In Which He Goes Christmas Shopping

 Dear Online Nerd Diary:

Today, I wandered north with my mother to do a little Christmas shopping.  

She got a little bit done, with a couple of ideas for things to grab in the next couple of weeks (which is advantageous, since Christmas is hurtling at us startling speed, and will be here in just over a couple weeks).

I have long since opined that the line of demarcation between child and adult, for those who celebrate Christmas, lies somewhere along the same place where the child looks at a calendar and says "Aww....Christmas is ___ Days Away!" while the adult looks at the same date and says "Damn!  Christmas is ___ Days Away!"

Working in retail all those years, knowing that I'd be working 5 and 6 (and 7) days a week in December, without a lot of extra time to shop...combined with a distaste for getting out in crowds, shopping, spending money in general and standing in line..... I do a lot of my shopping early, and online.

But there is always the problem of going into the place where I keep these presents, and occasionally wandering across an item and saying "Who the Hell is this Bucket of Drywall Screws for?"

(So early is my shopping that in 2017, when I went into my Christmas box, I found something that I'd picked up in February for Dad, a couple of weeks before he died.  That was a metaphysical kick in the nuts).

But the flip side is this:  sometimes there is one person that has gotten left out over the course of the year.  I will not name them here, but I have neglected to pick up anything for them.  Not out of any intent to leave them out.  I just....haven't seen that thing that makes me think of them.

And I did not find or see that thing that makes me think of them again. No anything for them today.

But there are ideas!

All the ideas!

So, after a day in a book store, and a Hallmark store, and a women's clothing store where I simply sat in the front of the store watching videos on my phone....

I have to go back out again.  And I'll be thankful that with the business, we're in the slow part of the year (until February or so), and I have the ability to wander back out into the Public at Christmas without fear of exhaustion because my job is to be In the Public at Christmas.

As we are verging on stream of consciousness here, I would like to mention that I miss my friend Marty.  He'll have been gone 7 years this coming January.  He's the one who used the phrase "In the Public."  It was a state of mind, and sometimes you're not fit to be "in the public."  I've borrowed it from him a lot since he's passed.  I often wondered what Marty would have thought of life events from 2019 forward.  I miss that guy.