Alright… did someone get the license plate number from that truck that hit me?

Oh…  Wait, that was just Christmas and New Years day…  Never mind.

This last Christmas was interesting.  While people everywhere were touting that this was going to be a bad season because of the economy, that did not seem to stop too many people from shopping their hearts out.

Since Naty and I decided to spend our holiday money on joining in to buy yarn for her mother, Lydia Ayers, so that she could crochet hats and scarves for the local American Cancer Society, we did not get to truly experience the holiday cheer of others.  That glorious feeling of going to a store with a couple thousand other people all with that feverish, almost maniacal, quest for the perfect gift, that just happens to be the same thing that everyone else wants.  You know the one… the Miley Cyrus/Hanna Montana gift set with the complementary self esteem killer for girls of all ages.  The racially neutral GI Joe with non-lethal weapons and his United Nations K-Y Jelly.  The politically correct Trivial Pursuit where every answer is the right one, simply because you tried.

Anyway…  Our only experience with the holiday shopping was our forays into the grocery stores.  You see, I like to bake… yes, me… not my wife.  I am a guy that likes to cook…  get over it.  In the stores, there was nothing but people… wall to wall people… looking for everything.

I am not a pleasant shopper.  I can only deal with large groups of people for so long before I start turning into an a$$hole.  There is no other way to say it, so there it is…  That is me.  When you combine two of the things I hate the most, shopping and large clusters of people, then you are looking at me changing into a person that no one, not even my loving wife, wants to be around.

I made no trips to the malls or the department stores this last season, not even for the great post-holiday holocaust that is called a After Christmas sale.  There was just no way that I could deal with the crowds without looking at some mandatory jail time.

Maybe it is my age, but it seems as though this time of year is losing it’s appeal to me.  It is hard for me to find anything truly enjoyable in it anymore that has not been exploited by commercial entities to the point where there is almost no fun in it anymore.  Even Hanukkah is being commercialized more and more, though not nearly as bad as Christmas.

In short, and finally, this is why when people ask me, I tell them that my favorite holiday of the year is Halloween.  I truly think that Halloween is the most fun day of the year… there are no gifts, there is little fanfare, and we get to see into the heart of what people see themselves as.

There are many people out there feeling the pinch from the current economic woes that are abound… but it takes on a different feel and favor (pun intended) when it strikes particularly close to home.

On 31 Dec, 2007, Central California Steak and Hogie, here in Bakersfield, closed it’s doors citing a poor summer due to the rise in fuel prices that trickled down to them in the purchase of their food and the fact that they refused to raise their prices to the point that it would drive away their customers.

They had a very good following, including yours truly. I went to this place almost every day for lunch since the day that they opened their doors and considered everyone that worked there to be a good friend.

Alex and Paul, the owners and their employees; Kaylee and Chad, were all great people to be around and the chemistry between them and Alex and Paul, was a working relationship that I truly envied.

When Paul and Alex told me that they were closing, it was like a punch in the gut… I genuinely felt pain for them. I have seen enough of my own dreams fade before they have gotten off the ground, I can only guess how much it hurt them to watch a dream fail, through no fault of their own that I can tell, when it has already bloomed.

I wish all of them the very best of luck in what ever their next efforts are.