OPINION: RUBY: Time's Running Out

Janie Slaven, The Sentinel Echo, London, Ky.
·4 min read

Dec. 20—The countdown to Christmas has begun. That's the time when I quit making daily chore lists and make a long one with the next seven days mapped out, hoping—probably erroneously—to have everything checked off by Christmas Eve.

At the beginning of December I printed off a blank calendar page and put a series of seasonal chores on it. You know—polish the silver, check baking supplies, mail cards. You can guess which two still aren't done.

Now I have this week's daily list, supposed to keep me organized. Yeah.

If today is an example, I'm already doomed. Oh, I got a lot done, but some of that wasn't on the list. Like pulling a bunch of boxes off the garage shelves.

Those are now empty, but piled on my bed. That's one of my tactics—I'll have to get them cleared off by bedtime. Don't ask why I didn't just take them back to the garage.

I used the same tactic piling stuff on the washer; I'll have to get it cleared tomorrow to do the laundry.

Today I made a concerted effort, though, to cover everything on the list. If I hadn't taken a music break, I might have made it.

When I was young, and very busy with children and a job, I seemed to have a lot more energy.

Of course, I had to be organized then. You couldn't just skip supper or cleaning up after the three year old.

Still, once I finished all of that, I could stay up until all hours; sleep was always low on the list.

Well, that was a lifetime ago. Now I have plenty of time, with ostensibly less to do, and keeping to a schedule defeats me. There's always tomorrow. Except not this week.

Of course, in the midst of all this, I'm planning my article on Christmas music. This year, maybe because I started so early (like in October), I've heard a lot of different music.

On that oldies station in Corbin they play the 1939 "Hello Mr. Kringle." Obviously a Big Band number, because the members take turns talking to Santa on the phone. Cute.

I've also found a Christian station in London that has played all Christmas for the past month. I've heard a lot of "new" songs there, too.

Songs like "I Want a Television for Christmas" and "There's a Christmas Tree in Heaven" (from a YouTube program of oldies) are seldom heard today.

Last week I went to a school program and heard "Grandpa's Gonna Sue Santa." It's a sequel to — you guessed it — "Grandma Got Run Over . . ."

That evidently hits the list of most-hated songs. Of course, I looked up the list. Some entries surprised me, like "Last Christmas," which we hear a lot.

One that wasn't on the list, but would be on mine, is "All I Want for Christmas is You." I was very happy to learn last week that Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" finally hit number one this month, bumping Mariah Carey off the top spot.

Now that's a milestone. First released in 1958, it wasn't a smash hit. It got a boost from "Home Alone" and has now broken some records.

Like taking 65 years to become a #1 hit. Must feel good to the 78 year old Brenda Lee.

One goofy song I haven't heard this year is Alan Sherman's "The 12 Pains of Christmas." Of course I went to YouTube to find it.

There's also a redneck version, a teacher's math version, and of course Frank Kelly's "Dear Nuala," among others. So much for Christmas chores.

Well, if next week runs its usual pattern, about mid-way through I'll start narrowing my lists: "This doesn't really need done;" "What was I thinking?? Cross that out!"

I could always blame this on being overly ambitious in the first place. Or my current standby — I'm getting too old for this. Except I was pretty much the same way 10 years ago...