Return to the Harbour

We started the day today with a pretty fancy breakfast. Mother tried out a new recipe and made some Breakfast Fried Rice by SkinnyTaste. It featured brown rice cooked in advance, some riced cauliflower, bacon, eggs, and untold spices. One of the spices was some sriracha that was more than the Big T could handle. The recipe only called for two tablespoons but he found it hot. I felt it was an interesting and tasty treat. The leftovers were packaged up for me.

I had all my stuff hauled upstairs and as I took the first load to the truck, the rest was unceremoniously dumped on the deck. Guess they were ready for me to leave. The fuel tank was still full so I was able to get away in good time, around eight. I made one lone stop on the return voyage and that was at Huntsville to refuel the truck and to tinkle. Many businesses I passed were still open and operating noramlly. I guess not everyone is respecting the lockdown. Shortly after my stop I decided that I should have some lunch and scarfed down one of the wraps that Mother had prepared for me and some of the dessert that was sent along. The remainder of the drive was uneventful other than clearing my podcast queue buildup and discovering a new alternative radio station for the middle third of the route, 89.1 the MAX. Upon arriving at the Harbour the driveway had to be dunged out with the truck awkwardly parked in the street so a rush was applied. This tuckered me out extensively and wreaked havoc on my lower back. It had been some time since I had to clean snow, let alone deep, wet snow. Once my back was destroyed and the drive clear the truck was parked and emptied out. The Christmas gifts were quickly sorted and stowed away. Only a few spices that didn’t fit into the spice cabinet were left out. Most of the kitchen accessories were washed and ready to be put away. I will have to re-imagine how the spices are stored before I can finish this task. I quickly emptied my luggage and combined the dirty items with new items and some clothes already in the basket to prepare two loads of laundry to do. While that was starting I very quickly and efficiently removed all the ornaments off the tree and took it down. Next the Christmas lights outside were torn down. There was rain followed by colder temperatures in the forecast and with it worry about things getting iced down. [edit: the rain only cleaned back the snow and it would have been much easier if I’d waited a day] I didn’t fully package them up yet, instead giving them time to thaw a bit to make storage easier. With the tree and the lights down and the gifts integrated into my world, Christmas was fully over. It seems like it went by in a blink of a Chirstmas light. I recall writing on this very site a few years about about the long, drawn out, manufactured traditions that we used to undertake. Well, this year was very, very different from that and I find myself missing the pagentry of it all.

After tearing apart Christmas and unloading everything I decided to take a bit of a break and called Admiral Bonesaw and Dutchie. They had offloaded their kids for the afternoon so my timing was good, we chatted for the better part of an hour before it was time to start dinner on both ends. Here, it ws going to be the final portion of the previous night’s dinner that Big T had forced upon me as I was leaving in the morning. I ate it studiously and enjoyed it, despite having only warmed it up part way in the oven. I went with 375F and only for ten minutes, maybe fifteen would have been more fitting.

When it was devoured and the hefty pile of dishes was done I sauntered to my office to take on some MSC challenges whilst enjoying the second time through Rhthym of War on Audible. After I’d had my fill of that, the two loads of laundry got folded and stowed and as such little evidence of the trip remained. The remainder of the evening was spent with my book after not getting to read it at all while away. It was only a short read as I started to fall asleep around nine and was fully gone soon after.