Out With the Old....

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

Christmas at the Diner

Tastee Diner, Bethesda, MD
Christmas 2000

'Twas a dreary Saturday before Christmas, and at 5:45 AM the morning shift began slowly cranking up – the wait staff, as usual, a little sluggish at this hour. Kay arrived with a big batch of her Christmas cookies although she had yet to feel the slightest hint of Christmas spirit. Beth arrived feeling cranky and unwilling to put up with even a little hassle on her shift. It looked like a bad day brewing.

But, the Christmas cookies would change everything. Slowly throughout the morning, as the waitresses munched on those cookies, the day and mood brightened. By early afternoon, the atmosphere turned downright festive with Beth and Mary joining in a rousing rendition of Jingle Bell Rock.

The diner now buzzed with the holiday spirit! Suzi, Marisol, and Weenie had it now, and they spread it like a benevolent virus to all their customers. Pat and John and the Kugelmeister got it. The fella with the umbrella got it. Astonishingly, Father Bennett, the parish priest, who had not had the true Christmas spirit in years, got it.

Coincidently, and bordering on the miraculous, three nuns in a pickup truck delivered a magnificent Christmas tree to the diner. Ginny, the manager of the day, nearly fainted on the spot. Not in all her years had she been part of anything like this.

This was so unbelievably wondrous! Everyone who came into the diner that day walked out giddy with Christmas cheer!

Word spread quickly. The Washington Post carried the story, and Brokaw ran it on the NBC Nightly News. At day’s end, the whole world knew the story.

The next day an enormous and boisterous crowd surrounded the diner. Everyone wanted to come in for a little touch of that Christmas spirit. And the diner, as usual, did not disappoint.

Written on the menu board outside:

Serving up huge helpings of the spirit of the season!

Merry Christmas
and, as always,
may the best in you
bring the best for you
in the new year!

Sunset in the Country

Two Half Swans A Swimming

The Boys

Sky and Buddy

I occasionally do some dog-sitting for a friend of mine. He’s got two dogs - Buddy, a Silky Terrier and Sky, a Sheltie.

Buddy’s the smaller and older of the two. He’s also the cuter and the more ferocious. I do mean ferocious. Sky’s friskier but less secure in the world.

The dogs live for two things – food (other than the prepared dried food) and the outdoors. For the dogs, the outdoors is about three acres with an electric fence perimeter, a great area to run and frolic.

Buddy has an inside personality and an outside personality. Inside, he’s a lap dog and generally responds to commands. Outside, he turns surly and commands don’t mean much to him. If you’re trying to get him to come in, for instance, he stares at you with a look that says, “you’re kidding, right. You actually think I’m going to listen to you. Let’s have an understanding; I will come in when I damned well feel like coming in. You butt out. Case closed.”

While Buddy can be very independent, Sky needs to be close to you. He doesn’t like to have you out of his sight. So, when I go to the kitchen, he goes to the kitchen, when I go outside, he goes outside, when I go to the bathroom, he goes to the bathroom, that is he follows me into the bathroom where he appears to be fascinated with what I do there, maybe wondering why I get to go inside while he has to hold it until he’s outside.

***

Buddy and Sky live in the present. Even if they’ve been outside for hours, they’ll come inside, eat something, and they’ll want to go outside again.

They give me the anxious stare combined with some whimpering when they want to go out. I know they don’t have to go out, and I want to watch the news.

So we’re sitting in the great room, I’m watching the news. The dogs are restless at my feet, and they pass some of that noxious dog gas which is strong enough to stop an ox in its tracks. As my eyes water and I gasp for air, the dogs look up at me as if to say, “now will let us out, Bozo!”

***

Someone I know kisses her dog on the lips. I like dogs a lot, but that’s going a little too far for me. I’ve seen where the mouths of dogs go – in grub holes, in piles of shit, on other dog’s genitals. And that God-awful breath! No matter how many Dentabones you give them, it still smells like a mixture of garbage and turd out of a pizza oven.

Covered Bridge

Stoner Bridge on the campus of Messiah College, Grantham, PA

Holiday Season

Barnes & Noble, Bethesda, MD

Neighborhood Model

Jenny

Leadership

"Leaders are best when people scarcely know they exist, not so good when people obey and acclaim them, worst when people despise them. Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you. But of good leaders who talk little, when their work is done, their aim fulfilled, the people will all say: 'We did this ourselves.'”

~ Anonymous

Goodfellow Chevrolet in Hanover, PA

Newt 'n' Candy

"We both have an affinity for women and Guinness."

~ Candace Gingrich, gay activist and half-sister of Newt Gingrich, about their common interests.

Old Mill

Lancaster County, PA

Corner Pocket

Buddy Revisited