Tag Christmas in Fallujah

So Saturday afternoon we were ready to work on another list item, Christmas Decorations.  The prep started outside.  In the past I have put a lot of work into my outside light set up,  normally stringing lights along the entire roof line, around all the palm trees out front, around Nicki’s fenced area and sometimes even some of the trees in the orchard.  I just didn’t have any interest in going all out for Christmas.  Instead we simply put some lights around the front windows, the door, the topiaries, the fence around Nicki’s area and the two oak trees close to the house. 

It took very little time for me to get aggravated.  When I put the lights away last year they were all working.  Somehow, sitting in a box for a year manged to kill a bunch of the strands.  It seemed every set I plugged in had half the lights out.  Ali talked me down a bit and we used several half working strands to make one good one.  Even with the abbreviated outside decorations it took awhile to get them up.  They don’t look half bad.

So instead of getting a live tree this year, I told Ali I was content with just putting up Pop Pop’s small four foot tall, 30 year old artificial tree.  We took it out of it’s bag and removed all the old lights and ornaments that were still attached.  the funniest ornament was the one Ali made as a kid.  It was balled up Hershey Kiss wrappers, attached to a paper clip.   I had gotten some funky LED Christmas lights at Sam’s Club that we put on the tree.  Ali wasn’t crazy about how they looked.  I thought it was kinda cool, the contrast between an old Christmas tree adorned with modern LED lights.  We placed the tree on a small table and put it in front of the window.

We then went through the 7 or 8 big tubs of Christmas decorations and selectively pulled out things.  The idea that we were going to be gone 5 days leading up to Christmas just made me feel like there wasn’t much point in going all out.  I bet we only put out a third of what we have.  No train, no every flat surface occupied by a Christmas decoration, no lights strung around my computer desk.  It just isn’t in me.  Ali was disappointed in my lack of enthusiasm for the Christmas season.  You can see the pictures of our sparse decorations here. Yea they are mostly blurry but you get the gist.

So earlier in the day I did something dishonest.  Saturday morning I dropped Ali off at the gym while I went to Sam’s to get a few things.  I told her I would pick her up in about an hour.  So I get my Sam’s shopping done and then go to Dunkin Donuts to get Ali her large ice tea that she likes after a workout.  I still had about 10 minutes left so I thought I would be productive and quickly get the Camry washed since it was a bit cruddy.

So I drive up the road a mile or so and see a Shell that has a car wash.  I had no desire to go inside and pay for a car wash so even though the Camry had around a half tank of gas I figured I would fill it up and then pay for the car wash at the pump.  I pull up to a pump and then realize that it had the yellow OUT OF ORDER things over the pumps. F, that’s annoying, so I start to back out and immediately get greeted by a horn of a SUV that whipped in behind me.  Three or four of the pumps were out of order for some reason.  All of the working pumps had vehicles at them so I pulled behind a van with a Hispanic guy that looked like he was ready to leave.  Uncharacteristically for me, I picked the right pump, he indeed pulled out less than a minute after I got behind him.

So I get out, swipe my card and get greeted with “Card not Processed….”  and then it displayed “Please remove nozzle and select grade”  Puzzled, I swiped the card again, same thing.  Ok I pulled out a different credit card and swiped it, same thing.  So I was frustrated as hell since I knew I was rapidly approaching the time I set with Ali to pick her back up.  So the screen was still telling me to remove the nozzle and select grade, so I did.  I was surprised when it started to pump!  It showed on the screen “$20 prepaid”  WTF?  I didn’t prepay.  I had no idea how I managed to get a free 20 dollar ride.  So I pumped the 20 bucks got my receipt and then swiped my card again so I could get the car wash.  I pumped another 5 bucks worth of gas which topped the car off, got my receipt that had the car wash code and sat back in the car observing the receipt.  I had made up my mind that I wasn’t going to bother to go inside to try to straighten out what happened.  It was their f up and I was in a rush.

So just as I am getting ready to pull out to go into the car wash, a female clerk comes running out of the store.  “Sir, sir!!”  she yells as she approached.  I knew why she was coming out but I acted like I didn’t.  I rolled down the window and she asked me to see my receipt which I gave to her.  She asked if I only pumped 5 dollars in gas.  I said no that there was something screwy going on and it pumped 20 before it would take my card.  She said that the Hispanic guy that pulled out of the pump prepaid 20.  I told her that I saw him pull out so I figured he was done.  So I had to go inside and pay the 20 bucks so the van guy could get his gas.  When I was in there the clerks were mumbling how “it” screwed up again.  I felt like a creep as I signed the credit slip.  even though it was their screw up and I was rushed, the bottom line is it was dishonest.  I felt bad about it.  I got my car wash and wound up picking up Ali ten minutes late.

We watched the new Shrek Christmas special.  It seems that any Christmas Special made in the last 20 years basically sucks and I expected this one to suck as well.  I was pleasantly surprised.  It was actually entertaining and funny.

I finally got to watch the rest of Loose Change Final Cut.  It was far less shocking to me than the second edition, largely because much of it covered the same things as I was flabbergasted by in Loose Change 2nd Edition.  These were the new things I took away from this film.

The fact that $100,000 was wired to Atta by the head of the Pakistan intelligence agency whom had very close ties to the US government is very shady.  And yes, he was in Washington on 9/11.

  In the four years after 9/11, the Bush administration had managed to borrow more money from foreign governments than ALL previous administrations COMBINED.  Yes, going back to George Washington.  Good ole W managed to borrow $1.05 trillion from foreign sources in 4 years, everyone else, dating back to 1776, $1.03 trillion.  Think about that, the reality of it is STAGGERING.

  They show clips of several news broadcasts that reported the fall of WTC building 7 BEFORE it fell.  In fact during the one clip, the female reporter is reporting the collapse of WTC 7 as it is standing in the back ground behind her. They show a video of WTC 7 going down that seems to offer indisputable proof that something fishy was going on.  Unlike the twin towers that at least started their collapse at the top, WTC 7 CLEARLY collapses from the bottom up.  It makes zero sense.

 The documentary further paints a disturbing picture of coincidences that are just too numerous to be coincidences.  I know I have said it repeatedly but please, take a couple hours out of your life and take a look.

So, the Eagles lost again, not all that surprising.  However the way they lost was very disturbing.  AJ Feeley basically shit the bed.  I was surprised when I saw that Donovan didn’t start.  he looked pretty miserable on the sidelines.  I’m sure he was smiling inside by the end of the game.  AJ just threw some HORRIBLE interceptions, interceptions that would get a pee wee league QB yanked.  He managed to throw three pics to the same player.  It appeared as though AJ got tunnel vision on a receiver and wasn’t surveying the field around him.  Even with Feeley repeatedly killing the team with interceptions, the Eagles actually had a great shot to win after Brian Westbrook had a thrilling long punt return to get the Eagles within 15 yards of scoring the game winning TD.  Then after two unproductive plays, Feeley drops back and somehow, once again, manages to hit that linebacker right between the numbers, killing the drive, killing the chance to win, killing any hope the Eagles had of making the playoffs and effectively killing any thought that AJ could be a legitimate heir apparent to Donovan or a starting QB on any NFL team.  To be honest I didn’t get all that bent out of shape about the loss.  I don’t really care.  To me it was almost equally concerning that some of the coaches were wearing those horrible, Michelin Tire man meets gansta, white overstuffed ski jackets.  They looked insanely stupid.

This morning on the Stern Show I heard a song written by Billy Joel and performed by Cass Dillon.  It is about the war in Iraq.  It’s called, Christmas in Fallujah.  It’s very powerful.  Take a look.