"Because of their size, parents may be difficult to discipline properly." - P.J. O'Rourke

Random things I've learned:

• One evidence of the barrenness of what can only be called "ground" where we live: dig as long and as deep as you like, you won't find any bugs. No grubs, no worms, no spiders, no living thing whatsoever. I miss dirt and I'd kill to once again have soil.
• If you drive a stock '65 Falcon on the freeway your journey is significantly simplified. You will always be in the right lane, thus eliminating any decisions about which of the four other available lanes will get you there faster. The only real thing to think about is whether you're going faster than the people merging onto the freeway from the one-per-mile on ramps. The answer is usually no. 
• Some business people under promise and over deliver. Anyone associated with any part of the auto business can be counted on to reverse that paradigm. This despite giving you what sounds like what absolutely has to be an under promise. Nope, they will under deliver on even that. The secret to tranquility is to accept this reality this going in. 
• A small group of people understand email conversations to be in a totally separate class from all other forms of communication. They would consider it unacceptably rude to be engaged in a verbal face-to-face conversation with someone that involves back and forth, and then abruptly ignore your next communique, especially if it involved a follow-up to something you'd been talking about. But failing to respond in a similar conversation that includes the exchange of emails carries no similar burden. Oh well. 
• Santa isn't real. He's the character from a European myth. Arguing about the ethnicity of a make-believe character is yet another indication that U.S. culture has its priorities all screwed up. 
• Sun City drivers don't stay indoors when streets are filled with holiday traffic. Instead, they take their big Buick's out and smash them into Mercedes SLK's, turning the latter into little bits and pieces. It didn't look like anyone was hurt; no ambulances that I could see. But that Benz will never see the road again. 

That's enough for tonight. I'm not going to be here much longer; my pillow beckons.