Work Break

I took the entire day off work today. But that just meant that I was available to tackle all the other aspects of my life that I’ve been neglecting. Well, maybe not all of them, that’s a lot for one day. Normally when presented with a day off I’d descend and waste one but not this round. I started things off strong with a McBreakfast and then got my fortnightly groce on. I should have been buying the supplies for the next Family feast but it’s two weeks out so that won’t work for fresh items. I got home and rammed my freezer full of food, I did not adjust my purchases to account for the bacon supply. The stowing process was quickly followed by getting some laundry going. While I waited for my clothes to clean I settled into some MSC challenges and worked out some Musings drafts to post. It felt good to get caught up on both those things. I’d been lagging behind a bit in both.

The day was so beautiful that I decided to spin a bit of fertilizer on the grass with my terrible hand-held spreader. Some of the pearls weasled underneath the spinner and made it an unpleasant experience so I gave it up after doing the beleaguered backyard. Since it was nice and I was already outdoors I ventured to string out my Christmas lights. Years ago I purchased two strands of white lights with quick clips by NOMA. I hang them across the front and around the porch, all facing downward, exactly the same. I’m fairly particular about it. I ran a short cord down from the end of the second strand to the NOMA timer. I spooled up the excess extension cord neatly and zip tied it to the porch railing in a very orderly fashion. I’ve got the regular house lights timed to come on after the Christmas lights go off. The NOMA light timer turns them on after fifteen minutes of low light and they stay lit for 4-5 hours before snapping off and then the house lamps come on. It’s a lovely system I’ve developed over time. All that effort and ladder work gave me a fierce hunger to quell. I warmed up my leftovers from the previous evening in the air fryer and had a tasty recreation of the Family Feast meal.

Being that I was getting festive, I figured I could put up the tree and trim it. I fired up my audiobook, which I’m greatly enjoying, and had an adventure in the boat while securing the tree. I very slowly erected the tree in the living room. I started with the bottom section, taking my time to slowly adjust and spread the branches back to a more natural position than how they’d been stored. It took forever and I stopped to rest after each section. Eventually I got it to a point where I felt like it looked like a tree more than an abomination and started the trimming. I bought this set of ornaments for six dollars at Canadian Tire one year with the Chef. We got the tree for thirty bucks and I think the star was a few bucks. It was all done for under twenty five dollars each. I kept the ornaments and the star and still use them. They are relatively terrible but I sort of like them.

I had planned to get a tree with all white lights and have a night blue and white tree (Go Leafs!) but when I got home I discovered that the tree I’d purchased (in 2013) was multicolour. I bought it on sale, no returns, so I’m stuck with this oddity. You’ll note the older school timer. It took some fiddling but I rigged it so that the lights come on around six in the evening and shut off somewhere between eleven and twelve.

After finishing up with the tree, I played some NHL20 so I could enjoy my audiobook further. For supper I had chips and a drumstick much like a child would. By the time I’d had my fill of games and books it was dark so I ventured out to check on my lighting job. It looks okay but you can see where the two strands join. I usually account for that but I’ll live with it this year. I went back in and watched some YouTube, enjoyed my story and played some more MSC until the evening was used up.