It is Sunday, December 28 and there are only 362 days until Christmas.  It’s never too early to start planning.  Today we remember the birthdays of Ceslav Vanura, Galixa Lavallee and Stan Lee.  On this day in 1065 Westminster Abbey opened in London, in 1846 Iowa became the 29^th state and in 1968 the Beatles’ “Beatles – The White Album” went to #1 and stayed there for 9 weeks.  In Iowa it is Admission Day and in Nepal it is King Birendra’s Birthday.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas.  We did.  The lovely Elaine did Christmas Eve and the traditional Italian seafood meal.  Technically, you are supposed to have seven kinds of fish, but we only had five.  In all the time we have been doing this meal, we only had all seven types once and that was the year we included the Peppridge Farm goldfish that we had for the grandkids.  But we don’t care.  My brother Jack joined us.  He has been coming for Christmas Eve dinner since before the lovely Elaine and I were married.  

The evening was great.  My son, daughter-in-law and the two grandsons came and we drank, exchanged gifts, ate, rested, ate some more, rested and then had candy, dessert and coffee.   We talked, reminisced, laughed and had a great time.  Yes, I also had Christmas music playing all evening.  When everyone departed, we sat and watched the movie “A Christmas Story” once through.  When it started the second time, the lovely Elaine dozed and I finished the clean-up from dinner.  Don’t be too impressed.  It consisted mainly of emptying and reloading the dishwasher, hand washing some glassware that could not go in the machine and cleaning the stove.

The following morning, because we slept later than usual, we did not follow our usual tradition of going in the hot tub.  We had a leisurely breakfast of stollen and coffee and then showered and dressed to go to Elaine’s cousin’s house for dinner.  When we got home that evening, we poured ourselves a drink, changed into bathing suits and went into the hot tub.  I put Christmas music on and turned on the outside speakers and we had a great evening.

One thing I noticed on the ride to her cousin’s house was signs on the highway telling us how many miles and minutes it was to certain places.  What I found interesting was the disparity between the sign information and reality.  Do the math and let me know if I am wrong.  We were traveling on a highway that had no traffic to speak of.  We were doing 65 miles an hour.  The sign told us that we were 12 miles from a town and the travel time was 13 minutes.  Huh?!?  A rough calculation tells me that if I waited for 13 minutes to look for the town they mentioned, I would be over two miles past it at the end of that time.

I could sort of understand it if they had the time and mileage match, but in what universe does it take 13 minutes to go 12 miles when you are doing 65 mph?  This was not an unusual occurrence.  I have seen this type of thing on a number of occasions.  Sometimes I attribute it to traffic congestion.  Sometimes there is a difference because the speed limit is lower in construction areas (not that anyone actually slows down the way they are supposed to).  I just think that if you are going to have these signs, you should try to make them accurate.

As an example, on one of our trips to see our friend Pat, we saw a sign that told us that a serious accident had occurred and we should expect delays.  This was at around mile marker 125 on the parkway.  When we got off some 60 miles later, we had not yet seen the accident.  I figured that it had happened further south and we were lucky enough to get off the road before we hit the delays.  Or, the accident had happened much earlier, perhaps even the day before, and the sign had not been updated yet.  Don’t get me all excited in anticipation of seeing burning wreckage and lifeless bodies and then not have anything for me.

Traveling on a holiday is nice because the traffic is lighter, the drivers are not, generally, as crazy and when you go by a construction area there is an excuse for no work being done.  Not like on a normal day and when you go by there are trucks all over, equipment moving around and four or five guys watching one guy dig a hole.  You still have to be careful on the way home because by then everyone has been eating and drinking and are now falling asleep or not able to see too well, much like coming home from the shore on a Sunday night, except that on Sundays in the summer you are going much slower. 

This week our fact provides us with information that has been plaguing minds for years.  In fact, Gilligan of Gilligan’s Island had a first name that was only used once, on the never-aired pilot show.  His first name was Willy.  The skipper’s real name was Jonas Grumby.  It was mentioned once, in the first episode on their radio’s newscast about the wreck.  Finally, some closure on this tale of castaway woe.

I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!  I wish you happiness, health, laughter, joy, hope and all good things in the coming year.  Celebrate, enjoy and drive safely.  Remember that they (who is this “they” we always refer to?) say that whatever you do at midnight on New Year’s Eve, you will do all year long.  The lovely Elaine says she is not doing that in the middle of a party.  Yes, I mean taking a nap.

Happy New Year!