By James Durand
For the last few weeks my five-year-old has been singing Deck the Halls pretty much non stop. He’s very into the Christmas spirit.
Being five means he doesn’t really need to nail the lyrics perfectly and every time he comes to “‘Tis the Season to be Jolly,” he screams out “Change the season to be Jolly.”
I was going to correct him, but then thought better of it. He may be onto something here. With 2020 being so stressful, many people are not jolly at all and maybe we need to make a conscious effort to change it up … at least for a few weeks around the holidays.
I was driving to Swicked last week and had some stuff in my truck. I stood out in the wind and rain before I left, diligently tying everything down and making sure it was all secure. A ways down the highway, I was pulled over by a guy. He had flashing lights and stuff, but was obviously not a cop. Not sure what his authority was, but I said good morning when he approached my window. He was not happy. Apparently my very secure load wasn’t as secure as I thought and I’d lost my garbage can a few hundred metres back.
He wasn’t yelling, or impolite, but was definitely perturbed with me ( I get it, the human race can be disappointing and sometimes it’s hard to give anyone the benefit of the doubt).
He then asked with a bit of force if I was going to get it. It seemed like a weird question to me. I had just dumped my property on the road, of course I was going to get it, because I fix my own mistakes. It’s not safe to leave stuff on the highway and, most importantly, Chenoa would question me if I came home with a brand new garbage can.
Anyway, I drove back, grabbed it, and re-secured it in my truck. Yes, I did a way better job this time, live and learn right?
So, a few things:
1. Thanks to non-jolly guy for stopping and telling me about my mishap. No way around it, this was my bad and I’d feel crappy if I arrived at work with no idea where I’d lost my load.
2. Sorry to non-jolly guy if I made you non-jolly that morning. It was an honest mistake and I’m stoked there was no harm. Hopefully, the rest of your day was idiot free.
3. After such a weird year, let’s “change the season to be Jolly.” If Regan can do it at five years old, we can certainly pull it off.
4. If you think a five-year-old singing the same song repeatedly for two weeks is cute, you’re wrong, but luckily I can escape and go mountain biking on nice quiet trails.
I’m James Durand, and i wish you a very jolly Christmas…