theboondork's RV blog

My annual Christmas rant

12/22/2022

Clicking the pics might warm up your frozen fingers.

Since I went grocery shopping at Walmart, I pulled into a boondocking area only a couple of miles from Walmart so I didn't have to drive back across town. It doesn't matter to me where I boondock, my house is with me all the time.

I hate to brag... But I will anyway. It got up to 68° today in Lake Havasu. And at my daughter's house in Denver right now it's -1°... She reads this so I just thought I would point that out.

Since Christmas is fast approaching, and I don't have my Christmas dinner yet, I moseyed into Havasu after the morning rush hour, parked at a very busy Walmart, and bought some salmon to cook for my Christmas dinner which is kinda special in two ways. The first way is I seldom cook anything; second, I rarely get fish to eat while I'm on the road.

Living in Miami, I ate fish a lot, and usually, it was fish that I'd caught. Coming back from the Florida Keys on a Saturday afternoon, sometimes I would have enough fish in the boat to sell some to a local fish market in Homestead before I got home. And even when I didn't catch much, almost everybody in Miami fished and was glad to give some away to a fisherman that was having a bad day. But when I moved to Colorado, I learned that fish were expensive, more difficult to come by, and by my standards, nowhere near "fresh." But fresh or not, a fish dinner became special to me so it's suitable for my Christmas meal.

The Walmart toy department looked pretty busy today, with a few bicycles going out the door, and if it makes kids as happy as I was when I got one, those kids are in for a very Merry Christmas.

Back in the day, I didn't get into the Christmas spirit until my Christmas shopping was done, which was normally midnight on Christmas Eve. But now, thanks to Amazon, my Christmas shopping is over in minutes, and yet I still don't seem to have any Christmas spirit, to the point that I'm not even sure what the "Christmas spirit" is anymore.

I understand the religious connotations of the Christmas spirit. Still, purchasing Christmas presents has almost completely taken over the religious part of Christmas in favor of spending the most money possible on as much Chinese junk that no one will ever use as your credit card will allow. And what this is doing to kids can't be good.

When the Christmas presents are piled halfway up the Christmas tree, and it takes an hour or two to open them all, I don't see how that's a good lesson for kids to learn. At least back in the day, Christmas presents could have undesirable consequences associated with breaking the Christmas covenant, which was where the "naughty and nice" concept came from.

But nowadays, there is no such thing as a "lump of coal" in your stocking; kids are given everything their parents have money for no matter what, and this may one day lead to kids growing up thinking that they're owed everything for free and end up voting for the party that makes that very promise.

Theboondork

The scenery around my boondocking area.

Black-and-white mountain

Boondocking van.

6 Comments

OFM

12/23/2022 08:34:26 am

Just so you will know, we had 4f here this morning. Not my kind of weather. Holding 68 inside the Fox.

Tom

12/23/2022 09:33:57 am

Sorry to hear about your weather difficulties. I've had more than my share of below-zero days living in the mountains.

But I have discovered a modern invention called the "wheel," you may have heard of it or maybe even seen some folks who have adopted its use. Since discovering the "wheel" I have found the most incredible use for it, it allows me to change my location, and to move me and all of my possessions from one place to another.

The place "the wheel" has currently brought me to is the most sunny warm place imaginable called Lake Havasu, which is located in the sun-drenched state of Arizona, where cold snowy weather is all but unknown.

So I recommend you take advantage of this "wheel" and get to a place where all the old geezers go, at least the smart ones, and cast off your parka, your thermal underwear, and furry hat, and do what I'm doing..... Laying out in the sunshine and getting a tan.

Tom..... If it gets toooo much warmer, I may have to turn on my air conditioner.

Ray link

12/23/2022 01:47:46 pm

I’m pretty sure I saw you yesterday driving towards Walmart (which I had just left!) in Lake Havasu City. Unless someone else happens to have the same truck and Lance camper!

You have good timing for good weather, it’s wonderful right now. I’m camped over at Standard Wash the section further south with the least amount of people ; ).

If you’re (and I) still around after Christmas it’d be my pleasure to treat you to lunch.

Merry Travels!
Ray

12/23/2022 05:11:09 pm

Thank you very much Ray, that's a very kind offer and I appreciate it. I'm going to be leaving probably Monday and slowly making my way to Tucson.

I am glad to be here in such nice weather, usually for me to find good weather is based on luck, but I've been keeping my eye on the weather reports trying to find the warmest place in Arizona I could and it just so happened Lake Havasu was it. but now it seems like a lot of places in Arizona are looking better weather-wise so I'm more free to roam.

But thank you again Ray, and you have some merry and safe travels yourself.

Tom

Linda

12/23/2022 01:55:39 pm

My mother was one who though quantity was more important than quality so we got a lot of junk. Except the year one brother and I got bikes and my other brother got a transistor ratio. The bikes were used ones but we didn't care about that. They gave me my first taste of the freedom of travel--we rode miles away from home!

12/23/2022 06:11:24 pm

Yeah I remember back in the day when a bicycle or a Red Ryder BB gun was the best present a kid could get. And you actually could ride miles away without your family worrying about you being kidnapped.

And speaking of bicycles since my dad was in the Air Force and flew all over the world, one Christmas he brought me what was called an "English bike," that he brought from England, this was in the late 1950s, and since no one in South Carolina had never seen an English bike before with its funny looking seat, and tall skinny tires, the other kids on their Schwinn bicycles laughed at it until they found out my English bike had three gears and could could out run everybody else's bicycle.... They stopped laughing then.

Tom

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My annual Christmas rant

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