Friday.... in These titles mean nothing.

I didn’t work today. I could have but I said no. The job I would have worked on isn’t much fun though I might have enjoyed it once I got started. The 5 am punch in seemed a bit extreme to me. Anyway I had a good day away from work.

I went to town and did a bunch of things.

A list, you say?

A list, you get.

• Took the Buick to the tire place to have the front driver’s side tire fixed. It had a slow leak. Fourteen dollars and change to have it fixed.

• Went to Jim’s bank with a deposit for him and got some cash back. There were COOKIES! Many kinds made by 4-H kids.

• Stopped at Kwik-Star to fill the Buick’s tank, to fill my First Nations coffee cup and to buy a gift card for the gift exchange at work on Tuesday. The card has very cute polar bears on it.

• Went to my bank to deposit two electric co-op patronage dividends - one of me and one for my husband’s estate which is me too - and get some cash. The teller was an old friend but there were no cookies. (If you want to know what a patronage dividend is, just ask.)

• Went to discount/department store looking for a potted amaryllis bulb to go with the gift card. They come in boxes around holiday time and are easy to wrap and I though they would provide a bit of color for the season. I could not find any but did find a plaque with a pleasant design and a nice message - You are my sunshine, you are my only sunshine. As I was checking out, I was asked the usual question, Did you find everything ok? I said I was looking for a boxed, potted amaryllis and the clerk offered to take me to them. So I went with her and found them with boxed, potted paper white narcissus. On impulse I picked up the paper whites. I thought I’d keep the plaque too and decide which to give my co-worker with the gift card and which to keep for our holiday tournament of champions playoff prizes. (The plan is to play a series of Authors, dog bingo, scrabble and perhaps a few hands of low or high Chicago poker with prizes to the winners. The first winner gets a prize, the second winner can either take the first winner’s prize or get a new one, and on and on until everyone is tired.) When I checked out I expected to get more change back from a twenty. In the car I studied the sales slip and discovered that the plaque was discounted from $14.99 instead of the $4.99 I thought it was. Ok, that is a minor shopping fiasco. I’ve done worse and will continue to do so.

• Went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of not terribly healthy food. (If you want to know what I bought, please ask.)

When I got home I had a note from Jim. He was on a tractor moving enterprise with his friend Rich and I had the place to myself. He asked me to take Joana some corn for the corn stove.

So I put them on the back seat of the Buick and went to Joana’s. She wasn’t home but the corn stove was warm and snug. It’s a pellet stove that automatically feeds and burns shelled corn.

I came home to our fuel supply: Split wood ready for the furnace outside the cellar door.

And a load of dead trees scavenged from the woods piled on the round-bale carrier.

As you can see, we don’t have much snow. Temps are in the 40s and I’m ok with that. We had December in November and now seem to be having November in December. There are some icy surfaces though so you need to pay attention.

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I am happy in a nebulous way. It might be caffeine. It might be above freezing temperatures. It might be neither of those things.

I managed to make two life-arranging phone calls today - one to convert my insurance from Medicare to a HMO and one to set up an IRA at my current employer. Both decisions are iffy and arbitrary.

I don’t know what arbitrary means - so I googled it - dependent on one’s will or pleasure, discretionary. Capricious was listed as a synonym. I guess that’s what I meant.

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I’m listening to Pete Hamill’s North River in the car. Lovely book, a doctor in New York in the1930s.

I’m still reading Salter. Here have a sentence:

She was like a silver Christmas helix, a foil decoration turning slowly, the dazzle descending only to reappear time after time.