I wanted to also add, I think I'm getting something entirely unexpected, but means more to me than anything else right now...
My wife texted me for my address yesterday, and I told her I didn't want to get anything, I just wanted to spend the holidays alone. But then she told me my son bought me a card and signed it, so now I'm curious to see what he says. I know he's busy, but he hasn't talked to me since leaving his car with me. It's registered in my name anyway. It was his first car, and pretty shot now...a 2007 Prius I bought for him used.
I know kind of why he hasn't talked to me, and I know he just wants to prove himself. He's becoming a software engineer, against my wishes, but I think he'll be pretty good at it. Just to give him a plug, he wrote a app, that runs in your browser, and is able to use your webcam to count push-ups. I would post the link here, but it's not working. It uses some libraries to plot out points of your body, in order to count and make sure you keep proper posture while doing the push-ups. But no matter what he thinks, that's the type of stuff that people want engineers to do, and hear how much money they saved. That's BS seems to razzle/dazzle them.
I'm pretty sure his card will be for New Years (Japanese ShoGatsu). Feb 17, 1987 is the date I came back to America. I got married at the American Embassy in Tokyo, before I left. I actually have a marriage certificate in Japanese, and my wife/kids are legal alien and anchor babies. Had my wife came here illegally, our kids would have been illegal. also have a love/hate relationship with Japan...they did some bad $#!T during the war, and then removed it out of their history books. You can't do that any more than you can get rid of the statues in America.
I'm hoping for a ShoGatsu card from my son.
That would be better than a rifle I can't reload for...
EDIT:
Shōgatsu (or Oshōgatsu) is the most important holiday in Japan, celebrating the Japanese New Year, observed from January 1st to 3rd as a time for family reunions, spiritual reflection, and welcoming the new year with hope and new beginnings, involving traditions like deep cleaning, special decorations (like pine and bamboo), visiting shrines (
Hatsumode), and eating symbolic foods like
Toshikoshi Soba. [EDIT: this seems like a good time to do a 3 day fast]
This will be the first year in 40 years I don't eat soba on New Years Eve. Maybe I should order some from Amazon...?
EDIT2: My Father-In-Law told me that you're not supposed to break the soba noodles when you eat them, rather suck them in, in their entirety. That also it's ok to make noise when you do that...he said the noodles represent long life...although I don't think my wife really believes it. I've always been much more apt to eat soba on New Years Eve than her. She was not as spiritual as me.
