Post-Thanksgiving, post-anniversary, pre-Christmas. A welcome break, and a chance to catch one’s breath.
Mostly thanks to Polly (but I hepped!), our outdoor lights are up.
Naturally our neighborhood Griswold decided to one-up everyone by opening a Toyota dealership at his house.
Goddamn thing is visible from the highway!
About 8:30 PM on the eve of our anniversary, I got a text message from my son in Las Vegas: “Check the front door before it freezes tonight.” I checked the door, and there was a box of flowers that hadn’t been there an hour before. This connected age, I swear! You can order flowers, have them delivered almost anywhere at a specified time, check the weather at the delivery address, and track the actual delivery. And then text your dad! Thanks, Al Gore!
Gregory and Beth sent orchids. I settled on roses, and had ours delivered on the day of our anniversary.
Our anniversary was a quiet one. I worked at the air museum until early afternoon. Donna sewed. That evening we went to a fancy steakhouse. The guy behind us was half in the bag and loud, but our dinner was superb.
I wore a cardigan, as you can see. When I put it on the shoulders were loose and flappy, stretched from hanging in a closet with my other sweaters. The next day I purged a couple of dozen T-shirts and took them to Goodwill. Now I have room in the dresser for all my sweaters, nicely folded in a drawer. I’m keeping a few favorite Ts but don’t mind losing the rest; over the past year I’ve switched to wearing regular shirts, except for the occasional motorcycle ride.
I’m working on our holiday letter, the one we send every year to friends and family. Donna just approved the draft, so I’ll polish it a bit and start sending it out. A few years back I started sending electronic copies to the people on our list who have email addresses. I felt guilty about it at first, but really it only makes sense, and the initial guilt has faded. That fact I even mention this indicates I still feel a twinge, though.
We’re going on a bicycle ride with friends tomorrow morning, and on Sunday afternoon taking our doggies to Reid Park for the monthly dachshund meetup. My Christmas shopping is done (thank you, Amazon!), and I think so is Donna’s. We can relax a bit. Pretty soon, though, we’ll start ramping up for Christmas: we’re hosting a Christmas Eve dinner and tree-decorating party for our friends, and the week after Christmas Gregory, Beth, and Quentin will be here from Las Vegas. Cooking ahead, plus visits to the museum and a motorcycle ride with my son.
That’s the haps around these parts.