Ho-Hum
Welcome to party-pooper central. Whoopee!!!
Age? Maybe.
Too many memories of too much alcohol? Could be.
Don’t care? Likely.
Too many crazies on the streets? Probably.
So what? Most certainly.
It’s just another day; it’s just another night.
Tomorrow is just another day.
The big event is changing the calendar … just like 12 times before – every 30 days or so.
I guess the best times to celebrate were maybe the 10 years between 16 and 26.
Seems it was fun then … but what was fun then is not so much fun now.
Maybe it’s because my peers I’d party with are not of that age anymore either.
Maybe it’s because my peers of long ago have scattered to the wind.
Maybe it’s because my peers of today are a different sort of person.
Maybe it’s the change in society.
Maybe it’s become such an over-commercialized “have-to” event.
I miss the times but not the after-effects. I don’t see the “fun” anymore.
I’m going to bed at the normal time; I’ll wake up tomorrow at the normal time.
And the best thing I can say for January 1, 2026 is I won’t receive bills in the mail.
And I have things to do.
I live in my own world and everybody else can do whatever.
I’m drinking some Jack and listening to my classic rock and more.
New years? So what? I don’t live by years. I live by days. Maybe.
I just live.
It’s almost 9pm and I figure I’ll be wasted in an hour. Won’t bother the ol lady, I’ll just crash where ever. I’ll be up at 6 am as always. Listening to Montrose currently.
Now that’s a fine dinner, Ghost.
Happy new year to all, especially to our esteemed host DT.
Takes away any real meaning when they try to make it a “have to”.
I will wish you and everybody here a Happy New Year hoping 2026 is some kinda better than 2025.
Happy New Year! I was invited to the neighbors party. Good food and drinks and fireworks, but I don’t really enjoy staying up to midnight. Stayed home, my oldest came over and grilled burgers. Then I hung out in the shop with my sons and their friend. Listened to music and watched them putting a 1972 Ford Highboy truck together. I even got the first ride in it about 10. They do all the work and I chase down parts. I think it was four trips to town yesterday.
I have a 76 F250 highboy I’m working on. Well, I’m paying for others to work on – I no longer have the tools or flexibility to do a righteous job on it.
Straight 6 (300), 3speed w granny. Long bed. Doesn’t like going more than 60 or so but it goes slow forever. Good for pulling modern 4x4s out of a jam. Shift down to granny, get out, open the fence, wait for the truck to go through, close the fence, walk up to the truck, upshift and on my way. No damn computers. No metric. Steel. 8-lug wheels. 8-trak and CB. Cigarette lighter and ashtray (unused). Vent windows and side vents. I trust it off road more than my 2015 version. 7/16, 1/2, and 9/16 will fix most everything on it.
Your last sentence. Unless I’m terribly mistaken, no one can read what I have ever written and come to the conclusion I am NOT a down and durty life long blue color worker that is comfortable with a red rag in my back pocket.
I come from a time where I could grab a handful or two of tools off the workbench and fix almost anything. Literally. Anything. Lawn mower engine, car rear end, outboard engine lower unit, washing machine, toaster, vacuum cleaner, replace an electrical outlet, etc., etc. Hundreds of things. With a handful of tools.
Nothing metric. Nothing hidden behind “panels” with secret connections. Plenty of room all around.
Then, stuff started changing.
My 1979 Chev Monza 2+2 had a hydraulic clutch and the cable ran through the firewall with a small bracket holding it in place. The firewall was sheet metal and the cable had so much pressure the sheet metal gave way. I eventually used a Simpson hurricane bracket, used to anchor roof trusses to the tops of concrete walls, to stiffen up that firewall but it eventually broke through again and I traded it in for another ride. This repair was not to be found in any Chilton or Haynes repair manual. (manual??? WTF???)
My wifes 1994 Chev Beretta had the brake master cylinder mounted under the floor on the drivers side. Say what??? Hers sprung a leak and needed replaced. I was going to replace it but found out it requires a “special tool” and it cost (at that time) $450. Regular mechanic shops didn’t have that tool, only the dealer did, and the cost to replace that master cylinder was almost $1000. She traded it in. She still owed $2k on that car which then made her next car that much more expensive. Imagine paying for a car for a year that you no longer own!
Right now my 2001 Blazer needs ball joints and I can hear/feel them move as I go up the driveway. I did this many years ago, decades really, and still have the spreader bars but online research says they don’t use that method any more. The fixer place wants $1200 to fix it. sigh….I long for the old days in so many ways….
In our case, all the people we used to celebrate holidays with are gone now.
One wonders what’s worse; to be first to go or the last one still standing.