I’m Just Going To Leave This Right Here: The Winter Doldrums Edition

Welcome back January. It’s nice to see your gray face. It’s nice to feel your icy fingers when the wind blows. Here you are the month brought in on the eve of the previous year’s final night. You are brand new but even so it is sometimes hard for some of us to really truly cozy up to you at first.

January can be exciting. It can be a time for a new start or a do-over. After the crush of Halloween candy, the tryptophanic-trance brought on by Thanksgiving turkey and then an overload of Christmas fudge and cookies some of us make a vow to do better with dietary habits and January seems like just the ideal time to do such a thing. Others may look back over the previous year, or maybe even further back, to evaluate how things are going personally only then to determine to make changes for the better. These are good things.

Still, January, you are a tough old bird. The weather is often cold and wet. Some who work leave their homes in the dark and when they return later in the day, daylight has pulled a ‘bye Felicia’ and escaped making folks return home in the dark. Football has pretty much ended. The bills from Christmas stuff the mailbox. A body writes the wrong year on things for weeks. A person's feet just never gets warm. Then prayers for a snow day from work seem to be answered with a predicted snowfall of a lifetime which somehow turns into an afternoon of cold, misty drizzle and finds a body with an overdue report still needing completion. Then, to finish it off, when somebody tries to sneak a snack at midnight all that can be found are the last remnants of a holiday fruitcake.

As I do from time to time I am here to provide you with a break, this time from the doldrums of winter. So, as you look outside gazing at the gray sky, if you are really feeling a chill from the wind, maybe you can be warmed and renewed by going to the beach. No suntan lotion required.

Three Hours At The Beach 

I’ll just leave this here in case you need it.

I’m Just Going To Leave This Right Here: The Holiday Edition

Here we are, smack dab in December between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. By now, many of us just get tuckered out. Family get-togethers, school and work events and high-impact shopping just seem to overwhelm each of us. We have been swamped with Christmas displays in stores right after children went back to school in the lingering days of summer. Radio stations began playing holiday music after a double play of Atlanta Rhythm Section’s “Spooky” and Bobby Pickett’s “Monster Mash” on Halloween night. Add all these things together and a person just might wish to have the world stop so a break can be taken, even if just for a short time.

This year has been additionally brutal due to our national election. The fact that we, as a society, have allowed every nook and cranny of our lives to be immersed in the dirty water of politics has meant there is nothing enjoyable about the things we all used to enjoy. Now, nerves are frayed, friendships strained and uncertainty has become the norm. Throw in the holidays, mix in the stress it can bring and we can quickly get burned out over every little thing.

So, right now, if the preparation for the holidays is wearing you out, if the idea of an upcoming discussion with your uncle Albert about the merits of the electoral college, if the Chia-Pet display at K-Mart looks inviting on your fourth pass through the store and if you find yourself humming “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” then maybe you need a short break from all that is happening.

I am here to provide you with such a break. When I need a break from things I like to eat but since there is no way for me to provide you with an actual chocolate cake I will have to think of something else. I do know though that music can make things better sometimes, especially if you have the right song.

Frankly, it’s hard to not like “Love Train” by the O’Jays. It’s an upbeat song and has a positive message. Let’s go there. So, if the holiday stress has you down, click the link below and sing along.

Love Train karaoke 

If you prefer to just listen to the O'Jays version, click below.

Love Train by the OJays 

I’ll just leave this here in case you need it. Join hands, and have a happy and safe holiday season.

There Goes Another Year

With a nod (and apologies) to Billy Joel and his 1989 hit, "We Didn't Start The Fire":

Breaking Bad, breaking news, Toronto mayor likes his booze

Blood moon, green means go, big screen super hero

Zip line, flim flam, Twitter, Instagram

Kardashians on a TV show, say goodbye Jay Leno

Russia on the move, Pharrell hits a groove

Frozen fractals alert, Miley does a twerk

Walking Dead, flu shot, legalization of pot

Home or work, that NSA sure likes to lurk

There goes another year

Will we ever start learning

While the world keeps turning

There goes another year

No, we didn’t stop it

Next year will we top it?

iPhone, Android, Ms. Obama looks annoyed

Skimpy school lunch for the kids, magnets on your fridge

England’s queen still has her crown, Israel stands it’s ground

All kept under the lids ‘cause the news loved Chris Christie and a bridge

Winter Olympic games, politicians call each other names

Game of Thrones, give a quarter, open border

Minimum wage, double time, Keystone Pipeline

Oh no, is that a goiter, no, on my TV it’s another hoarder!

There goes another year

Will we ever start learning

While the world keeps turning

There goes another year

No, we didn’t stop it

Next year will we top it?

Ferguson, gas fracking, Peyton Manning, hackers hacking

Bacon, eggs, green beans, guess what Jonathan Gruber really means

Daily Show, Lois Lerner, her emails got thrown in the burner

The Pisa tower still leans, Obama plays one more round on the greens

Hobby Lobby, tort, retort, goes to the Supreme Court

Arctic blast, CNN cuts Piers, rumors and smears

Spacecraft on a comet, if we got closer we might could bomb it

Out of nowhere come the fears when a Malaysian flight just disappears

There goes another year

Will we ever start learning

While the world keeps turning

There goes another year

No, we didn’t stop it

Next year will we top it?

War on women, we can’t be friends, rhetoric never ends

Wireless net, kick the can, two hundred dollars to see a band

Hollywood is full of tripe, still we’re caught up in the hype

How much can we stand, beheadings in the sand?

Ebola, big soda, Nicki Minaj, Jay Z, CDC

Robin Williams and his fate, at the White House you can jump the gate

e-cig, Snapchat, does this shirt make me look fat

No matter what the rate, so many people still gotta hate

There goes another year

Will we ever start learning

While the world keeps turning

There goes another year

No, we didn’t stop it

Next year will we top it?

Election time, morals bereft, more and more ID theft

Pick your nose, pick a daisy, North Korea’s just a bit hazy

National budget has it’s heft, who will pay, will anybody be left

More and more of us get lazy or is everyone going crazy?

Movie star, hot dog bun, take away your gun

China owns all our loans, watch out here comes a drone

It all makes you want to run, being grown isn’t always fun

We’re wired but still alone, makes us long for home sweet home.

There goes another year

Will we ever start learning

While the world keeps turning

There goes another year

No, we didn’t stop it

Next year will we top it?