Blue Angels blues

For the past few days, the Blue Angels have been shrieking across the sky overhead San Francisco with their death-defying antics. I know the board of supervisors tried to stop the war games over my city, but they were unsuccessful...I'm not sure why. Anyway, this dangerous air ballet is totally nerve-wracking...my cats are hiding, and I can't stand looking overhead. Why is it that I'm not allowed to drive over 50 mph on the Bay Bridge, but a 21-year-old kid who's jacked up on adrenaline is allowed to fly dangerously -- at high speeds and very low to the ground -- over a densely populated area?

"It's the most wonderful time of the year"...already

For the past three weeks, I've been getting Christmas catalogs in the mail. Already. It's the usual suspects: LL Bean, LL Bean Home, LL Bean Travel, LL Bean Women, LL Bean Kids, LL Bean in Second Life (joking!), Crate and Barrel, West Elm, and more clothing catalogs from lesser-known sellers. I might have gotten Pottery Barn, too, but recycled it immediately because I can't stand Pottery Barn and I've already got one just five blocks from my flat, which I scurry past without looking every day.

So...this doesn't excite me, this four months of Christmas. Rather, it depresses me. It used to be that online or catalog shopping was my salvation from the crowds -- I could avoid the horrible holiday jingles in the stores and that awful feeling you get when you're in a department store with too many mirrors and too many shoppers.

But not now. I'm hunted by the catalogs....there they are in my mailbox every day, appearing again even as I recycle the previous ones, sometimes growing more bloated in size as the number of weeks to Christmas -- still in the double digits, right? -- draws nearer. I'm getting more catalogs than I am pre-election drivel this year.

Look, I understand what a big deal the holiday season is for retailers. But with the US dollar sinking below the Canadian dollar in value...and almost $1.42 to the euro as I write this -- I can't help but feel that the catalogs are clawing at my arms as I drop them into my recycling bin. I'm sorry, catalog retailers, I know you're counting on us to save the USA...but we have big troubles ahead, and I just don't feel like shopping right now.