You can tell it is getting close to Christmas because there have been non-stop advertisements on TV for Chia pets. Cha cha cha chia! It always reminds me of when I was in basic training. During basic training, we "Basics" were only allowed 7 basic responses (if memory serves me; and also can be Ma'am as well):

• Yes Sir
• No Sir
• Sir I do not know
• Sir I do not understand
• Sir may I ask a question?
• Sir may I make a statement?
• No excuse sir

However, while I was going through Basic, I seemed to always get a 5 o'clock shadow by the end of the day. So I earned the nickname "Chia Pet" from my upperclassmen. I was only allowed one basic response: cha cha cha Chia! No matter what was said to me, that was all I was allowed to say. It was actually kind of funny, especially when people asked me things that were not aware of the fact that I had been ordered to only make that one basic response.

Well, bowling was my all-time career low last night. I think it was even worse than when I was a youth bowler like twenty years ago. I only bowled a 299. Yes, that is a three game series, not a single game. That is unbelievably low. I am so ashamed. If I hadn't even bowled, my absentee score would have netted our team 120 additional points over what I actually got. With my handicap added in, I didn't even hit my average! I am getting to the point where I wonder if I will even bowl at all next year. I can't seem to get out of the rut. I don't know what it is, I never used to be this bad. I think there are several factors that contribute to it besides my inborn suckiness at all things requiring bodily movement.

One thing is that it is consistently extremely hot in the bowling alley. I am the type of person that absolutely cannot function when it is hot. So that stresses me out and just makes a bad situation worse. Also, we bowl on Thursday night. That is usually the point in the week when I am the most tired and burnt out from work. I have usually gotten in about 40 hours by then, and I am fatigued mentally and physically. Probably the last contributing factor is the lanes themselves. They always seem to break or you are waiting on the other team just when you get into the groove, so that messes things up. But probably the majority of the blame for me sucking so bad is just my own fault. I can't blame everything on the excuses!

We had a Christmas "Feeding Frenzy" for the employees at work. We fed all three shifts. So on Wednesday, I attended the meal three times to pour drinks. We had one at 11:00AM, 7:00PM and 2:00AM. I worked through from 2:00AM through about 10:00AM. It was a little nice to be able to work basically uninterrupted by non-stop phone calls like I usually get, but I am not used to those hours so it was definitely a challenge. And that made me really tired yesterday and last night.

It has warmed up a little bit, but the snow has still kept coming. After I got home from work yesterday, I had to snowblow out the end of the driveway. I have noticed that it doesn't work so well on the wet, heavy snow as it does on the light fluffy stuff. But it still beats shoveling. We have had so much snow that it is getting to the point where the snowblower cannot blow the snow over the snowbanks! But with some warming up coming on its way, it might shrink those down.

So I have a four day break coming up, and I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to that. Just need to make it through the day today, then it will be a nice time to reset my brain and start fresh at work next Wednesday.