1) Working a little harder to find the good in every thing, and it turns out the good in waking up at 5:45 AM — much earlier than planned — is getting to the post office very early and running other errands on Centre Street early and thereby avoiding Larger Numbers of People during Omicron. And let’s face it, I do love that darkest hour before the dawn in wintertime — when I’m snugly inside anyway.
1a) Post office to mail the last Christmas gift requiring mailing, bank, CVS for sundries, Chi-Chi Foo Foo Upscale Market for heavy cream (because tomorrow is National Eggnog Day, half and half will not suffice, and CVS only had half and half), and ye Blynchyrd’s — also sometimes known as the Island of Lickastowa — to stock up on champagne for New Year’s.
2) I like my little town center on Centre Street, where I can do everything but buy serious groceries. And today I happened to notice what the sales clerks were wearing. The nice postmistress had on a beautiful silk headscarf of large red and orange dots on a white ground with some sort of line drawing — perhaps a fish. The very tall male clerk at the CVS had on a white T-shirt over a long-sleeved shirt that read “Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal,” which made me laugh. And the nice lady at ye Blynchyrd’s sported a fun, busy-looking Christmas sweater.
2a) Even having lingered over a (very savory) breakfast sandwich at the Chi-Chi Foo Foo Upscale Market, I still got to ye Blynchyrd’s ten minutes before they opened. As I walked in I said to the lady behind the counter “I promise I’m not here to get my drink on! I just had other errands to run!” and we had a good laugh.
3) Returning home, I witnessed neighbors with school-age children across the street talking and overheard “And today our question is ‘Why is there a District of Columbia, and why Columbia?’” Which was something I knew something about, and we had some pleasant banter. A nice way to conclude an earlier-than-usual outing.
3a) Now, on to more Christmas cards!