Sorryness

Me Grandpa Joe, while not exactly the most cautious worker himself, nevertheless coined the word 'sorryness' to describe a worker who wasn't considerate enough about his tools and equipment as he earned his daily bread. I think it's a useful addition to the language.

I've seen it at the old barn for years. One fella, more than one actually, would use the power unit of their drain snake as a cart for their cables, something you should never do. You can easily damage parts on the unit. Guys were routinely breaking off the toggles on the reverse switches doing that, then complaining about the quality of the switch when I'd charge them fifty bucks each to replace them. Then they'd do the same thing again, continuing to wrongfully use the machine as a dolly. Sorryness.

Other times on many different machines guys would break capacitor covers or switch boxes off their motors simply due to abuse. They weren't taking proper caution or time loading, unloading, or in the general use of their snakes. Then just as with the reverse switches, they try to blame the quality of the unit. Sorryness.

There's your English lesson today, friends, courtesy of Joe Cosgriff. You're already thinking of when to use the word, aren't you?

Spider Thoughts

One day me brother Patrick sat on the front porch. He noticed a spider up at the corner of the porch roof and the support post begin to work on a web. The spider worked steadily this way and that, spitting out web strand lengthwise and then along the height, adding crossing hairs as he prodded along. The arachnid moved delicately about the web, taking its time until it was done. 

Patrick watched the whole while, up to when the spider moved to the middle of it's brand new insect trap and set up shop. Then my brother stepped inside the door to the front hall, came back with a broom, and with a mighty omnipotent swing swept the spider web out of existence.

Imagine what that little spider must have been thinking. "Aw, come on, man! You watch me spend all that time working and destroy my home as soon as it's done? You're kidding, right? A more considerate god would have stopped me right away. What kind of sick fiend are you?"

Of course, spiders can't think. But I don't believe we would have to imagine too hard what it would have been thinking if it could.

Normalcy

Today is the 2nd of January. We're back to normal. Oh, there's still some decorations up. There's a fair amount of Christmas food and snacks hanging around the larder. I bought another fruitcake, so I'll have fruitcake until, oh, next Christmas, the way it lasts. It's the Spam of the holiday table, right?

All that said, I think that we may have the Christmas season backwards. The Polish observe Christmas through February 2nd, which is in the Church calendar Candlemas, the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. Take that, Groundhog Day.

The Polish are onto something. Before Christmas is just that: before Christmas. It hasn't come yet. We're singing carols and getting gifts wrapped and having parties and family get togethers before the actual reason for the season has occurred. We really ought to be doing those things after December 25, oughtn't we?

Ah well. Things feel like normal now, and that's okay. It's high time I tried normal anyway.

In The Zone

New Year's Day has taken on a special meaning for me in the last decade or so. At least two channels, SyFy and H & I, run Twilight Zone marathons. I catch up on as much as I can.

I almost hate to talk about specifics, though. If you've seen the great episodes you already get them. But if you haven't, I'll spoil them for you. That just wouldn't be right. So I'll drop names and offer show titles, and you'll either shake your head knowingly or, maybe, look for that episode. I'll just keep things vague.

Billy Mumy could act as a kid, couldn't he? He was in three great episodes. He and Jack Klugman starred in In Praise of Pip. That one tugged at the heartstrings.

Donald Pleasance, something of a hero among ham actors, is solid in The Changing of the Guard. It has A Christmas Carol vibe working for it.

Charles Bronson and Elizabeth Montgomery absolutely nail their roles in Two.

You gotta see The Hunt. It's a lesser known episode, but man, it leaves a lump in your throat. Trust your dog, friends. They know.

I could go on and on, and I know I'm excluding a lot, but you get the point. New Years Day is Twilight Zone time anymore. That's what makes the day for me.

But I do hope that 2025 itself isn't a kind of Twilight Zone, though.