Soon Enough in Everyday Ramblings

This is kind of festive in a returning of the light and fertile earth sort of way. I am so looking forward to spring. Not that winter doesn’t have its beauty… it does, but when it is cold and wet and dark all the time one must imagine it as much as anything and while one is imagining why not visualize the equinox?

I know I know, many of you have had about enough of the heat but not us.

We did actually have some moments of partial clearing today, enough so that I was able to walk to the newly remodeled main room of Powell’s Books without getting too wet. It was a tradition with Mr. Finch for the ten Christmas’s we had together and I was glad to get back there today. The remodel looks sort of space age and well, umm, store-like but it is nice.

That was my big excitement for the holiday. Well that and the wonderful practical soap dish that I got as a gift. For various reasons I wash my hands a lot, (especially lately with this horrid flu going around that is outside the scope of the flu shots we all got) and my soap bar gets soggy and soft and no fun to use. I prefer using bar soap because one uses less and can control it better than liquid and there aren’t extra containers. Kes and Most Honorable actually put together two soap dishes from the housewares department at their local grocery and Voila, the perfect dish that keeps the soap usable all day.

We all did a very good job at cutting back this year and the gifts were small and practical. Well, maybe not so small, my oldest sister knitted me a lovely bag to wear across my chest for the farmers market and grocery that I can wash. And to prove how much it holds Kes brought me in it two kinds of squash, a giant sweet potato, beets with greens intact, carrots, apples and pears and ginger green tea, my favorite steel cut oats and a four pack of the low carb protein drink I favor. This was a team present and it was a brilliant idea.

For the first time in about 20 years I went for a long (if soggy) walk on Christmas Eve instead of to the grocery.

The cats were curious and polite as I opened my other small presents this morning. Boy, not like Stella, who was very much involved and could discriminate taste points between various kinds of ribbon.

Poor Most Honorable still sounds like Johnny Cash after a hard night but his energy level is getting a bit better. He’s been sick for days. We had to cancel our annual big dinner out and gift exchange. We hope to do the dinner in February for Kes’s birthday instead.

My oldest sister starts chemo again tomorrow. There isn’t much else they can do. It is a fast growing tumor and they will try to get it without weakening her into instability. We all have our fingers crossed that she can tolerate it but it puts a bit of a damper on the holiday for the whole family.

I am both working and teaching tomorrow.

I finally got a price quote for the room rental at the church for my public class starting early next year. It is pretty steep and I am going to need to average at least 7 people per class. It is a big risk but I am really looking forward to adding this extra class into my weekly mix. The more I teach the less work bothers me.

There will be a lot more out and about so I can market this baby. I think I am up for the challenge. Especially as hopefully I won’t have as many of the long Friday evening slogs over to the studio for private students.

I still need to find a studio closer to me for those. The traffic here in Portland is getting really really bad. I seriously almost got hit three times on my walk over last week. A produce truck turned right into me in the middle of a crosswalk. That was a tad bit scary. Thank goodness I was in good enough shape to jump out of the way.

I need to avoid areas where this is happening more and more, distracted impatient drivers, low light and rain. Yep.

I hope you had a lovely lovely holiday however you approached it and are enjoying the change out of your normal routine.

That will be back soon enough.

Last updated December 25, 2014