The Holiday Seasonings

[ChronosCat 155]

4 hours ago, mlooney said:

Take down your Christmas tree today!

What will happen if I don't?

[Darth Fluffy 302]

46 minutes ago, ChronosCat said:

What will happen if I don't?

If it is a real tree, it will loose it's needles, which are a bitch to get out of carpet, and will look and probably smell hideous. The base where it is cut will slowly rot. If you remove all of the junk from it, you could probably shred most of it as mulch, or even compost it. I wouldn't want to add tinsel to my soil, and the very bottom of the tree is likely too gnarly to deal with.

If it is artificial, it will just take up space and get dusty.

Of course, that's the human assessment. Being a cat, you may prefer to leave it up for climbing purposes.

[ChronosCat 155]

It's an artificial tree, and sadly far too small to climb.

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't setting myself up for a Krampus attack or something if I put off taking it down until the weekend.

[mlooney 3,417]

2 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

What will happen if I don't?

You don't get to burn it in  the community burn.  

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Since we had cats, we used to hang our artificial (small) Christmas tree from the ceiling. It kept the cats out of the tree, and it had the added bonus of letting us put our presents truly under the tree.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

Gift idea for next Christmas ...

I could give out several of these.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

January 06, Epiphany.  Many Christian Congregations mark this day for the Adoration of the Magi, aka 3 Kings Day.  Others see it as the day Jesus was baptized.

If you are a Greek Orthodox teenaged boy near Clear Water, Florida, you might participate in a different tradition.

Following a service at the St. Nicholas Cathedral, you would join a Procession to the Gulf of Mexico where the Bishop throws a White Cross in the water and the boys dive in to retrieve it.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Correction.

Tarpon Springs, not Clearwater.

Thank you

[Darth Fluffy 302]

48 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Correction.

Tarpon Springs, not Clearwater.

Thank you

Tarpon Springs, notable for being not Clearwater. Clearwater, notable for not being Tarpon Springs.

Tarpons, being biological fish, do not actually incorporate any springs in their construction. Their rib bones are kind of thin and springy.

Florida has many springs. One day, someone found a tarpon in one. "Hey, y'all, I found a tarpon in this here spring." And thus the town was named. Though ocean fish, they are able to survive in brackish water, and springs in Florida tend toward brackish, but it should still be an unusual event to see an ocean fish in one.

Clearwater is similarly named, although many Florida springs are amazingly transparent.

They are kind of metro Tampa, though separated from the city proper. The only thing I recall about a drive through long ago is eating seafood at Molly Goodhead's.

[mlooney 3,417]

2 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Following a service at the St. Nicholas Cathedral, you would join a Procession to the Gulf of Mexico where the Bishop throws a White Cross in the water and the boys dive in to retrieve it.

I'm not sure how this started, but it sounds like it could be fun.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

19 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Tarpon Springs, notable for being not Clearwater. Clearwater, notable for not being Tarpon Springs.

Yes, I was talking to someone about Clearwater just before posting and typed in the wrong city

Realized my mistake just after it posted

I was using my phone which makes editing unnecessarily difficult, so the obvious correction post is there 

And while the Gulf of Mexico isn't exactly hot in January, it does seem a little more pleasant that the "Polar Bear" clubs that meet to swim the nearly frozen waters of rivers, lakes, and sea shores around Christmas or New Years in more northerly latitudes 

[Darth Fluffy 302]

7 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Yes, I was talking to someone about Clearwater just before posting and typed in the wrong city

I wasn't trying to give you a hard time (I guess it just comes naturally), I was pointing out that neither is particularly noteworthy. That could be said of most towns, and many cities.

I lived a few years in Niceville, which as Florida towns go, is even worse. It is a bedroom community for Eglin AFB, and other than the base, there isn't many jobs. There's also Valpariso, just west of Niceville, basically a mirror image.

South of the base, there is at least a nominal tourist industry, so Fort Walton Beach has a dinky mall, and Destin on the sand bar has accomodations between hurricanes. (They rebuild fast!)

On base, military has shopping facilities. Any one else, good luck. There's nothing else east until Panama City, and nothing else west until Pensacola. I-10 is twenty minutes north, and there is little at the interchange, and then a series of small towns as you travel into Georgia. We used to do Christmas shopping in Pensacola and Mobile.

The community was oddly insular as well. I made fewer local friends there than anywhere else I've been stationed.