The leaves in my yard still have not been raked.

Edna St. Vincent Millay is credited with saying, “It’s not true that life is one damn thing after another. It’s one damn thing over and over.” I can see what she meant. Only it’s a lot of one things over and over.

Alice and I recently celebrated our 42nd anniversary. And while I know there are folks who have been married longer than that, I decided to mention it.

Yep, it’s a new year, all right. How can I tell?

Okay. All my seasonal singing gigs are over, as are all the parties except New Year’s, and there isn’t a caroler in sight. Looks like I’ve survived another Christmas.

NOTE: I’ve run this column for years as my last column before Christmas, and I see no reason to change now. True, a lot of changes have taken place in my life since the first time this column appeared. Shucks, I’ve even retired. But I think it still works. Besides, some folks have actually told me they look forward to it. Bah, and humbug.

Christmas seems to be a time for folks to get nostalgic. So I think I’ll try that out, and see if it can take some of the edge off my Scrooginess.

One of the problems with growing up is that you don’t get the cool stuff anymore. That’s a small part of why I’m a Scrooge.

The Christmas tree is up at our house, in case anyone’s interested.

Can we all get along? Guess not. Here’s my take on some – not all – of the things going on.