Good Night

Finally...I'm sitting here in my big, comfortable, manly, black leather poppa chair in my living room...recuperating. When I was a kid, I used to hate when Christmas night came around, because that meant it was 365 days till the next Christmas. "Don't cry because something is over, smile because that something happened" is a lesson that takes a while to sink in.

I love Christmas, but it can whack you. I start looking for Christmas presents around Labor Day, because one of the things I like best about Christmas is finding gifts that are different, and personal, and happy. I do the Santa-ing for the guys on our list, & my Lady Wonder Wench takes care of the ladies. I usually get the guys toys...because that's what I like. Christmas is a kid's birthday. Kids like toys. I let my little kid out to play at Christmas. Little kids understand Christmas much better than grownups do. I'll prove that to you in this podcast.

It's Christmas Past Again is the title of this podcast. It's about a lot of things that define Christmas for me and for my Lady. Rock hard and super sticky grammar school green and red Christmas candy, a portable radio that shaped my life, Mom's home-made apple dumplings, pictures from a long time ago, decorations for the tree including a tall, skinny Santa that reminds us of her dad, and a finely crafted Christmas ball from my German Grandfathers's tree...and remembering him singing Stille Nacht, thinking about maybe going home...one more time. It's about how the Salvation Army saved Christmas for my Lady one year, a long time ago, and about a Christmas flight that can't ever happen again. And...tears. Christmas is also about tears. This podcast is a personal treasure. I thought I'd wrap it up, and give it to you. Merry Christmas.

There's a one sentence Christmas Story that knocked me down in today's podcast. It may have the same effect on you. If it does, when you get up, please toddle over to your computer or smart phone and send your favorite Christmas story to [email protected] It will be treated with love and respect. This podcast is about lots of people's favorite Christmas stories, a big Christmas Eve bonfire, and 1,000 people standing close enough together to keep each other warm, standing in a snow storm, singing Silent Night.

No matter how often have you've heard, "The First Noel" you've never heard it quite like this. My son David is both a computer genius and a professional musician. You can't buy this recording in any store, but you can enjoy it here as often as you like.

I am sitting here in my big, comfortable, manly black leather poppa chair in my living room, and I want to thank you for sending your Christmas/Hanakah/Solstice/Quanza memories. I'm not sure when this one from Proud Podcast Participant Bill came in, but hey...It works. In fact, by the time we get to the end of it, you may notice your egg nog squirting out of your nose. What better way to celebrate Christmas?

The word "Hark" gets high marks for getting attention. The Herald Angels always said, "Hark" and look at all the attention they get at this time of year. This podcast explains how you can use the word Hark to get attention too. Always a good idea to get attention. Santa is watching.

I'm sitting here in my big, comfortable, manly, black leather poppa chair in my living room, getting an early start on Santa stuff...looking over some of the notes you wrote to me about Christmas. I read them all, and run some of them in the podcasts and blogs. Then I pack them away for the next year. Some of them make me wonder what happened to the people who sent them.

Christmas is so full of memories. Some people call memories baggage. I guess you can say that memories are baggage, but only if you remember how helpless you felt the last time an airline lost your suitcases. Christmas is good music, good food, and if you're lucky good, happy people around you.

But maybe you're not lucky this year. Even if your Christmas memories hurt, it's coming. Maybe it will help if you remember what Big Louie, the head guy of the Louie Louie Generation always says, "You might as well let a smile be your umbrella, because you're going to get soaked anyway."

Come on...send me your Christmas, Hannakuh, Solstice, or Kwanza memories. Happy or sad. The address is Dick at dick summer dot com.

I'm sitting here in my big, manly, comfortable, black leather poppa chair in my living room, happily thinking I changed the oil in my car last week. When I told My Lady Wonder Wench she said, "No, you changed the oil in my car last week." I said, "Huh?" She said "Go check the little sticker they put on the windshield." I did. She was right.

I'm glad I said "Huh?" instead of starting an argument. "Huh?" is very seldom the last word in a discussion. It's usually the start of double checking something. It's a good word..."Huh?" Because lots of times double checking instead of starting a fight is a very good idea. It's not a word we use to start a fight. It just says, "your idea surprises me, and I need to check it out."

"Huh?" is not only a good start to checking out a fact, it's also the most under used word in our language. The most over used word is, "Well." Almost any time a person is answering a question, the first word out of his mouth is, "Well. "What's the weather going to be like tomorrow Joe? Well...sunny if it doesn't snow." My friend Al had an operation a while ago, and I asked his doctor if he's ok. The doctor said, "Well...he's going to get well."

Well is the most over used word in the language. But the word that definitely needs more using is, "Huh?" And don't forget the question mark. It's "Huh?" "Huh? Is a very important word. It bedevils lots of important people. Because lots of time, it starts an important double checking of what they call their obvious facts.

My smart phone is watching me...and it can watch you too. There's an app for that. There's an app for almost everything. Almost everthing. I am sitting here in my big, comfortable, manly, black leather poppa chair in my living room, and I have just come across a new survey from the University of Michigan. They used data from a smart phone app to measure sleep patterns around the world. Our smart phones are watching our every move. There is a smart phone app for everything. Well, almost everything. There is an app that measures your weight, your BMI, your heart rate, & then tells you the weather forecast. Why not a little screen that pops up to tell you where you rate on the ugly or beautiful scale? There's an app that tells you when your shower is just the temperature you like. You can't just put your hand in the water instead? Then there's the Oral-B pro 5000 series that alerts you when you're brushing too hard. Seriously. And the August Smart Lock that identifies you by your smart phone and unlocks your door automatically when you're getting close. Suppose you lose your smart phone and Dracula finds it?

I am sitting here in my big, manly, comfortable black leather poppa chair in my living room trying to get some feeling back in my right arm. Since you know by now that my Lady Wonder Wench and I have been married for a long time, it shouldn't shock you to know that we sleep together. And since you know that I am a testosterone soaked Louie Louie Generation wretch it won't curl you hair too tightly to know that I often like to sleep with her in the spoon position. That's where she's lying on her right side, and I get to put my left arm around her for a comfortable, warm, and sexy snuggle. The problem is that the spoon position leans my entire weight on my right arm, which I have to tuck in under my head, and which in about ten minutes produces a pain so far above childbirth that women can't possibly imagine it. It's worse than the pain that only guys experience when we're at a movie theater, and we put our arm around our date's shoulder and leave it there through an entire feature film. There has got to be an answer to this problem. If you have any ideas, please send them to dick@dick summer.com. I can really use your help on this.