Well, here it is Christmas Eve. Back in my younger days, I would be shopping for Christmas presents tonight. But now Amazon has solved all my Christmas shopping problems, and I no longer have to deal with gigantic mall parking lots so full of people you have to park at the car dealer next door, elbow-to-elbow people in the mall, long lines at the cash register, and largely empty shelves... Those were the good old days. And I don't have anything else to do without having that to look forward to tonight.

Christmas is just another day off, which is not all that special if you're retired and have every day off anyway. So the bad parts are about all that's left of the holidays: closed-up businesses, busy highways, and frenzied and frantic last-minute shoppers running around. Fortunately, being a full-timer, I seldom experience the bad parts of shopping; I stay off the roads during busy travel days and am not very often around people.

So, I guess you could say that, all in all, I'm pretty lucky. I'm living the kind of life that I enjoy, and I no longer have the urge to keep up with the Joneses. I've learned that happiness is in your mind and not in your possessions or even your location, so I'm pretty much always happy, and I guess at my geezerly age, that's about the best I can do.

Theboondork