Today is Sunday, December 30 and there are only 360 days until Christmas. If you get out and get going you should be able to get some great bargains for next year. Today we remember the birthdays of Titus, Asa Griggs Candler and Tracey Ullman. On this day in 1809 wearing masks at balls was forbidden in Boston, in 1817 the first coffee was planted in Hawaii and in 1963 “Let’s Make A Deal” debuted on NBC-TV. In Bolivia and Chile it is a Bank Holiday, in Philippines it is Rizal Day and in the US it is National Bicarbonate of Soda Day and Bacon Day. 

As you know, tomorrow night is New Year’s Eve. That is the one night of the year when people go crazy celebrating the coming of a new year. Well, younger people do. People in their early to mid 20’s go out and party until well into the new year. They drink, eat, dance and have a great time. They also spend time wondering who Dick Clark is and why would you associate Ryan Seacrest with anything titled “Rockin’ …” As they get older, get married and start having a family, they have friends over and celebrate at home. They still eat, drink and have a great time, but things have mellowed a little because of the kids. As they head into their 40’s, the number of people they invite is smaller, but they still have a lot of fun. The kids are out celebrating with friends and they call at midnight. 

Once they are in their fifties they invite a few close friends, have some good food, toast the new year, call the kids and send kisses to the grandkids and at midnight drink a toast and then wish their friends a safe trip home. When they reach their sixties, they are lucky if they stay awake until midnight. They are usually wakened by their phone ringing when the kids call and they try to sound like they have been awake all night. I will let you know what the 70’s are like once I get there.

I used to enjoy New Year’s Day because of the Tournament of Roses parade and all the football games. Nowadays, the bowl games are spread out over several days and you really have no idea what any of them are because they go by a sponsor name. I was not a big college football fan, but I enjoyed a good football game, regardless of who was playing. Now, I miss some of the games because I have no idea when they are playing. Oh well. If there is no game I can always use it as an excuse to take a nap.

For Christmas this year, Barbara and I went to South Carolina. I had planned on leaving on the Friday before Christmas for the drive down. We could not fly because the cost to ship everything that we were taking would have been exorbitant. As it was we had the car so packed that I was afraid to open the tailgate for fear everything would just spring out of the car and … but I digress. I thought leaving on that Friday was a good idea. My plan was bolstered by the fact that AAA claimed that the heaviest travel day would be Thursday. Someone forgot to tell everyone that they were supposed to have travelled the day before.

We were fine until we got to Virginia. I do not know what the story is in that state, but there is one section that is bumper-to-bumper, in both directions, not matter what time of the day you get there. The worst part is that at some point (after sitting in traffic for over an hour) everything opens up. There is never any sign of why it was backed up. There is not roadwork, no accident or anything that would indicate why we were taking forever. It just opens up. I feel that if I am sitting in traffic that long there should be several smashed cars, at least one of which should be burning. There should be ambulances, fire engines, police cars and tow trucks everywhere and there should be people with bandages held to their heads and other body parts.

We left to come home two days after Christmas. My theory then was that it was part of Christmas week and people would be where they were going to spend the holiday and not out on the roads. I figured that if we left by around 8 in the morning, we would be fine. We actually got on the road by 8:30. We were doing fine and, while I didn’t want to jinx the trip by saying how well the drive was going, I did feel we would make the trip in under 12 hours. WRONG! 

We got to that area in Virginia and got jammed up again. To make matters worse, we ended up dragging into rush hour. I won’t bore you with the agonizing details, but we got home around 10:30. And, yes, there was a great deal of profanity involved. It is almost like there is an alert system that tells everyone to get out on the highway and slow things down because I am on the way. I am pretty sure that is not the case because other people complain about the same thing, but you start to wonder after it happens every time, in both directions!

This week our fact tells us that 15% of Americans secretly bite their toes. They do not tell us what percentage bite their toes openly, but I am sure there is a small number that do. One thing I am pretty sure of is that none of them, secretly or otherwise, are over 60. No one over that age would be able to bend over that far and if they did, they would need help getting back up. Having seen the toes of a number of people in my lifetime, I can’t help but wonder why anyone would want to bite them in the first place. They are not the least bit appetizing to look at.

I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year! I hope you have a safe, happy, healthy year.  I would like to thank you for joining me each week and I hope I have made you chuckle and smile. See you next week.