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I he Waterloo k hronw le Ix pubhslwd ttetNY Wednesday m the Fasrwas hump oyotrd by t In Main: hmup Im A suhaldlan ot lolst t xuir the) L nun-m ul this paper h prottwid I» uxpvnghl and nun hr used ”my, [In personal Iu-n mum-urn ml purpose Ill ulhr: rights .m- reserved arid rummulua) use IS pluhllmrd to l make "w oi the, "uteroal you must i first uhum the pennhsmn ot ttte mum ot the copynghl I edstorialwwaterloodtrotucleca sportse'waterloochmmcle ca sultrstevwaterloochrorucle ca composirtgtci'waterloorhrorticle (a. WA'HERU K) CHRONICLE Phone autumn Furtt8H-H38'.t 279 Weir: lit., North. Suite 20 Waledoo. Ontario Nitl Ill“! rhe vwws uf our columnlsh are then own and do not necessarily represent thow of the newspaper Rah l mu rmer mun-m- “wan-Mun Gmup Pubhher Group Sale- Director! 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'.srnlu Vorma l yr: " Christmas kindness should come more than once a year I And even though one Christmas-animal co- worker has been playing seasonal songs in the ofr1ce for the past few weeks. I still found it tough to kick- sitart my Christmas spirit, Is it pus! me. or does " feel like Christmas muck up (in us thes year? Sure the decorations were in the stores one minute after midnight Nuv. l. but must of us ignore that commercial push for the holidays until the last minute. Most ofus men, anyway. l was the last one- on my street to string up lights and garland my from porch. his our rersi Chrisimas in our new hume, and I didn1 realize the subtle peer pressure that comes with joining the neighbourhood. There G, peopie' who have no problem being the first on the street to have their decorations up. Heck, I think their decorations were still up from last year. l'hvn there's the older couple of) the corner who had a lifetime to build up their collection of Christ- g-rl-Ir----- mas lights and lawn dis- I ‘ r . , I plays. n 15L I After putting up a nature reserve in their side- yard, bringing in what looked like live reindeer, they made sure everyone could see them with the largest light display I've ever seen. That's when I started guessing they were really a secret advance team from the North Pole, pinpointing targets for Santa with "L.FL1h"-ligttt precision. And yéu ihought you "v“ wanted that laser level for VRBANA Christmas. when all you're doing is giving the fat Tan a fool in yourgiqor. Alid e-very bassing day your howk is dark. you see can circling your street. fares pressed to the glass. "What's ' wrong with that That's one . grim‘h?" they seem to memory that will hesaying. km a Hfbrirnp That. or "Why duesn'l he close his curtains, when he takes it shower?" At any tale. 1 fatal- ly gave in and now have "u'cle lights dripping off my front porch, Hut keeping up appear antes did nothing m brighten my mood. That didn't happen until my wife. Lara, who". a much”. came home from school a couple of weeks ago and told me about one of the Christmas wishes her class made [hr wasan for the season wasn't Ins! nn thew kid». as they deodcd In adopt a Ieo,-frsrrunate fumilv for thr- hulidnva 'ttt “w kids In her rims "doprcd 1hv Id-year oid daughter and her mungr-r luddh-r hmtht-rs. making xurv lhtw haul thr-vssmmuls at Mr, as wvll as “w httlv vim-rs 1hr} k'rr wuhuul, After unmarung u social wmu‘ agvm'y iara funmi a single mother nf thrtw snuggling with a hum umditinn, m-u-nnind tlw worry of putting pn‘wnls until-r 1hr "01'. Rewind Ihr hum-Hrs thcy loaded them up vvrth [mm-Ills tlusy _ slur rhlldn-n of any. 'W," would love fltrw 3|er Hulk up the rullrt‘linn. and made sun-1hr mother hauln Illllt' mad mmu'y ior the hull davs. Shi- was w appn-nnllvv she rnuld barely hold hat k thc tear; "Nu um- hus ru't dom- anything like this fur me." slur said And wheni .hnslmax k (um-s and gum. like It dow, (TOW war, that's one nwnmn that will last for a life. limp fur (-xrn'nm- mvolved lout hed. that s whvn I "trt "hut It's too hall (lhnstmasunly (1“an 1mm a year That's one memory that will last a lifetime for everyone involved. I/l El/r/j? Ol \I l Colder than a well digger's fanny Gosh, they're going to play engineer with the Highway 8 down on King Street East, and that's gping to take place next yeiari _ Of course, you should always be polite to any traffic officers you meet. Oh goodie, but this time I think I’ll skip the delays. I'll go up to Elmira, skip acre.“ to Guelph and pick up the 40] from there to wherever. It shouldn't take me two hours longer than going out King Street. On a good day. that is. You should be hoiite to anyone who has handcuffs, a gun, a billy club, a radio and the power of the provipce on his side. _ _ On the ui, and Up: Waterloo councillors are wrestling with a tax increase of nearly seven per cent. or 6.98 per cent to be exact. -rtkry're going to kcép whittling it down in hopes the increase will be no more than 6.42 per cent, _ _ "my won't know until early February how their efforts have turned out. " should he noted that the second-largest factor in the "unease p, the goal of replenish- mg reserve funds by nearly $900,000. accounting for nearly 2.31 percent Of the tax increase. That's something that should lw recalled (-wry time snmehmly is paying respects In the prm‘l- nusrnunt'ik Now, in case it escapes your notice. thc reserve funds have to he replenished because they were pillaged hy previous mun» cils. (menl will do wvil. nu mat In the result, " hell's lwmuw thev use theer heads. Ht-Im-mlu-r oru' thing alum! money and unit‘s, You ran'l take " with yuu 'Hw gnu-Hr ment is [ml Irwng m mah- II I'H\il'r for you In prick fur the mp. Blue Lines: llwrv apps-ms trt lw M all! hope that the National Hmkry Iragm- will rt-suml' its plug, in a suhwqm-m war. [hr parties are slallvd that badly. H's difficult m tllnrw- a Sldt' ”w ”win-rs are seeking a salary I up something whwh the players shun The playrn aw sticking together, as arr thr, nwm-rs. Until tuther side hends a bit. there's no pmspm'l ofa settlement, "hat will hr a sticking point ax long as it mmains a discussion point, T \TJ m lJ( )(HRONIL‘H; And u; the'putuit is kept waiting. What's SAN DY BAIRD , ' _ 130‘ M. more, it'll be losing more and more respect for the league and the players. _ _ - Pulitics and sports are very much alike. The one big difference is when you do some- thing stupid in sports. it doesn't cost the tax- payer anything. Lights, Camera...: Say, the Twin Cities have got their houses and other buildings all gussied up for Christmas. They look even brighter than they did last year. Though. that's hard to say because mem- ories get fuzzy after a year. Still. you'll recall it was only a few years ago the Queen's Park brass were telling us to take it easy on the hydro. . I suppose the weather helps. We had a warmish spell when it was time to put them up, and a lot pf folks got busy, - They had to keep busy because if you slowed, you nearly froze. At that. you found yourselffrequenlly going in the kitchen m get warmed up. The missus was a gallant helper, She stayed with you for a good bit of the misery Punch a Tire: 'llwrv'x a hut ul (IN uxurm again nn lvning drivers savitrh lo xluddml tereAorthe winter. VI t (In You'll [mall wv had them brwf1y hvlun-. lull then they Wt-rv banned hm auw, it wax sand. the studs played ham): with th" pan- "IE1“, l (have on sluds in! the lu-rmd allnwrd. and I'll have In admu they worked However. lhl‘y'tr saying now the. m.w brands of ruhhe-r lessen damage fmm studs. lht‘rv's no uni-slum the m-w ruhhr-r in winter tires work bvtter. m that, I suppose. the now breed of studded tire, do km dam agv They give ymL ahem . a flat chance s/air arr As a matter of fact, she my. nearby for (me of your mum spectacular slums. I was atop a ladder when a short circuit grabbed me and I flew from my perch in a half? Gannon ur however it's spelled. ll took rm. a minute or so to regain a gasp of air. ICs funny lt was colder than a well digger". fanny. hm wadr, of nvighlmurs nppan-ntly saw my flight. ihcy all mmmunvd it In HW... amid ' hurklcs Ah yrs. I'm vvrsaislc, I t an makl-zm ass nl mywlful whan-v