Christmas Tree Bust, Book Score.

Carole and I used to drive up to the mountains every year to buy a Christmas tree at a choose and cut tree farm. But we fell out of the tradition a few years ago and don't go every year anymore. We decided to make it two in a row and drove into the high country yesterday to hit some tree farms and find the perfect tree. Alas, all but one of the farms were closed. So we went to that one and discovered to our horror that a five-foot tree would run $60. That's insane and we drove away with no tree.

Instead we hit a couple of thrift stores on the way out of the mountains and stopped at a state park to do a little hiking. The first thrift store we stopped at was a good thing, because I scored a copy of the old poetry magazine The Outsider. Specifically, the double issue limited edition hardback version of 4 & 5, featuring a tribute to Patchen, and work by Bukowski, Rexroth, Ginsberg, and too many others to list. After I've read it I'll likely sell it. It's missing the paper wrapper that originally came with it, plus the pressed flower that was inserted. But other than that it's a decent copy. Not sure how many remain of the original 500 copies, and I sit here and wonder how the hell a copy ended up in a tiny thrift store high in the mountains of North Carolina in a place no one ever heard of.

You take what you can get in life.

The Outsider 4-5. With work by my favorite, Charles Bukowski. Score!

A doe and fawn see us and try to figure out if they should run away.

Yes, run! Wait...no. Yes. No. Maybe...

Little Glade Pond all frozen and frosty on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

A sliding rock cascade on a creek in Stone Mountain State Park.

Old Tradition

For many years Carole, Andy, and I used to ride up to the mountains of North Carolina to a choose and cut tree farm to get our Christmas tree. This was always a very important and fun trip for us. Most of the time we'd encounter snow, but a few of the years we got a taste of hellish global warming and the weather would be absolutely hot.

But after Andy grew up the trips to the mountain to get a tree seemed less important and less fun. So in 2010 we stopped going to the high country to find a tree and just got an artificial one.

I sure do miss those trips and the excitement of going to find a tree, preferably in the snow.

This was the last time we went up to Sparta NC to find a tree, and this is the tree we got. It was December 19, 2009 and the mountains had just been delivered a decent snowstorm.

I'm pretty sure this is the 2008 tree. That's our cat Sophie strolling by.

The Year with No Christmas Tree

Well, this year will be our first one ever without a Christmas tree. The townhouse is going to be messy with painting and new carpet/flooring going in. So a Christmas tree was just too much of a hassle for us. We didn't want the headache. If we still had a kid in the house, it would have been different. But let's face it--Christmas ain't the same when you don't have a child in the household. The holiday is just tons more fun when you can watch your son's face light up when he looks at that tree and opens the presents on Christmas morning.

When they grow up and leave you alone in the house, the effort doesn't seem worth it.

Alas.

The tree we picked out last year in Sparta, NC at the Crazy Fox Christmas Tree Patch.

So what we'll do is...well, we'll do without. We're gifting ourselves with new furniture in fits and starts. We bought the china cabinet last month, and my new office desk two weeks ago (which we haven't even assembled due to the painting/flooring deal) and a new secretary today. Still a few pieces to go.

The new secretary at the bottom of the stairs.

Well, there it is. We'll go to Carole's mom's place on Christmas morning to exchange gifts. She'll have a tree, so it'll be almost like old times. But no trip to the mountains this year to search out and choose our own evergreen. All things come to an end, I guess.

Carole, at our favorite Christmas tree farm, last year.