Winter Perspective #2

So Norm hosted Christmas for the family this year. And it went well. When one has almost 20 people in your home, it can be a bit stressful. But Norm found the entire event rather enjoyable. It was the weeks leading up to the holiday that Norm found rather unenjoyable. Norm had to get the house cleaned and crowd friendly.

So they all arrived, and Norm managed to direct all the larger vehicles into the driveway. Norm had to chuckle at the irony. Here it's only his home that has the space for everyone, but everyone has these huge expensive vehicles. No wonder they can't move into a bigger house. They're driving their upgrade.

Norm mentions all of this only because of the ridiculous concept of trading your car in every three years for a new model. Norm has a tough time standing around listening about the next new vehicle his relatives are going to buy, when his ride was new about the time Duran Duran had their first hit. But hey, what can Norm say. They're family, and they can afford it.

The highlight came as everybody was preparing to leave. Depart the wilderness and drive back into consumerland. The irony was Norm had been trying to tell some of the adults about the various creatures he had seen recently. Everyone seemed to want to match Norm's story with a consumerland tale. Norm was getting frustrated, as he tried to convince everybody that the animals actually live here. (As opposed to sightings that involve animals forced to move due to home building.)

So imagine the wonderful moment when 20+ turkeys walked past the house down towards the water. Those leaving to go home wanted to see more of these birds, so Norm grabbed his camera and once outside we caught the birds crossing the water. There were still a couple of dry comments about how they're everywhere, and it's very common to see them. But Norm still thinks it was a special moment for everyone.