What is it about Christmas?
The religious aspect means nothing to me, i shudder at the commercialism, i’m tired of the carols by the first of December.
And yet, as always, i get caught up in the Christmas Spirit. I’ve been taking advantage of some beautiful weather between our much needed rains by riding around this end of town on the Segway giving money to my favorite homeless people and passing out jars of my preserves to folks.
Yesterday i rode off to my internist’s for a routine checkup, where i got busted for an incident the day before my last blood draw when half a cheesecake followed me home and then turned up on my lab report. You’d think i’d have learned from all those drug addicts who behave themselves for a few days before they’re tested, but no. At least i ate the cheesecake rather than going ahead and mainlining it, which would have probably killed me from an overdose.
While i was there, i gave jars of jams and jellies to my doc and all her staff and then rode off to the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market to pass out preserves to my favorite vendors, this time including a couple i’d not yet given anything to. While i was there, this new Latino cop i’d not seen, so new he was on the Christmas Eve shift, inquired about the Segway and delicately suggested that i be careful about mowing down pedestrians even though i was as usual moving cautiously at walk speed. I whipped out my handicap documentation as he protested that he’d take my word for it and then blew him away by handing him a jar of jam. They don’t get that a lot.
This morning i went out to my old neighborhood to give some jam to Tom and Jerry to celebrate their legendary Christmas decorations on 21st Street. I’ve been doing this for years, and it’s by now, like their decorations, a tradition. While i was over there, i stopped at the NoeHill Market and gave Sami a jar of still warm Rangpur Lime Marmalade, specifying that it was not a Christmas present, he being a practicing Muslim, but rather something for the solstice, which everyone celebrates. People just love it when they wrap their hand around a jar so fresh it’s still hot.
Oh, and speaking of the old neighborhood, on Christmas Eve i passed by the house i used to live in and discovered that the neighborhood has already been significantly gentrified by my absence. Yes, the insultingly minimalist Christmas decorations that i put up for years in the front window of the lower flat have been replaced by a full fledged tree.
