What day is it?

Today started like the last few, slowly and relaxed. I took my time getting up, I had a wonderful shower. The biggest difference was the question that tied my brain up into a pretzel. I have a neighbour to the south of me, they moved in a few months ago, I’ve talked about their loud sound system a number of times. I’m not sure what they do for a living but a got a hint this day. At 4:40am I was awoken by a shovel scraping. If you don’t immediately think of Home Alone then you’re nuts. I eventually peeked through the blinds with eyes unable to focus properly. I saw the dude in a high visibility vest cleaning the skiff of snow that had fallen overnight out of his driveway. I was pretty confused and in my mind I decided that the had to work at Pearson and was probably on a ground crew. I’m pretty sure that is not accurate but it fit what I wanted to believe so we’re going with it. That’s all fine, it was so quiet of a night and at the deadest part that I could hear the shovel and it woke me up. At this precise moment I had a four hour podcast going at a reasonably low volume while I slept and I started to wonder if he could hear it in the dead quiet. Hopefully it hadn’t woken him up. I fell back to sleep shortly after my peek and slept a few more hours. When I finished all the things I mentioned off the top I looked out the window and saw that the bottom of my driveway was also cleaned. Then my brain started turning. Is this an act of aggression? Did he clean my driveway to make more noise? Was it an act of kindness? What had I done to deserve that? They sometimes do the sidewalk across my land as I know his elderly parents (who live there also) like to go for strolls. Maybe he was so tired he accidentally kept going. So I felt that I needed to pay it forward somehow. I went out and did the rest of my driveway and then the bottom of the old girl next door’s and the sidewalk for the next house. Unrelated but I also walked up and got the mail (nothing cool, just some late Christmas cards). In the end, the whole snow shovelling affair was all for not as it rained all day and everyone got a clean driveway before noon. I polled a few folks and the consensus was that it was an act of kindness but I remain suspicious.

After my outdoor adventure I made breakfast and took my sweet time eating it as I read the mail. I have been piling up some agriculture publications and tackled a few of those as well. Next stop was MSC challenges and Musings. I wanted to make sure I cover those off in case I slip into the basement lair and lose another day. Instead of that I read my home insurance policy. Turns out I need to call them to update them on my basement and I have a couple questions about my coverage, including the boat. I did try and call but after twenty minutes on hold I made the assumption that only their claims lines are getting attention, if that. I went downstairs to work on making lunch, since it was getting to that hour. My feet were getting a bit chilly so I donned some slippers but I’d consider them more of my downstairs slippers. I wondering if I had my old pair still and sure enough I did. I discovered them in the front closet and decided I’d wear them the rest of the year. They are fuzzy and warm with a hint of a hard sole. Just like slippers should be, rather than a crappy shoe, which many pairs in the modern era should be considered.

After crushing a plate of chicken bites it was time to try and tackle my novel. I’ve been stuck on this one for months, the first half the book has been a slog, as I’ve mentioned. It is the last of the Witcher novels and my brain is looking for a fast paced resolution to the series and it is getting lore and background information. I know that it will pick up soon but haven’t gotten to that point yet. I forced myself to dogged stick to it and I was rewarded, the levee broke and the interesting plotlines tumbled out. By the time I was finished reading (to eat again, hours later) there are only a hundred or so pages left. It is the last of the eight novels. My next books are all standalone so I should be able to move through them more quickly. The dinner that ended the reading session was simply soup. I made a can and smothered it in crackers and returned to the cloud to catch up on YouTube. I “discovered” shuffle TikTok compilations and passed out just after nine watching one of those. It was a decent day, relaxing but not completely wasted.