Generally speaking, it was a decent holiday season - no one was particularly sick or ill tempered - me included. Christmas eve and morning were highlighted by a houseful of family and friends really having a good time, eating and drinking to excess - this is my favorite part of Christmas, and I truly enjoy the party. I got the
CD I wanted, and the wife got everything she asked for as well as a surprise gift - one of those
back massage and heat things that works at home or in the car - she likes it, cool. I did have some discomfort, though, predictably, brought on my inability to have any meaningful impact on slowing down the holiday spending frenzy that my household participates in.
I suppose it benefits local retailers, credit card companies, and Asian manufacturing companies specializing in crafting poorly engineered, partially assembled, complex plastic crapscapes for kids to cry over, trip over, and lose interest in by New Years. Oh yes, and I am sure the act of
purchasing all of these important gifts gives one a sense of empowerment, but in the interest of continued domestic bliss, I'll move past that, quickly.
Midway through the the holiday morning gift opening ritual, I had that familiar sickness in my belly, as I realized that as my lovely kids tore through the dozens of gifts, they were getting little real satisfaction or joy, it was just a reflexive frenzy - I'm sure if I paid more attention in General Psych I'd remember if it was truly
Pavlovian. Or maybe I was just sickened as I was able to visualize the mountain of holiday debt more clearly. Whatever, It felt bad.
My parents stopped by later that morning to exchange gifts and pleasantries, and poor Mom was an unwitting victim of the frenzy's power. Upon being offered a single wrapped gift along with an envelope (Italian for money), my 5 year old, demonstrated the intense power of
Classical Conditioning , and demanded to know where the rest of the gifts were, surely there was not just one?! While his meltdown was minor, I was still compelled to engage in another form of
conditioning, just to remind him to knock it off.
The fun continued throughout Christmas day. Generous piles of gifts and over excited kids were the order of the day, tempered with Black Label. We packed the van for the ride home after a long day, agreeing to leave a number of parcels behind for next time, as the booty exceeded our capacity. On the ride home, I obsessively contemplated my inability to pay all of these holiday bills, the (always timely) car insurance bill, and the annual landscaping bomb - Jake does a great job on the lawn, his rates are low, but his one-bill-a-year policy is always tough to digest.
About a mile or so from home, while stopped at a light, I sensed something amiss with the van -
"Christ I need this now? Another frigging thousand bucks?" A vibration, a subtle hum... I shifted to neutral, no change in the vibration, so probably not drivetrain related. I made sure the radio was off and switched off the heat, to see if the fan was the issue, but it was still there, and I started sweating. My wife asked what I was doing - pretty nervy to turn the heat off, y'know, and I shared my concern about the van. She rolled her eyes, shook her head and thanked me again for the massage seat, reminding me that it was keeping her comfy all the way home - then switched it off to allay my concern. If only all my concerns were so easily addressed.
All the best in 2008.
