunately, these lyrics jibe EXACTLY with my life post-divorce.

Nostatic, I think you and I probably agree on NOTHING based on our comments to each other on other OT threads. Okay, maybe our taste in cars....maybe. Nevertheless, I can idenitfy with your year and I wish you a better one next year, I honestly do.

I used to hear someone was going through a divorce and I'd say, "Oh gee, that's too bad...pass the salt will 'ya". Now when I hear it? It brings back what REALLY happens in a divorce (at least to me) you get your mental, emotional and financial ass kicked! Its done to you in HDTV, on a big screen and in Times Square for God's sake. I wish it on NO one. You on the other hand may wish me a ***** sandwich for my views on a whole host of things but...oh well, I don't mind.

Will you be at the New Year's Day run? Feel free to give me the finger if you want, I'll know I'm "Numero Uno" with you!

[Dan in Pasadena]

In support of Nostatic's feelings today...because I totally relate and just because I found these lyrics:

JACKSON BROWNE
The Pretender

I'm going to rent myself a house
In the shade of the freeway
I'm going to pack my lunch in the morning
And go to work each day
And when the evening rolls around
I'll go on home and lay my body down
And when the morning light comes streaming in
I'll get up and do it again
Amen
Say it again
Amen

I want to know what became of the changes
We waited for love to bring
Were they only the fitful dreams
Of some greater awakening
I've been aware of the time going by
They say in the end it's the wink of an eye
And when the morning light comes streaming in
You'll get up and do it again
Amen

Caught between the longing for love
And the struggle for the legal tender
Where the sirens sing and the church bells ring
And the junk man pounds his fender
Where the veterans dream of the fight
Fast asleep at the traffic light
And the children solemnly wait
For the ice cream vendor
Out into the cool of the evening
Strolls the Pretender
He knows that all his hopes and dreams
Begin and end there

Ah the laughter of the lovers
As they run through the night
Leaving nothing for the others
But to choose off and fight
And tear at the world with all their might
While the ships bearing their dreams
Sail out of sight

I'm going to find myself a girl
Who can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams
And then we'll put out dark glasses on
And we'll make love until our strength is gone
And when the morning light comes streaming in
We'll get up and do it again
Get it up again

I'm going to be a happy idiot
And struggle for the legal tender
Where the ads take aim and lay their claim
To the heart and the soul of the spender
And believe in whatever may lie
In those things that money can buy
Thought true love could have been a contender
Are you there?
Say a prayer for the Pretender
Who started out so young and strong
Only to surrender

[Don Plumley]

Glad you had a great day - you certainly deserved one. And here's looking at 2007...

Happy Holidays.

djp

[tabs]

Well I wasn't waitin for Santa this year..I was waitin under the covers for the fever to break. Miserable mtherfking flu I knew the ***** was gona come back.

[jim72911t]

Great post, Nostatic.

I didn't make it home this year, as I've always associated home with surfing on the morning of December 25th. Looks like there were some decent waves to be had.

Wishing you the best for '07.

[Milu]

Home and Xmas for me for about 20 years was the car races I had with my dad Xmas morning. The last couple of years his reactions had slowed and I used to pull back a little to let him win, I hope he never caught on. It's a wonder we never had any police problems.

Please spare me any lectures about irresponsibility - our routes were carefully selected.

[red-beard]

If you keep this up, you're gonna lose all of your Race Bannon points.

Actually, this is the 1st year we've spent Christmas in our own house. All day with the parents. One small interrruption. Our neighbors over for Christmas dinner (18lb turkey with all the normal things). Veuve Clicquot Champagne, followed by Sea Smoke Pinot and Belle Glos Pinot. Couldn't have asked for a nicer christmas, except for the lack of what Don said...

[Jim Richards]

Merry Christmas and have a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year, Todd.

[azasadny]

Todd,
Merry Christmas and I wish you the best New Year ever, you deserve it!!

[bigchillcar]

for our 2006...todd, you and i should go bowling..

[artplumber]

Originally posted by nostatic
...
But today was all about home. For most people that meant a trip to see the family, open presents, eat turkey. Some of us don't celebrate that way though for a variety of reasons. And "home" can be an abstraction that is hard to pin down. But today, I made it home...

....

Yeah, it's been a rough year for you. I empathize.

You're right about home. It's where ever my wife and daughter are. Probably where your son is for you.

There's always hope for '07

[arcsine]

Nice to hear Todd. Many of us never find out where our "home" is. You are a lucky man.

[genrex]

Todd, thank you for this post, and the pictures. It's very powerful reading, and it's given me a lot to think about. There's no place like home, as they say in the Wizard Of Oz. Home is where the heart is, as my Mom says. I don't know where my heart is right now. Maybe it's waiting for me on the grass of Golden Gate Park, or on GG beach nearby. But the future is once again full of hope.

Thanks again.

[bigchillcar]

yeah, for those of us who've had a really rough year, it does suggest some hope for the future..a dark cloud with a silver lining.

[JeremyD]

Amen brother - I'm ready for the the new year and to put behind me 2006 like a long flat road in my rear view mirror.

[scottmandue]

I normally go to church on Sunday mornings... but I was not in the mood on Christmas eve for various reasons so I sipped bourbon and watched TV all day.

As usual I spent Christmas day at my brothers with mom and dad and his family.

I am the youngest and he is the oldest of the siblings so we never got along well growing up.

I usually show up just out of obligation, put in a few hours then run away home. For some reason this year we bonded... for the first time EVER. We talked about cars, played with the kids, smoked cigars.... very surreal.

Todd, 2007 has got to be better... can't get much worse.

DON'T LET IT BRING YOU DOWN

Old man lying by the side of the road
With the lorries rolling by,
Blue moon sinking from the weight of the load
And the building scrape the sky,
Cold wind ripping down the allay at dawn
And the morning paper flies,
Dead man lying by the side of the road
With the daylight in his eyes.

Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning,
Find someone who's turning
And you will come around.

Blind man running through the light of the night
With an answer in his hand,
Come on down to the river of sight
And you can really understand,
Red lights flashing through the window in the rain,
Can you hear the sirens moan?
White cane lying in a gutter in the lane,
If you're walking home alone.

Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning,
Just find someone who's turning
And you will come around.

[Jim Richards]

Whenever life gets you down, nostatic,
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
And you feel that you've had quite eno-o-o-o-o-ough,
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And reolving at nine thousand miles an hour.
It's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
'Round the sun that is the source of all our power.
Now the sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
In the outer spiral arm, at fourteen thousand miles an hour,
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred million stars;
It's a hundred thousand light-years side to side;
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand light-years wide.
We're thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point,
We go 'round every two hundred million years;
And our galaxy itself is one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whiz;
As fast as it can go, that's the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!

adapted from Monty Python's Galaxy Song