I’ve been sporadically poking my head out of this prevailing sense of insulation, (*not isolation), for the last week or so… but only sporadically…. which is making me start to think I’m suffering from some sort of disassociative form of adult-attention-deficit disorder. (seasonally triggered?)

Nothing serotonin re-uptake inhibitors or low-grade, time-released pharmaceutical speed wouldn’t fix…. But would that be treating a cause or merely the effects of something else?… I’m building my case and may lobby my doc to tinker a bit with my brain chemistry in 2006.

Anyway, we decided to give the tin Christmas tree a rest this year and get a “real” tree.

Stumped on where to buy one – we asked Elise… She recommended this gang of hippies who drive down from Michigan annually and set up shop on an old, “fairly” unmolested stretch of historic Route 66…. (literally right up the street from us).

*I say “fairly unmolested” since the most significant landmark on this stretch: The Coral Courts Motel was torn down years ago to be replaced with McCondos.

The Michigan hippies set up shop on a lot next to Wolfsburg Motors – an aging independent shop which specializes in VWs… We parked in back at the edge of a field of dead golfs, bugs, jettas and microbuses.

Bugs / Microbusses aside – I got creeped out by the observation that at one time or another I had driven one of each of these models / years…

I’m a human-lifetime experiment in brand loyalty and intend to donate my body to marketing science.

A stunning blond-bearded jr-lumberjack helped us tie the tree to the car and sent us on our way with a big smile and Christmas wishes.

We still need to trim said tree… Maybe tonight…

I won’t blog about it.