so, how was YOUR holiday?

[Mike Kolb]

Greetings from the Pacific NW (Sheridan, OR, specifically). We just weathered what they're calling a "40-yr snowstorm" here. The utility power came back on today after a week gone. No power, no water (we're on a well), no phone, no nuttin'. Man, you haven't lived 'til you spend 3hrs a day just melting snow on the woodstove to have enuff water to flush toilets.

The shop got a lot colder than I would've liked, but (after peeking-in today) none of the patients show any signs of cold-checking, so I think they made it OK. Now that the juice is back on, I'm warming the shop up real slowly with small heaters set to "low", so as not to tempt the fates.

We managed to make it into town yesterday and had Xmas dinner at a local dive and met some really nice folks, all sharing similar storm stories. And it made me thankful for everything we DO have, and focus a little less on what we DON'T have.

And then the power returned, the computer came on and I made a beeline for FRETS.NET, with a new thankfulness for the little community here that Frank has created.

Merry Christmas everybody. It was truly one of my best in 62yrs. Have a great '09.

[Bob Webster]

Merry Christmas to you too, Mike. My shop is in Gig Harbor, WA, but I've been housesitting for friends up in Woodinville, WA since last Saturday. Her neighborhood must be in some sort of meteorological anomaly zone; it's gotten at least twice the amount of snow that the surrounding area has gotten and none of the rain that was promised. We were out of power for only about 20hrs on Christmas Day so, all in all, it could have been alot worse. Of course, it could also have been better if I hadn't been cooped up with an alpha female poodle, among other creatures (change the channel, change the channel). But that's for another time....

Cheers to all,
Bob

[Brent Hutto]

Well I started the holidays by taking my steel-string guitar out of the case for the first time in a week or so in preparation to take it with me on our annual after-Christmas trip to the beach. Found the bridge lifting off the wood on the bass side which was a total suprise, never a hint of a problem before. So I loosened the strings, put it away and took the classical with me instead. I'll have to figure that one out later.

After that it was a nice holiday except for when my wife came down sick on Christmas Day with myself following suit the day after. Eyes, throat, sinuses, nose...all simultaneously blocked and dripping. Happy Holidays! Yikes.

No power outages though. And we did have our annual viewing of the movies Bad Santa and A Christmas Story to make the season complete. I just hope I can breathe and swallow again before '09 rolls in...