Rantings & Ravings

By Sun Advocate

Christmas is over for another year.
I really had fun this year. Watching the little ones enjoy the season was a joy. Baking and decorating cookies to leave for Santa was something we haven’t done for many years now. The dog really likes this tradition.
We and many others bought the kids too much and had fun doing it. The presents were piled high under the tree. We sure generated a lot of garbage.
The gift wrap was only a small piece of the waste left over from Santa’s visit. Every item was sealed in layers of cardboard, wire and plastic that had to be peeled and pried off. The 16 piece weeble tree house had 60 wire ties holding things together. Half of the items that were associated with the gifts were cardboard facsimiles of toys I could purchase at a later date.
There was one toy that, after I got all the wire ties off, I had to then unravel a stringy like substance that was wound all over each piece. You couldn’t break it, it had to be cut and unwound. Whoever is responsible for winding this stuff on, as well as the people who put the wire ties on, have a sick sense of humor.
None of these things are wound in one direction. You start unwinding in one direction and then just as you begin to make progress, you find out that you need to unwind it the other way. They also tape each tie to the box so you need a surgeons knife just to get to the tie itself.
It took four hours and three trips out to the garbage pile to retrieve missing parts to get the job finished.
After that I decided to take a well deserved shower and relax. I had received some shower gell as a present from one of my sisters.I went to squirt a little into my hand but none came out. On closer examination of the tube, I saw that under to cap was a layer of foil. I removed the cap and tried to pry the seal off. No way. I tried to puncture a hole in it. That didn’t work either. So I didn’t get it open but it sure looks good sitting next to my other items by the shower.
Maybe someday I will find the right tool to open it, but for now I will relieve my stress with a bar of soap and a wash rag.