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“This is not a Christmas gift, it’s just something I want you to have.” That’s what Marijo’s neighbor Joe said when he gave me a tiny acoustic guitar. Even though the frets and strings are real, it’s too small to play. He used to make them as wall ornaments for friends and relatives 40 years ago. I told him I wasn’t just going to just hang his gift on the wall– I was going to pretend to play it in pictures. He thought that was funny. Hang on… those ARE real steel strings… I’m pretty sure I can hook it up to a makey makey and actually play it!

Someone is keeping Rodney Dangerfield alive. The cartoon above and the caption below make it feel like he’s still here:

Mom got me this cool LIVE ON AIR sign for Christmas… so now it’s official: the southwest corner of my living room is now a bona fide studio!! I’m opening the creaky door to THE EPILOGUE CABIN and posting the first of 3 shows which can be played here… …or by going to this soundcloud link and clicking on the play button. I tried to load the mp3 on my site but the file was too big.

Yesterday I drove to Olathe to pay my property taxes. I was used to seeing the old Franklin Savings Bank on the NW corner of Sante Fe and Ridgeview. I was startled when I saw a fully formed QuikTrip there instead. Even though the bank closed down a long time ago, the vacant building stayed there for years. Franklin Savings was the first bank where I used an ATM after hours. I still remember being annoyed at the fact that I couldn’t withdraw less than $10. I only needed 4 or 5 that night… why were they forcing me to take out ten?This is what the bank looked like after it closed. It stayed that way for years. When I searched for old photos this morning I found out that I went to college with the photographer!

I can’t find my keys. In reality they are probably in my house between the back door and the bedroom, but in my mind they have gone down a black hole. Every house has one. It’s the place where you set something down and suddenly it becomes invisible to the naked eye. Fortunately I have a spare key to my truck and an extra house key. Now I just need to be patient and wait for the original set to surface like a diver that’s about to run out of oxygen.

This is what we ate Saturday night when we got together with Josh & Christy’s family to watch A Christmas Story. We’ve been watching that movie with them since Christy was in high school. Now she’s a mother of two, and I gave her 5-year-old son a Red Ryder BB gun to commemorate the occasion this year. Afterward we all waited for the scene where Ralphie utters the now famous obscenity. When he accidentally spilled a hubcap full of lug nuts and said “Oh… fudge,” we all took a bite.

NASA’s counting, the count is counting, we’re all counting down the days to THE EPILOGUE CABIN, a high school reunion podcast with the class of ’84. The first show goes up Christmas Eve. Here’s the countdown so far.

Ten is a good round number. THE EPILOGUE CABIN is a good round podcast. Whaddya say we start the countdown?! The first episode will go up on Christmas Eve– 10 days from (looks at watch) now. Start ignition sequencer, do one more systems check… and …go! We’ll post a daily updated countdown on THE EPILOGUE CABIN page.

He did it. He saved the 80′s in a hardback book and froze time in a bottle. When I heard Michael Galinsky talk about his book on Stuck in the 80′s it was only a matter of minutes before I ordered one online. That was over three months ago and I squealed like a little girl yesterday when I saw a book-sized box that the mailman left behind. The picture below is on one of the first few pages from the book. It might as well be a page from my past.The rest of the book is full of pictures just like that one: big hair, shirts tucked in, fluorescent colors. I can’t help it. I love seeing those old fashions and storefronts somewhere besides my dreams.

Christmas. You can almost hear sleigh bells until grandma goes into one of her coughing fits. It’s memories like this that make us shake our heads… and then nod our heads. God bless the goons at weird vintage everyday. I hope they never stop looking for these priceless moments.