Jeremy Herndon

Well I woke up this morning and saw a wintry mess out there - freezing rain, snow, nasty stuff.  I sure was glad that I got around to putting my studded snow tires on my car Friday!  I had heard that we were going to be getting some bad weather right off, and decided not to put it off any longer.  There were several times last year that I slid off of the road because I didn’t have my studded tires put on the car.  That’s one mistake that I don’t want to repeat!  This area gets too icy for just plain old “all weather tires.”

This morning I was listening to the radio on my way to work and the disk jockey was talking about having gone to a local school’s Christmas concert over the weekend.  He apparently has been going to this particular school’s concert for many years; I suspect he probably has family members that go there.  I don’t think he has kids that “go there” as students, perhaps they go as teachers or support staff.  I’m basing that on the fact that he commented on being born early enough to be wearing a “Davy Crockett” raccoon hat when the Davy Crockett show came out on television in 1954.  So I have to guess that he was born in the late 40’s.  Anyway, he was playing the song “Sleigh Ride” which has several whip cracks in it.  (I like that song!) 

After the song he was talking about having a conversation with the director of the band that had held the Christmas concert and he asked him what the name of the instrument is that makes the noise of the whip crack.  He was very surprised to learn that the name of the instrument is, in fact, “whip crack.”  I had to laugh at the story because a few years ago I had asked a relative of mine who was in a high school band at the time the exact same question, and got the same answer, and how dumb I felt when he told me the answer!  So it’s nice to know I’m not the only “dummy” out there that didn’t know what that instrument was called!

I understand that there are several organizations that have arranged to get folks to send Christmas cards and gifts over to the folks serving away from home.  And some have arranged to send the soldiers blank holiday cards to send them for the soldiers to use.  I think that’s wonderful, and I truly hope that they soldiers have as good a Holiday season as possible and that they are home again by the next Christmas!

Last night I was out shopping and picked up a copy of the Dark Knight DVD.  I remember seeing the movie in the theaters when it first came out and really liked it a lot, and decided to add the flick to my DVD collection when it came out.  So last night was the first time I saw it at the stores and decided to pick it up when I saw it.  I’m going to invite some friends over this weekend to watch it with me and have a little pizza and movie party.  And of course, we’ll have popcorn and plenty of soda to drink.  After all, what’s a movie without popcorn and soda?

Around this time of year I like to go to the local craft store and buy new calendars for the new Year coming up.  A few years ago I just happened to be in one of the craft stores around this same time of year and found that they sold a huge variety of high quality calendars for under $5.00 each.  A lot of them were only $1 or $2 each!  When I found them I bought quite a few of them to give out to my friends and family as Christmas gifts.  I think that is a great bargain because when I go to many department stores, or stationary stores, or gift stores, they sell the exact same type of calendars for $15 to $20 each!

So I will make a point of going to the craft store before now and Christmas and pick up a few calendars!