It's coming upon Christmas and Yule and Jul and Feliz Navidad and New Years and the authorities still refuse me permission to decorate a tree like my ancestors usta. No electricity, no candles, nothing really flammable, and not even indoors. Dang. What do you have to do in this country (US) to decorate? Everyone else in the neighborhood has lights all over their roofs and front yards and shrubs. I no longer even want to put up a 12 foot Santa that goes "Ho Ho Ho" while it rocks back and forth with baby Jesus under its arm; that youthful dream has gone away. I simply want to decorate trees like my forebears did, with a few folks tastefully swinging from the branches as offering to Odin (or Woten, I don't care). I've already got the ravens, they're all over here at the moment, can't hardly step outside without hitting one of them in the butt with the door. The tree is all picked out and it's a nice one. I've even got a little list. You'd think the cops would let me go ahead, considering who's on the list, but no, I ask for a permit to decorate a tree on public property and I'm turned down, over and over.

Shoot, I can't even find the right City office to complain about the snow getting all over the streets and sidewalks and parking lots and driveways instead of staying on the grass where it belongs. Every time I mention it at City Hall they look at me funny. I'll have to talk with the Mayor about it next time I see him, which will be on the 29th.