The Great Unwashed

Although I held off on the drinking yesterday until the late afternoon when I tuned in 2015's Wish Upon a Christmas, I engaged the drinking with some gusto. I lined up a couple of cans of Cariboo Genuine Draft (5.5% alcohol) beer and complemented each one with a good shot of Bacardi Spiced Rum.

The rum was a 1.14-litre bottle that my younger brother had given me for Christmas, and the beer was from a 12-can pack that was one of the gifts from my two stepsons.

I have been hitting both the beer and the rum rather hard, for there are only two cans remaining of the original dozen, and I have gone through a quarter to a third of the rum.

Not all last evening, of course! But I did drink quite a lot of beer yesterday, including two cans of the strong (8% alcohol) Cariboo Malt that I seek to keep myself supplied with.

As well as the beer and some further spiced rum, I even had a couple of glasses of Domain D'Or Red wine. 

The point of this is to illustrate that by the time I got to bed last night shortly after 1 a.m., I had set myself up to have another rough morning. I was into a hangover even before I was out of bed this morning, for I dehydrated and found myself unable to relax into further sleep even before daybreak.

As I type these words into the latter afternoon, I am feeling somewhat antsy ─ I want to get back into some drinking again to remove the apprehension and uneasiness I am presently experiencing.

But to return to Wish Upon a Christmas, I did enjoy it, even though it was formulaic ─ but it was a formula that I happen to like in my Christmas movies.

Even so, I was not all that enamoured of lead actress Larisa Oleynik, whom I cannot say I am familiar with despite her lengthy acting credits which suggest that I have surely seen her in the past.

Larisa simply did not appeal to me in biological terms. However, we all have different tastes, so I am not going to stoop so low as to start dissecting why she lacked this appeal.

Lead actor Aaron Ashmore is visually very familiar to me, even if his name is not. I have seen him in so very many T.V. series that I am no longer surprised by these appearances.

How is it, I wonder, that he is so recognizable, while Larisa seems entirely unfamiliar to me?

Anyway, yes, I enjoyed the movie; but I will not mind if I never see it again in a Christmas lineup.

While I watched this movie, my wife ─ who had been home the entire day ─ largely remained in her bedroom watching entertainment of her choosing on her tablet. It has been years since she displayed any effort to share in whatever entertainment that I might have playing on T.V.

Once my brother arrived home towards 9:30 p.m. from his daily socializing, I lined us up with an old Christmas movie that we had abandoned around midday yesterday or the day before ─ 1950's Trail of Robin Hood, a rather nostalgic Roy Rogers Western.

It has been a long, long time since I have watched Roy Rogers in anything! Anyone unfamiliar with, but curious about, this movie ought to check out the Wikipedia link just to see the roster of other 'old time' Western cowboy stars.

Attractive lead actress Penny Edwards looked pretty impressive in her Western outfit. I would never have guessed that one day the woman would die at the age of 70 of lung cancer.

The movie's child actress Carol Nugent is still around today, evidently, and is 85 years old.

Other than Roy, the only actor I recognized visually (but could never have named) was Gordon Jones. My brother was unable to claim similarly, however. I just happen to remember Gordon from movies and probably T.V. shows that I watched when I was young. Yet he was not to live beyond the age of 51.

Returning now to the topic of my wife, she had to work today, so she was up from her bed shortly after 9:30 a.m. to start readying for her long day at the Thai restaurant where she works. It opens at 11 a.m.

I hope she does not get stupid after work and gamble away the $500 in cash that I gave her yesterday to pay for car insurance and renewal of her I.D. January is likely going to be a tough month ─ it truly will if she blows that money foolishly, for I have nothing to show for having been paid approximately half of my monthly pension just ahead of Christmas. The $500 was just about all that remained of that advance.

My wife normally has Wednesdays off work, so if that holds for tomorrow, then she may well go astray this evening ─ her friends are unaware of her gambling addiction, and she is easily influenced by them. A casino is very near to where the restaurant is located. 

Our next monthly mortgage payment will be due on January 22 ─ there is absolutely no room for any waste of our resources.

I think that it has been raining ever since late last afternoon ─ rarely has a large snowfall of a foot or more hereabouts been eradicated so swiftly.

I am going to conclude this post here, even though it is shortly after 5 p.m. Due to circumstances, I have not had a bath since last Thursday, and I do not much care to prolong the neglect.

Besides, it will help delay the inevitable start of any further drinking. As I said earlier, I am feeling unpleasantly anxious.