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A Happy New Year for all our readers.

A New Year means a new month and a new month means a New Indulgence Calendar that you can download. A regular one with names for you to pray for:

And a blank one that you can fill in with people you wish to pray for or remember.

Download either or both and don’t forget if you have a person who you wish included in next month’s calendar you can leave that name either in comments or post it at the WQPH website on our prayer wall.

A lot to do today so let’s end this year with a Podcast

A lot of our problems come from collectively pretending lies are truth. Let’s hope we have more courage in 2022

The fifth day of Christmas didn’t start well for me. When I got out of work my driver side rear tire was flat. It was after midnight and while I got the car jacked up and had my full size spare ready for the life of me I couldn’t get my spare off.

Because it was so late I go a ride from DaWife and then had AAA take care of the tire the next day. It turned out I had picked up a nail so I headed straight to Viola Tire where I bought them to get it fixed as it was only two months old.

As they were very busy my plan had been to walk to Zeda’s for a Pizza and them come back for the car when it was ready but I ended up speaking to a lady by the name of Lynn who is a bus driver who was waiting for her tire rotation.

For an hour we talked about all kinds of things from the Feast of the Holy Innocents our various jobs, her boyfriend (whose family I know) my wife our kids and all the various joys and oddities of life.

In a year when human contact is not common the simply joy of meeting someone new and talking to someone face to face about all kinds of things was excellent. Even without COVID in an age when everyone has a face burred in a cell phone or in a laptop such times are rare. In fact my own laptop was in the car and it remained there until she left.

I hope I run into her again and I look forward to the day when DaWife and I might enjoy a lunch or dinner out with her and her boyfriend.

I’m very much enjoying my Christmas gift of the Pinball rental and I’m also enjoying the movies & TV Shows I’ve picked up from the gift cards my sons bought me (The three Musketeers 1948, San Antonio 1945 and the Time Tunnel 1966 a guilty pleasure of my youth which was my gateway to Dr. Who 8 years later) but I think of the best gifts one can get is human contact and friendship, so while some might think of this as half a day “lost” I’d put it down that pleasant time as one of the better Christmas gifts I’ve gotten this year.

Postscript: Here’s a blast from the past from Viola’s Fitchburg Tire from a dozen years ago.

This year Pintastic NE was the week before thanksgiving rather than in late June and while it meant a very long wait for its return it paid pretty big dividend for me. During our “Peak” period in the warehouse we tend to work 6-7 days a week till Christmas. Even before the supply chain issues people started ordering gifts early in the last few years so instead of peak beginning Black Friday it’s now starts for us as early as the first two weeks of November which used to be pretty dead.

That late Pintastic provided a welcome break just before the crazy week began and as I’ve often said NOTHING relieves stress like a pinball machine.

So imagine my surprise when a familiar face turned up at the door on Boxing Day an hour before Mass.

Brian was bearing the game Diner which was never one I really mastered but I guarantee you that with a month of play if there is a tournament including said machine I’ll be ready to go.

It was not a gift that I was expecting and I’m flattered that my sons were thinking of me. I’m even more flattered that this game out of his personal collection as the newer games were all out.

As of today a Diner goes for between $5200 & $8000 it’s a pretty good deal to get it for a month. For those who missed the interview from Pintastic NE 2021 here it is

Ironically when I interviewed Brian I said that while my wife would never let me buy a machine she might let me rent one and now it’s here for the rest of the Christmas season and two weeks beyond.

If I may suggest it might make a great Birthday gift particularly if you’re not born in December or January since the volume will be higher during those months and thus the availability of the newer games might be a little more iffy.

I’m going to have a lot of fun

You can find the Bushey Brothers facebook page here.