I didn’t see it firsthand, but a couple people did send me photos asking if it was real or not last week. For those who also didn’t get the chance to see an electronic Main Street East business sign in Listowel bearing a meme with a cheerful Santa offering the words, ‘Calm the f*** down, it’s only November,’ you will not have the opportunity after the municipality put the kybosh on it after a number of people apparently complained.
Probably not the best thing to showcase in a public space with plenty of younger foot traffic out and about. But damn, I can’t help but think Santa is right.
Mind you, there’s no talking down the early Christmas decorators who are digging out the tree, tinsel and front yard inflatables on Nov. 12 the instant Remembrance Day has past. At least that’s halfway respectable to our veterans; it makes me grind my teeth when I see Christmas decorations displayed before Nov. 11 arrives.
There’s also no avoiding the annual Santa Claus parades and other early holiday activities that happen throughout the area typically towards the end of November. Fine. It’s been the norm for some time now, and I can live with that.
My disdain for the much-too-early aspects of Christmas mostly falls within the realm of its music, which has already found its way through the speakers of some area businesses. I heard Elton John’s “Step Into Christmas” on Nov. 22 – a full 33 days ahead of the big day – and it did not make me so much want to take a step into Christmas as Elton first suggested in 1973, but in fact move several paces further away from it.
I’ve become much more of a Grinch of sorts the last 10 years especially. My issues with Christmas mostly centre on the commercial aspects of the holiday and the unnecessary pressures it creates. I wholeheartedly believe that if the gift buying was scaled down to a bare minimum or just focused solely around the kids, we would all be much better off. Just getting together with family over the holidays and sharing a good meal, some laughs and a cocktail or six should be more than enough.
I make my wife wait until at least Dec. 1 (oh man, that’s today isn’t it…) before we venture out to get our Christmas tree. This is especially painful for my son, who is Christmas obsessed. I don’t think it’s too much to ask in the slightest, and the holiday season just seems to stretch further ahead of Dec. 25 every year. I mean, we don’t start putting out our Halloween decorations on Labour Day weekend, do we? Well, maybe some do…
Hearing those holiday melodies invade my listening space in mid-November is a little much. Typically by the time Christmas actually rolls around, any sane person is likely sick of the music, partially because they had already heard “Feliz Navidad” 26 times before Dec. 6.
This is my impassioned plea to local businesses to hold off on the Christmas music serenading until at least December in the years to come. The later the better. Not everyone is in the holiday spirit a couple weeks after Halloween.
Bah humbug.
299,999 km and holding…
On Thursday, Nov. 24 at 10:13 a.m. EST, the Vibe went from being merely famous to becoming legendary somewhere between Gorrie and Mildmay. At least in my eyes.
My sturdy vessel hit the 299,999 km mark, and as I sceptically waited for it to cross over to the milestone 300,000, indeed nothing happened. The digital odometer stopped, and she is officially ‘forever young.’
I had written previously that I knew this would happen. I had came across some online posts about my particular model of car and it happened to everyone else on record – some kind of technical glitch in the odometer design that prevented it from going any further beyond 299,999. At least she didn’t suddenly stop altogether and unceremoniously burst into flames upon hitting the milestone.
Anyway, I triggered my trip meter in anticipation so I would still have an accurate reading for total kilometres travelled. And as somewhat disappointing as it was, I found it amusingly appropriate that my car would not allow me this simple pleasure. The Vibe is temperamental like that.
She’s safely taken me to the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and everywhere in between over the last 11 years, so I think I can cut her some slack this one time. Here’s to 299,999 more kilometres.
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you back here in a fortnight.
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This is a bi-weekly opinion column; for question or comment contact Dan McNee at dmcnee@midwesternnewspapers.com.
