Some people think I'm weird, but I don't like putting up my Christmas decorations until after December 5, and here's why. My great-great-uncle died on November 29, 1943, and he is in a grave by himself, but beside his brother, and there are no tributes on his grave. He was a storekeeper, so unless he was a male Miss Pratchett, who said to kids, "I'm watchin' you, so keep your thievin' fingers off them chocolates!" and someone put a dead mouse in his shop, he would have had to have been all right, so I see his grave on that day.

I remember, in 2002, my paternal grandfather died on November 24, and I only had one grandparent left. In 1933, my maternal grandfather's paternal grandfather died, leaving his maternal grandmother as his only surviving grandparent. She died on December 1, 1934, and I felt it was tempting fate to put up the Christmas tree on that date. My last grandparent, my paternal grandmother, lasted another four and a half years.

As December 1 is World AIDS Day, I dedicate Dan Hartman's "I Can Dream About You" to his memory.