It’s Christmas, which is a very special time indeed. Sort of. I’m off, and my on-call stint ends at 8:00 AM, so that’s nice. The wife worked all weekend, but is off today (except for being on call), and although it’s a little to dark to see at the moment, it’s definitely a white Christmas (which isn’t exactly unusual – let alone “special”). What doubts anybody might have had about that ended with the 9 or so inches of snow we got on Friday and Saturday, though it did warm up just enough to rain for a while Saturday before it got cold and we got another few inches. Things are calm now, but the snow is supposed to start up again later on today (plus, as an added bonus, they say we’ll have 50+ mph winds). By tonight, we’re supposed to get something like another 8 inches or so, unless the wind shifts south and then we could get the two or three feet the folks up north are supposed to get. I only hope we can make it to the in-laws later today, because I can’t think of a better way to spend a day off.

To get myself into the holiday spirit, I just finished watching the four-part documentary Cold Blooded about the Clutter family murders (and of course, Truman Capote’s final novel, In Cold Blood).

You’ve probably seen “Capote” but if you haven’t, you missed a really amazing performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman. I guess you have to be a certain age to appreciate the job he did. A kid today really wouldn’t get it, but those of who grew up watching Truman Capote on Dick Cavett or trading insults with Gore Vidal.

Most folks my age are probably familiar with the book, at least, and probably the 1967 movie. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the movie, so I was surprised when they mentioned that one of the murderers – Dick Hickock – was played by Scott Wilson, who went on to play Herschel in “The Walking Dead” (though I did remember that the other murderer – Perry Smith – was played by Robert Blake, which may or may not have been typecasting, depending on what you believe).

So now I need to find myself a copy of the movie and watch it again. Maybe tomorrow if we (fingers crossed) get snowed in. Nothing like a quadruple homicide to get you in the Xmas mood.

Anyhow, Happy Christmas if you’re into that sorta thing. And if you’re not, well, I hope you at least have the day off.