Moderately merry

The only odd thing this year was that we didn't have a tree. The SO didn't feel like having one, and then finally allowed as how a small one would be okay, but by then we couldn't find one. No great loss to our local tree farms, because there was apparently huge demand for Christmas trees this year.

I cooked a ham for dinner, as usual. The SO had requested pancakes for breakfast this year, so on our most recent shopping trip we stopped by the pancake section to find something suitable. I was amused to discover that pancakes have been declared a manly power food somewhere along the way. There were only a couple "normal" options, alongside a bunch promising tons of protein or a full paleo experience or so forth. We actually got one of those-- Kodiak-- because they were whole wheat and neither of us could remember ever trying whole wheat pancakes before.

This makes it sound like I did all the kitchen work, but the SO, as is traditional here, got to take care of all the cleanup.

Despite the lack of a tree, we still had a small pile of presents where it would usually go. The SO gave me just what I asked for, which was the hard-to-track-down book Fieldwork Fail: The Messy Side of Science. The SO got the new game based on Disney's Haunted Mansion (the SO is a big fan), which had been in the house for months because I'd been worried it would be impossible to find after Halloween.

My musical soundtrack for the day was provided, as ever, by Performance Today.

It's usually just us for Christmas, so it was a pretty normal one. It still felt odd because right now, every day is Christmas, in that we have nowhere to go and the only structure to the days is what we manage to impose on them.

Mighty Trains

Recently I came across the Discovery Canada series Mighty Trains, which is available on the Smithsonian Channel down here. This looks at train journeys around the world and some of the technical work needed to keep the trains operating.

I remember watching Great Railway Journeys of the World as a kid and being wowed and wanting to take some of those trips myself. Mighty Trains is... not quite that good. It's not the more technical focus that's the problem, because I'm plenty interested in that. It's more that it's a sister series to a show called Mighty Cruise Ships and tends to carry over the attitude that a train is a form of cruise ship, a luxury cocoon that separates you from the world except for the occasional planned excursion. Whereas Great Railway Journeys was a lot more about interacting with the culture and history of wherever the trip was taking place.

Also the host's delivery cannot hope to compete with any of the BBC presenters'. In fact I sometimes find it just this side of annoying. I'm going to keep watching, but probably won't be re-watching any of it.

Anyway, it has served to remind me that there are still a lot of places that I want to go when I have the time and the money and the vaccination. One rail-related idea floating around in my mind is to travel to cities in the US and Canada and then visit places all exclusively by rail (including subways, light rail, etc.). It would be a fun challenge. The SO says it should be a TV show and has volunteered to hold the camera. I dunno, but maybe if some part of the travel industry is holding a contest for crazy ideas to get people interested in travelling again once the pandemic is over...