Cave Man Had a Christmas Tree

Ah, the Holidays are upon us. It's been real rainy here today and the clouds are so low they seem to glide by at rooftop level. I looked out the window and it was getting dark, but it was only 3PM. Today begins the six weeks with the shortest days of the year. I'm going to have a solstice party on or about the solstice. This year in WalMart and other stores (Dollar Tree), I saw Christmas decorations up before Halloween. It seemed to me that I had to get Halloween and Thanksgiving done before I could think about Christmas. Oh, speaking of "Dollar Tree" I know dollar stores are kind of junky and tacky. But I do sometimes shop at Dollar Tree. Because all their stuff is in fact, one dollar. I don't think all the other dollar stores should have stuff for more than a dollar. Unless they change their name. Call it "Family Might be a Dollar". Or, "More Than a Dollar General". We've gotten our first few Christmas cards. They're very nice. Sometimes I put them up on the wall, strung together with scotch tape. I never know whether to save them after the season. When I was a child, my mother showed us kids how to use last year's Christmas cards by cutting them into nice shapes for gift tags on presents. In a pinch you could cut up "this years" cards. Neither my wife or myself are organized enough to save the names and addresses of those who have sent us the lovely cards. We like Christmas cards, but we gave up sending them about 15 years ago. So you won't get a card from us. Sorry. But don't take us off your list, unless that's the rule. Sometimes we get a kind of family "newsletter" in the card. I like this. Where you went, who had a baby, who graduated, who now lives in Manhattan. Some people just hate those newsletters and can't stand the person "bragging". They're not bragging. They're telling you about their family whom they love. If I sent out Xmas cards and had a family newsletter, what would I write? Definitely a lot about my wife and son. My son is a senior in college. My wife won a contest on the TV show "Regis and Kelly Live". I definitely don't like microchip music cards. Sometime in the last five years I gave up Christmas decorations around the house here. The last two years we've had no tree. I used to set up a Lionel train around the tree. Last year we set up Xmas stockings for the three of us and six dogs and the goat and the horse. I love Xmas carols. Last year I wrote a Xmas song, but I don't remember all of it this year. Last year I dropped out of the family "secret Santa" gift giving and all organized gift giving. I don't like the gift giving custom. Some Christians don't like it either. They know their own legend in their bible says that the Wise Men gave gifts to the newborn Jesus. They didn't exchange gifts. What could Joseph get for Mary? She is a God. Really hard to shop for. She has everything! I know it's important for retail and all of us have family and friends in retail. It's our economy. I'll support the economy in other ways and I'm not against giving. I like giving. I just don't like the Christmas custom of gift giving. The pressure takes away from the joy. Don't get me wrong.... I'll give a few Xmas gifts. Last year I gave everyone a hunk of ceder wood. Really. It's all in the presentation. I've got an idea for this year too. Everyone will get one. It costs about $1.50. And there may be more hunks of things from the farm. Christmas is a winter holiday celebration. It is a Christian replacement of older pagan holiday celebrations. But the winter Solstice celebration pre-dates not only Jesus Christ, but the God of Abraham who was Christ's father who was basically a monotheistic version of Zeus. What could be more Christmas-like than the candle? The tree. The lights. The lighted Christmas tree. Is it Pagan? Here's where I can't quite follow the Christian logic. Christians seem to like the tree, and they should. Because legend says that Martin Luther in the 1500's was the one who first lit the Xmas tree. He was so impressed by the stars on a winter's night that he lit a tree with candles. It is also said that he wanted the candles to remind the children of heaven. The green tree combined with the light in the dark winter is surely Christian. But like Christmas itself, it was pre-dated by a much more primitive culture. These primitive folks knew what day in the yearly cycle was the shortest. They celebrated it. So Christians and Pagans join together at the festival of light. The Pagans have a better claim on it. We see our earth rotate around the sun. We measure the days. We celebrate the promise of spring. We don't have to rely on a myth, or a frightening supernatural God who metes out rewards and punishments, or a "salvation" that a select group will receive, while others will be tortured in "hell" for eternity. The sun worshipers had it right all along. Happy Solstice and Merry Christmas!!!!! LloydLouITTY :::::+:::::

keep track of time

It seems I have set up a "free form" blog here without a theme. What is a blog? I'm so not a computer guy that I shouldn't even have a blog. The word "blog" is actually short for "web log". A web log is just a computer diary that others may or may not see. I keep a written journal. In a composition book in longhand. It's just a few lines about each day. This blog is not that. This blog is a "feature" sort of thing where each post exists by itself. Like an op ed column. I also have a log book for my flying. A pilot's log. A pilot's log is a great thing. You keep a record of your flights. Do other hobbies and professions keep log books? Let's say you're an ice skater. You just log in every time you skate. You may add up your time to thousands of hours. I guess when you have "hours" that you work at a job, your employer sort of logs them for you. Moms, how many hours does it take to raise a child? Could you log it? I bet moms know how many hours they spent in labor. I just asked my wife that question. She said 34 hours. God, that sounds long! I have a different logbook for my glider flying. I'm a beginner in gliders and you log both minutes and number of flights. I'm just two flights away from having my 100th glider flight. When I was starting out in aviation it mattered how may "hours" I had. You had to have 40 hours for a private license. 200 for commercial. 1500 for airline, etc. Later, once I got a job with the airlines, it didn't matter how many hours I had. But I liked logging the time so I continued to do it. There's an old saying about God not counting against your life any time spent on a horse. Or piloting a plane. Or making love. One of my favorite things to do is give a first flying lesson to someone. I have a stack of logbooks on the shelf and I give out 1 or 2 a year. After that first lesson, the new flier is a "student pilot" because his logbook says so. Maybe I should log my time "writing". It takes me a couple hours to write a blog post that can be read in a couple minutes. If I get 1500 hours writing, can I be a professional writer? A light plane owner like myself might fly his plane 100 hours a year. In the last twelve months I flew my Piper about 60 hours. I flew my little "Cadet" about twenty hours. My total flying time from my first lesson in July of 1966 till now is 24,700 hours. It's really 24.8 but I like to say "twenty- four- seven" because it's easy to remember. I hope you like my new blog, sorry I reverted to aviation but...... Religion is coming! uh oh. Lloyd Lou ITTY :::::+:::::

Beyond General Av

This is the first post in a new blog for me. It is hard enough finding the time for the posts in my other blog, General Aviation Informal. So why start another one? First of all, I intend to keep up gen av informal. I will never run out of those stories. I love General Aviation. As I get older, I do less and talk and write more. I've discovered that I like writing more than talking. Because when writing, no one can interrupt me. When I phone people, I actually like to get their voice mail. That way I can get my point across without their input. Everyone likes to text message, especially the kids. I never understood this. But I do now. I thought it was so their teacher or boss wouldn't know they were chatting. The real reason is that they get to listen to their favorite person talk. Themselves. I know a lot about this! But alas, I'm sixty years old and I still don't text. Except I do with my son. It's such a pleasure for me to have any kind of interaction with him. He's busy. But he finds a little time for me just because he's a good son, and a generally very good guy. This new blog should really be called "Geezer Vent". I want to bitch a bit about the silly things I don't understand and see if you identify with my position. I'm gonna try not to "whine" too much. "What's the difference between a Flight Attendant and a jet engine? A jet engine stops whining after you park at the gate." Yes, in this new blog I will tell a few "airline" stories. I will avoid the classic ones that are repeated through the years, each one told like it happened last week. My stories will be about me (of course!). I was not the "normal" airline pilot. Also I want to talk a little on religion. Which really means religion, politics, and sociology. They are all the same. My take on religion may surprise you. I'm not radical. I'm not anti or pro. I want to get a few things down on paper to try to sort them out. I may write one or two posts about Christianity and get it all out of my system. But I have enough airline stuff for a lifetime. Also, there is this day to day stuff that we all do which I just don't get. And I'm as irrational as the next guy. This new blog will be a place for me to write about the Christmas holiday too. It may be a "rant". More likely it will just be Lloyd Lou wishing each and every one of you a very happy and healthy holiday season. This blog post and all my posts are dedicated to a Navy SEAL, my dear friend and nephew, an American hero, the bravest man I've ever known, Petty Officer William DeGennaro. Rest up Billy. There are 1700 of us sending you love every day. You're getting stronger. I'll see you this coming week. Welcome everyone to "Lloyd Lou I Talk to You"! :::::+:::::