More on the uninflated Christmas characters

We are experiencing cold winds that are wicked sharp and strong. They woke us up in the middle of the night, rattling the storm windows and keening around the outside nooks and crannies of the house like uneasy ghosts. Meelyn and I came downstairs at about 4:30 a.m., both of us wide awake from all the outdoor noises.

My husband and I decided that this would be a very, very good day to just stay inside, after our enormous waste receptacle was blown over into the driveway. We congratulated one another on our foresight in attending Saturday evening Mass.

Somewhere along about 12:30 p.m., we realized that we were out of dog food. Somehow, we missed it on our Saturday afternoon grocery trip. And as long as we were going to be out anyway, we decided that it would be a prudent thing to buy potato chips. So out we went into the wind, both of us scarved and gloved and coated and hatted.

On our way to the grocery, we passed the house that I wrote about the other day, the one with the uninflated Christmas characters in the yard. The poor, sad things were still lying there on the grass, only today, because of the wind, instead of looking like they were either dead or unconscious, they looked like they were writhing in pain.

NOT good.

I know those big things aren't cheap. You'd think if you were going to spend the money on a yard full of Garfields and Santas and snowmen and the like, you'd keep up the good work with that air compressor. But nooooo. No, we all have to be treated to the sight of Santa Claus on the ground, jerking and twitching through his final moments on this mortal coil. Ugh.