Slightly Off the Mark: Stunned By a Songwriter's Note

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Ours was ... iffy ... although it came with a moment that shocked me.

Some of our dispatchers did a great job decorating Noble County Communications this year, so I'm going to sprinkle in a few photos of that along the way. I worked both Christmas Eve and Christmas night, but neither was as busy as I thought they'd be.

Now, my last blog was about Christmas songs, and I poked a little fun at "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer". One of the places my blog appears is the Humor Outcasts website, and you can see it here:

https://humoroutcasts.com/2025/how-the-scrinch-loved-christmas-songs-2/

If you do go there, look down to the comment by a guy named Randy Brooks, who said:

"Thank you for softening up on “Grandma” on the end. You almost hurt this songwriter’s feelings."

That seemed strange, to me. Surely poking fun at one song doesn't insult every song writer. Then I had a hunch, and did a web search for Randy Brooks.

Randy Brooks is the man who wrote "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer".

I don't consider myself a celebrity worshipper, but I was gobsmacked. How did he even find out about my blog, anyway? Maybe one of his hardcore fans Googles the song from time to time, and sent him the link. I'm just glad I softened up on Grandma, in the end.

(By the way, I also discovered his uncle was Foster Brooks, who was one of my favorite comedians back in the day.)

I've talked briefly with a few celebrities over the years, but that was still the highlight of my Christmas.

One of the reasons for that is that we haven't actually had a family Christmas celebration. We also haven't celebrated my youngest daughter's birthday, and the birthday party for her youngest, Zander, had to be delayed. Everybody--so far as I can tell, everybody in the entire Midwest--has been sick. Emily and I mostly stayed home, both to prevent giving what we have to others, and to prevent getting something else from them. In other words, a typical Hunter family winter.

So what is it Emily and I keep trading back and forth, the flu? It wasn't even on my Christmas list. So I researched what's going around in Indiana right now, and here it is: influenza (flu), norovirus, COVID-19, and RSV.

So ... everything.

Apparently the flu season is looking to be especially bad this year. We had our flu shots, so maybe that's why we were mostly only a little sick, although for five or six weeks (so far). I think there was only couple of weeks or so of fever between the two of us.

But there's another possibility.

At work I started to dive into the Christmas treats, as one does, especially while trying to stay awake on a 12 hour overnight shift or two. We always get nice donations of food from our bosses, coworkers, and other people who appreciate us. It's very nice.

But everything tasted ... wrong. Even the chocolate.

Like when you have COVID.

So we've continued to stay away from people, except when I had to work, and I sure overdosed my console with cleaning wipes. I don't know what caused my taste buds to rebel, but it's more likely we had flu, and if it was COVID, it was a mild case. Nobody particularly wants any of those.

Next Christmas, I only want to get chocolate. And maybe an email from Mariah Carey.

If I ever become a celebrity, you can find me here:

· Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

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· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

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