Is It Over?

Is it over? Can I come out now? Have all those crazy people maxed out their credit cards buying stuff nobody really needed and gone home? No, now they’re all back at the stores returning all the stuff they didn’t need or want that somebody else maxed out their credit cards buying! I’m going back to sleep. Wake me January 3^rd.

Terry and I had a quiet Christmas morning, just enjoying each other’s company. My cousin Beverly called from Tucson to wish us a Merry Christmas and we enjoyed talking with her. I think everybody in the world was online, because we couldn’t get on to check our e-mail until after several tries, and then we’d get knocked off about half the time.

We left the campground about 2 PM and went to Ichiban Buffet, where we met our friends Joe and Marcia Jones, Jean and Dave Damon, and Stu and Donna McNicol for dinner. Having Chinese food seems to have become a holiday tradition with us. Kind of like in the movie A Christmas Story. Here is a picture Miss Terry took of our group; I’m the fat guy on the left, then Stu, and Donna. On the other side of the table, from the rear are Jean, Dave, Marcia, and Joe. Don’t we look like a happy, well fed group? Thanks for sharing part of your day with us, everybody!

After we had stuffed ourselves obscenely, Stu and Donna followed us back to our place and we spent another hour or two visiting. We always have a good time with them and we never seem to get together often enough.

Later on, we had telephone calls from Terry’s mom, our friend Chris Yust, my daughter Tiffany and her kids, all in Arizona, my cousin Berni Frees and her husband Rocky in Michigan, and Greg White in Texas.

I found a channel on Dish Network that had all Christmas music and we spent the evening listening to that. I had planned to do some writing, but I just didn’t feel motivated. Terry told me to take Christmas off and just be lazy, so that’s what I did!

Of course, Miss Terry is never lazy. She made a big batch of peanut butter cookies. Fresh, hot cookies washed down with a big old glass of cold milk, it doesn’t get any better than that!

What a difference 365 days make! Last year on Christmas Day, my mystery novel Big Lake sold 1,800 copies. This year for Christmas Day I had 26 sales, spread out over 11 books. I truly believe, as so many of the authors I know, that Amazon is killing the goose that laid the golden egg because they have flooded the market with free books. I’ve talked to a lot of people who tell me they have hundreds of free books on their Kindles that they will never live long enough to read. When that’s the case, why buy any books?

The holiday was saddened for many of us, to learn that we lost two well loved actors on Christmas Eve, Jack Klugman and Charles Durning. Both were true professionals, born entertainers, not the “personalities” Hollywood calls stars today.

Besides being great actors, they were also patriots. Both men served in the Army during World War II. A lot of people don’t know that Durning, perhaps best known for his role as the nincompoop governor in Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, was a genuine war hero. He was in one of the first waves to land on D-Day, he was the only member of his unit to survive, and was awarded the Silver Star for his valor as well as three Purple Hearts. Durning seldom talked about his wartime experiences, preferring to focus on his acting career.

Here is a link to an interesting website I came across that lists Hollywood actors that served during World War II. They truly were the “greatest generation.”

Thought for The Day – Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They’re just braver five minutes longer. – Ronald Reagan

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