It’s getting harder and harder for me to review the world or even the strip of lawn on the other side of the old wooden fence, the fence that gives me the illusion of being kept from the world.  But one thing I know.  The word for December is SURVIVAL.  Like it or not, at the moment we are a nation of survivalists.

For at least the past thirty years, the section of the newspaper that has interested me the most is the business section.  I skim through the national news and the local news just so I can get to the business news.  This strategy has been developed, nurtured, and kept afloat by the masochist in me.  There is no other explanation.

 For the last half year, the needle has been stuck in a grove and the grove keeps wearing deeper and deeper.  Depression kills.  Retirement kills.  Unemployment kills.  I’ve been through all three since December 31, 1991.  I am one of the few survivors of the combined wars of love, jobs, and money.  But, and there is no doubt about this, time, tides, and my continual financial stagnation have taken it’s toll both inside and outside me.

To paraphrase the old saying:  “When everyone in Lakewood looses their job, it’s a recession.  When everyone in Lakewood and Denver lose their jobs, it’s a depression.  And when everyone in Colorado is jobless, would the last person in the state please turn out the lights before they leave?”

On top of that, one day I accidently whizzed through the business section and before I could stop myself, I was in the arts and entertainment section of the newspaper.  And while in the movie section, I found out that there was not only a new James Bond movie but also a new movie written and directed by Charlie Kaufman.  I know that directors, writers, actors, technicians, and cockroach wranglers all work hard on a movie.  If the movie does not live up to its expectations, it’s not for the want of trying.  I know that from watching short documentaries and listening to commentaries that come embedded into DVD’s.

Now that that’s out of the way, let me state that I haven’t been in a movie theater in 2008.  Besides DVD’s I’ve watched in my kitchen at the BKT (Bob’s Kitchen Theater), the only other movies I’ve seen has been at the senior center, watched after I’ve eaten a VOA lunch especially prepared for those who have nothing else to do at noon than to sit down and eat a $2.50 VOA lunch.

I haven’t heard any Christmas cheer yet this year.  What I have heard is how much you can get for a buck if you shop during the before Christmas sales.  Seinfeld for $15.00 per season.  Now there’s a deal.  Only I didn’t rush out, leaving the comfort of my fenced patio, to get it.  All that means is that real Seinfeld buyers has gotten their copies and now Sony is trying to get rid of it’s remaining copies.  They’ll still be on sale in February.

Even though the mental health clinics are booked solid and the food banks are out of food, let me be of what little help I can in wishing you a Merry Christmas.  And may there be a real job in your future.

- Bob