digging out of the rubble

Twin peaks

Here are a few of the issues about which there is screaming at the annual Christmas get-together:
1. food:
a. SALT; b. FAT; c. caloric content; e. much more;
2. consumerism
Oh so much more but a new issue has been added in years of late: BOOBS. Niece H. has inherited the family gazongas. Whereas previous generations have dressed in modest and chaste attire (barring sister L.'s halter top era), H. and her generation are of the firm belief that mammoral assets should be displayed. Even in subzero temps at the home of family matriarch A., who would prefer that all daughters and granddaughters dress in high-necked, pseudo Amish garb. She has been known to shriek incoherently about nipples.
An incident two years ago:
Matriarch A. to H: I don't want to have to look at your breasts all day.
H: But I got them from my mom!
This year: Christmas Eve. H., L., and I are going to church. H. comes downstairs in a cleavy top. Matriarch A. screams something to the effect of "you are not going to the house of the lord dressed like that!!!!!" I'm not sure if the word "harlot" was spoken; possibly I imagined that.
Loose-fitting turtlenecks are advised.

Rosalita, AARP version

1. Is it wrong to worship a musician's ass?
1. How did we end up being the youngest people at a Springsteen concert?

semantics?

I have two sisters, only two years apart. They have diametrically opposing views on certain issues, notably, bodily functions.

This summer we got together and sister A., who has two sons aged 8 and 10, chastized all of us for using the word "pee." She says it must be termed "tinkle." She swears we were not allowed to say "pee" when growing up. Her sons must refer to farts as "stinky noises." I am not making this up. She also criticized my mom for using the word "assinine" (my mom's favorite word) because of the first syllable.

Sister L., meanwhile, is the parent of the glorious child in the photo. L. and her family proudly celebrate all bodily functions. L. will often sit at a family dinner, such as Christmas, lift one cheek and let rip an astonishingly resonant expulsion that will echo off the walls. Eying the shocked faces, she smiles coyly and angelically. L. and her family speak fondly of public farting. My niece H. lovingly speaks of letting one rip loudly during an exam in one of the enormous classes at UW-Mad. They commonly moon one another. My niece and her father have been known to text one another about subjects including anal warts.

Me? I'm somewhere in between.

no country for

Holy bejesus. Just saw this.

I haven't been aging well

Here is an old photo of me taken back in college one summer sitting at the bar in a local tavern in northern Wisconsin ... A couple guys across the bar had just sent me a couple of Kamikaze shots and I wasn't sure whether to look pleased or mildly disdainful, a quandary I found myself in for most of my 20s ..

But it's just a few years later and it seems the years of hard living are starting to take their toll. Here's a photo of me leaving a charity event just last week, looking around for a taxi ...

trilogy

I stopped blogging during moving and homelessness, but I'm going to try to get on the blog train again.
Last weekend my friend G came for his annual Halloween visit. Here are a couple of the highlights of the weekend: