OilMan Checks out the Rig

It's a miniature version of an oil drilling rig used for drilling a well for water. There is a drill bit lying on the ground which we thought looked rather the worse for wear with quite a few missing teeth. On the way back to our house we talked to a man working there who said the bit was fine, but they broke the drill itself when they hit boulders at 80 feet down. With another 300 feet to go, they could have asked us what our "soil" is like, but they didn't, and there has been far more silence than sounds of drilling up there.

Dana and I are still exchanging baking dishes, platters and small electric appliances--testament to the amount of food that got transported backwards and forwards during our five days of family feasting spread over our two households. We have just about eaten all the leftovers in our fridge, but I think most of them wound up at Dana's house.

Thank goodness nobody showed the slightest bit of interest in leaving the groaning board on Thanksgiving Day to fight our way through the big box stores in search of bargains. I find it depressing to be constantly told that our entire economy seems to depend on spending during the Christmas season, The day after Thanksgiving used to mean a trip to the city to admire the department store windows and do a bit of Christmas shopping. I used to have tea with my mother at Bullocks, an impressive Art Deco Pasadena store with a lovely restaurant. Now the commercials on television feature people with black eyes and armfuls of shopping bags, returning from the Black Friday sales in stores stripped of amenities and filled with stuff. Pretty soon the schmaltzy Christmas carols will begin after Halloween and Thanksgiving will be completely co-oped by commercially induced shopping mania.

What happened to the spirit of Christmas? Does anybody even remember what it is?