Christmas weekend has been enjoyable so far. Thursday night Jean, Mark, Kate and I went to mass at 10:00. The highlight, as it is every year, was the church’s singer who has an incredible voice which is almost operatic. She always does a solo after communion at Christmas which is so good it is worth hearing every year.

After we got home, we waited for Andy to come home from work so we could open our presents at midnight (which, after all, was the start of Christmas day! ☺). We all got several good gifts from other family members. Jean’s included a comforter, 2 DVDs of Inspector Morse, a forensics mystery by Kathy Reichs, the first two seasons of M*A*S*H and The Best of George Harrison. I got the complete series of National Geographic magazines on DVD for the computer, Poul Anderson’s three-volume Polesotechnic League books, Rick Wakeman’s concert DVD The Seven Wives of Henry VIII, David Hartwell’s Year’s Best SF: 14 and Tom Petty’s Live Anthology boxed set.

Currently reading: I have already finished one book this vacation, and last night I started James H. Schmitz’ collection of 50s and 60s short fiction Eternal Frontier. No classics, but lots of very enjoyable stuff.

Currently listening: FM radio has deteriorated greatly in the past two decades from its heights in the 70s when all the deejays had total control of their playlists. Now it is mostly hits and a small handful of songs, both current and classic, played over and over and over. Mostly I listen to college radio stations which are the only stations with the type of freedom that makes them enjoyable listening. There are two shows which I recommend highly though. One is Steve Van Zant’s syndicated show devoted to “garage rock”. The other is not only available on Sunday mornings on WDHA (which is a mediocre station the rest of the week), during which Jim Monaghan hosts “All Mixed Up,” during which he plays the type of music which he played when he was part of the superb crew of deejays on WNEW-FM.