In recent years my nieces have gifted me a variety of Rush-branded gear for birthdays and Christmas'. They know I'm a big time Rush fan. They know their Dad is a Rushophile. My nieces have seen the prog rock light and now, yes, they too are fans of the Canadian power trio. Rush is an irresistible force!
For Xmas 2019 I went straight to the source, Rush.com, and gave my credit card a serious workout. Among the gift-giving items in my virtual cart were the two "star man" t-shirts you see at right in the photo above, modeled by gift recipients Maria and Lou, and the t-shirt you see stretched across my broad shoulders. Lou's shirt is a replica 1977 North American Tour (for the A Farewell to Kings album) concert t-shirt. Maria's shirt is a colorful and distressed variant of the famous 2112 album "star man" artwork. My shirt is a replica 1984 Grace Under Pressure concert t-shirt. Anna already owns a Rush t-shirt but at the time of Christmas her shirt was away at college. For the team photo above I loaned her my authentic 1996 Test for Echo concert t-shirt.
All of us were shocked and deeply saddened by the sudden and tragic passing of Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart just two weeks later due to glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Over the holidays my nieces found funny my old school carousel 5-cd changer. Here it is loaded for our annual Xmas Eve gathering.
The A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack with bonus extended-version tracks and a whole lot of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis, Jr. My Xmas music is too cool for you squares. Know this, ye merry gentlemen: Christmas at The Ranch swings!
When putting away my artificial tree following Christmas 2017 it began to break apart. Up until the early 1980s we always had live trees. But you know the problems: uneven, unbalanced, trying to keep them sufficiently watered and.... spiders. Since then, the magnificent artificial tree we purchased during the first term of the Reagan Administration survived for decades. Far beyond it's warranty. In the fall of 2018 I scoured every commercial outlet selling artificial trees, searching for just the right tree. I must have examined 75 trees. Some good, some bad, more than a few atrocious. One tree distinguished itself on the strength of its multi-function lights, replete with dozens of settings, speeds and patterns. The light show, quite simply, is amazing. Mesmerizing.
On New Year's Day 2019, I dialed up a static TARDIS blue for the Doctor Who New Year's Day special on BBC America.
Stunning!
Fast forward 12 months and for the Xmas 2019 photo session of my decorative handiwork I dialed-in the alternating red-and-green lights.
The traditional Christmas holiday colors cast a pleasing illumination for the Christmas Village underneath.
Most of these decorations date back to the 1960s. The white truck you see near the lower right of the photo immediately above, driven by Jolly Old Saint Nick and laden with Christmas toys for the good little boys and girls of Christmastown, was a Christmas gift from my grandparents to My Dear Elderly Mother on the occasion of her very first Xmas. From the Hoover Administration, peeps!
Anticipating a long labor-intensive day hosting Xmas Eve at The Ranch, I treated My Dear Elderly Mother to a Christmas Eve Eve dinner at the Hueston Woods Lodge. Credit to the Lodge staff for their exemplary achievements in decorating the facility.
The next morning, Christmas Eve, Lou was out and about finalizing his naughty-or-nice list and periodically sent to his immediate and extended family a collection of foggy photos from the countryside to which I added Bob Ross-inspired evergreen trees (festooned with red Xmas ornaments) and happy little clouds;
Roll the credits!
