Discombobulation in Everyday Ramblings

A much much better walk with the crew today. We saw the mountains and got up close and personal with the river. It was cold, but not too cold and I am so glad to have been able to get out as we have days and days of rain on the way starting the middle of next week. December is our wettest month. At least for now there is no ice in the forecast.

I have been all discombobulated lately. It started in earnest yesterday, this feeling of being off. This morning I looked out the window and there was Frieda bounding around in front of my place in her pink rain poodle wrap. I was so excited I grabbed my jacket, mask and the glasses that go with my mask (the ones that fog up less) and ran out to bound around with her.

Just not too much because I didn’t want to put too much strain on the ankle that was problematic last week.

We were out for 2 ½ hours, Mrs. Sherlock, Charity and I was leading them on a five-mile loop and the two of them shared stories about their lively, difficult, and stylish mothers. They are both older than me and yet my mother was born before the pandemic and theirs we born 3 years apart in the 1920’s.

By the end of the walk, they were both saying they wanted to have had my mother, which was sweet and completely understandable as I think if my mother had lived (she died at 54) she would have been way cool. Anxious, but cool.

When I got home, I realized that I was wearing both pairs of my everyday glasses. I was wearing two pairs of glasses and no one said a thing! Apparently, I had glasses on when I was so excited to see Frieda and I was planning on switching them out for the other pair but just put them on top.

Mrs. Sherlock brought us both beautiful wreaths from the church green sale.

Tomorrow Kes is coming up for a break from her isolation chamber and that will be nice. We both watched a presentation on holiday cookies from the writers for the New York Times early this morning before the walk. There has been a bit of recipe swapping going on since then. The two next things on my agenda are the Lemon-Spice Visiting Cake (Kes has made this a number of times), and the Gingery Brownie Crinkle Cookies we made last year. I am making those for Charity particularly. She liked the Snickerdoodles. Clearly, I did too, because somehow… there are none left.

These are both New York Times Cooking recipes. She is going to make some modified potato chip cookies from the recipe I got from Joanne Fluke last year.

I am struggling with the news about the pandemic. Our case rates just keep rising, it is crazy, and a lot of people are dying. I know the vaccine is on it’s way, literally for our front line workers and I should have access to it in the spring but we all will still need to wear masks for a long time.

On Friday, yesterday I taught my first floor class since early March and I almost burst into tears. I miss being with my students in person. It has been so challenging as any of you who know who are teaching, to adapt everything to Zoom.

We do adapt, we do what we need to do, but it takes a heck of a toll.

I have trimmed recorded videos before but somehow yesterday I could not figure out how to do it. I am making a lot of progress with all these things, but I would like to have it not be so hard.

Our mail comes way late and yesterday there was a key in my box for a package box down below. There I am all bundled up in the cold with my mask on hogging the mailbox array and I could not get that box open no matter what I did.

I left myself a note to see if I could get Charity and Mrs. Sherlock to help but when I saw Frieda, I was so happy I forgot the whole thing. This afternoon I wrote out a note to my postal person and wrapped it around the nonfunctional key and left in in my box.

He left me a different key for a different box a few hours later and I got my package. It has three specialty dark chocolate bars in it from a place called “Intrigue Chocolate Co” in Seattle and is a gift from my niece.

Cool, I can nibble on the Rosemary, Blackberry Honey, Alderwood Smoked Sea Salt bar tomorrow as I hunt for the daily gnome inside the delightful 2020 Nordic Advent Calendar from Jacquie Lawson. It has this virtual tower room with games and a fire and a Christmas tree I decorated a few days ago that I can go hang out in when the troubles of the world become a little too much.

And I only need one pair of glasses for that.