just a guy who can't say no

I think I need to say no

As in:  Have another cookie.
            Do you want fries with that?
            Could you do something for me?
            Isn't it easier to disconnect the power before trying to repair the outlet?
Wait a minute, should say yes on that one.
     I am working with high school students three hours a week, mentoring a first grader, volunteering in a kindergarten class, serving at church.... my life seems to be filling with activities!
     Throw in the laundry and household chores, and I seem to get busy.  Never to busy to do this blog, or play solitaire, or read a book busy, but busy.
     I am a tradition lover, if I like the tradition.  For example, Jackie likes to bake Christmas cookies, so we have made 7 different types of cookies.  I help, then I clean up.  In the old days I would have licked the beaters and spatulas because we did not know raw egg could hurt you.  Heck, for a while I even put raw eggs in milk shakes to give them a protein boost.
     But I digress.
     So making cookies is a tradition.
     Putting up the Dickens Village is a tradition.
     Lighting my pyramid is a tradition.
     Setting up my train tree is a tradition.
     And reading A Christmas Carol is a tradition.
     I am about to start the visit of the third spirit, the one we fear the most, the ghost of the future.  When I was a wee lad I saw a movie version and that ghost scared me!  There is a similar figure in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, done by Lorado Taft, and it too gave me the willies.
     (I always thought it was ironic that my youth was spent close to work by Lorado Taft and then I moved out here, where we were close to work by Lorado Taft.  Small world, huh)
     I also brewed some coffee today.  I may have put in a little too much coffee and not enough water, cause it was strong.  Real strong. 
     Maybe a little reading will put me in the drowsy zone.
     Boy, this epistle is all over the place!
Peace and Love.