I did a double-take recently in CVS while walking down a random aisle. On the shelf among the “As Seen on TV” items was the “PetVac” — a grooming tool for dogs and cats. I’ve never actually seen this item advertised on TV, but I’m sure they have a 30-minute infomercial on at 3 a.m. somewhere.

Cats and dogs supposedly enjoy being vacuumed to remove shedding fur.

I don’t know about dogs, but if I so much as touch the vacuum, I won’t see my cats for hours. Jeter is particularly jumpy — he hides when I take out a broom! (Typically, vacuuming comes after sweeping, so he’s just being proactive)

Yeah, they say it includes an extra-long hose so you can keep your vacuum and PetVac in another room, out of site from your pet — but vacuums are noisy! Unless that hose can traverse two flights of stairs, there’s no way my guys would tolerate being vacuumed!

Christmas lights can be beautiful. Holiday decorations can be tasteful. And most people use reasonable restraint while trying to build a better display than their neighbors.

Other people prefer holiday explosions.

There’s a house not far from mine (which I drove by twice tonight) with a pretty small yard, maybe 10 feet by 20 feet. In this space, they have a Nativity scene, complete with manger and three- or four-foot-tall light-up representations of Joseph, Mary and Jesus, the wise men, the angel, the animals … am I missing anything?

Oh yeah, Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus are also standing by. Probably others, I can’t ever get a good enough look without causing an accident. Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without light-up snowflakes and strings of lights surrounding the property.

I’m pretty sure it’s the same house that also decorates for Easter. They put out a wooden sign, cut and painted to look like a cave entrance, that says, “He is Risen,” next to human-sized cutouts of pink and brown bunnies.

It’s fine to embrace both the secular and religious traditions for the holidays. Many people have Nativity scenes beneath their Christmas trees and hunt for eggs after Easter Mass.

It just seems like a sacred vs. secular battle, out on the lawn, when life-sized characters illuminate both sides. Sometimes they are larger than life-sized, when inflatable Frosty and Santa come into play.

Though, there doesn’t have to be a religious conflict to have gone too far.

When the house is lined with icicle lights, every hedge is covered, and the entire property line is outlined in lights … it could look nice, if done with some color coordination.

Mixing white lights with single-colored strands can be pretty classy. But using multi-colored lights can start getting tacky when mixed with both white and single-color strands. And half of a tree blinks off-sync with half of the house. And you also have figurines all over the lawn.

Holiday explosions not only disturb your neighbors, think of what it will do to your electric bill!

So please use restraint when decking the halls!

This has been a fun experiment. I had never been a blogger prior to hearing about NaBloPoMo, and quite honestly, I wasn’t much of a blog reader either.

That’s why I initially titled my blog “why are you reading this?” — inexperienced as I was, I didn’t really understand the whole blogging culture (I’ve got a lot to learn!), or why anybody would want to read strangers’ random thoughts.

Then I started reading. The NaBLoPoMo Randomizer provided hours of entertainment! Quite a few blogs I’ve found through the randomizer have become sites I visit daily. Hopefully they’ll keep posting frequently, now that I’ve got my habit!

I am going to continue blogging, though I plan to make some changes to the site. I will be making up a new title for starters — I now know why you’re reading. It’s fun! Even if I’m not the most interesting person in the world, every now and then I’ll have something amusing to say!

Most likely, I will abstain from posting on those less inspirational days in the future, unless otherwise bound. (Holidailies is calling out to me …)

Though, rainy-day, nothing-to-say haiku came out of a slow day, and I kinda liked that one. And just think, without NaBloPoMo, it never would have happened … maybe forcing oneself to write isn’t such a bad thing?

I do consider the random things that come into my head inspirational, like, my recent commentary on spam or when it’s OK to have cookies for breakfast.

The end of NaBloPoMo isn’t an end to random rambling, but the beginning of a more meaningful blog*!

*Until I sign up for Holidailies and force myself to continue daily posting, throughout the crazy Christmas season!

It’s been a tedious day.

I spent hours troubleshooting a weird website issue that one client was having. When I finally got it fixed (or, so I thought), the “solution” did not work in Firefox. Another hour or so later, and it was good to go.

My head hurts. The “Extra Strength Pain Away” (no kidding — that’s the name of the generic Excedrin they have in our office medicine cabinet) I took is not working.

I don’t think hours of rehearsing “Messiah” and Christmas carols will cure it, either …