Heading Out

At this time of year, one's thoughts turn to the many facets of the Christmas holiday season. My mind conjures up various traditions, among them being reunion with family, the exchange of presents, the making and consumption of food and plenty more. Most of it is good, as one would expect given the popularity of the occasion, but plenty of it is bad. The bad is discussed fairly thoroughly without my help, and so I try not to pile on.

It's taxing to refrain from griping about such a thing as the unpleasantness of traveling. Even though I'm quite aware of its futility and that I have nothing original to add to that which has been said by those who are more enthusiastic about the matter, I want to vent my own feelings. I suppose that's reasonable, isn't it? One saxophone player isn't going to let his spit build up in the instrument just because all the others are letting their own out.

Discovering The Minefield

When the Bush administration was assembling the Coalition of the Willing, a disputed story was send out by UPI which stated that the North African nation of Morocco had offered to contribute monkeys towards the war effort. The purpose of said monkeys was for clearing minefields. Either the offer was not actually made or it was and we declined it. Either way, it didn't happen because finding and clearing land mines the cheap way tends to produce grisly casualties, and no one wants to see monkey casualties. I was reminded of that story when I started thinking about various perils in life which we unwittingly discover to our own detriment but to the benefit of those who come after us.

Recently, I went to a local convenience store to make a purchase. It was my intent to pay with debit card. Once I had brought my selection (one which by its nature could not be put back) to the register, I was advised that the system was in the process of re-booting, or some such thing. The point was that the card would not suffice, and neither would the amount of cash I had on hand. I resigned myself to withdrawing cash from the store's own ATM, thus committing myself to pay money so that I could access my money.