Heads or Tails #16 (Mark)

I suspected that Barb, Chairman and CEO of Heads or Tails, Inc., might have dipped into the old random word generator for this week's Heads or Tails topic -- "mark."

Mark what? Mark ye well? Mark Twain? Matthew, _______, Luke and John? I've read Barb's post this morning (I don't think that's cheating) and I'm somewhat mollified. And relieved.

And in the meantime, I had an idea....


A lot of people are in the starting blocks now -- at least -- for the Christmas season. Maybe some of you are already in the race -- buying presents, decorating your homes, baking.

There is no season that brings out the Curmudgeon in me more than this one.

I'm never ready for it.

Money's extremely tight in the Curmudgeon home this year; there was no way that Long Suffering Spouse and I could go out shopping on "Black Friday." (There's something intimidating about giving your charge card to a 20-something cashier, watching her run it through the machine for approval, and then watching her try and stifle a horse laugh.... *Sigh*)

But Older Daughter and her Boyfriend were going to go shopping early Friday morning, they said. Then they stayed up until who knows when on Thanksgiving night.

I was unsurprised, therefore, when I came down in search of coffee Friday morning, that Long Suffering Spouse and I were the only ones up and moving. And we'd been listening to the news and traffic reports on the radio for awhile -- about stores that opened at 4:00 or 4:30 a.m., stampedes, long lines, traffic helicopters swooping low over suburban malls counting (on the fingers of one hand) the available parking spaces....

By 11:00 a.m., though, Older Daughter had returned to consciousness and come downstairs. She went in the den to try and rouse the Boyfriend. By 11:30, though still groggy, they were ready to leave. "Where will you go?" I asked, incredulous. "The last mall parking place vanished, like the dodo, long, long ago."

"Oh, we've got that all figured out," Older Daughter assured me. She always has it all figured out. Then reality intrudes. But, this time, the plan seemed sound: "We'll take the train downtown; then we don't have to worry about parking."

Hmmmmm, I thought. But Youngest Son was invited to join them and he agreed. No ring shopping today, I thought -- strictly to myself, of course.

And, I guess, they're at least in the starting blocks for Christmas.

Long Suffering Spouse suggested that we put the tree up on Friday or Saturday, while most of the kids were still home. "No!" I protested, "It's still November." She didn't really think the kids would actually help. So she shrugged and started her Christmas baking instead. She's at least in the starting blocks for Christmas.

For the last several days, I've been transcribing a document -- typing it out word by word. It's a document that started out life as an HTML printout. Since then, it's been faxed, photocopied, scanned, and reduced in size to the point where the type is, on first glance at least, a series of indecipherable marks -- smears, really. My magnifying glass (with the teeny little light bulb) is getting a workout on this project.

The bad part is that I actually have to read this document -- worse, I have to understand it -- and, worst of all, I will have to quote from and cite extensively to this document in another document I'm supposed to be preparing. So I'm transcribing. I can't go for more than an hour at a time without getting a queasy stomach and pounding head. Then I must recoup. This does not make me feel festive. But the client paid my first bill promptly and I am therefore highly motivated to complete this task, hoping all the while that I do not actually go blind. And I have other projects backing up as well, while this one takes far longer than projected.

So I'm not yet in the starting blocks for Christmas. I may be in the locker room. I probably have not even yet donned my uniform.

But Christmas is coming anyway.

On your mark, get set....