Wading In Jell-O

If my days were being filmed, they'd come out in slo-o-w motion.  I keep moving but getting nowhere.  I sprang from bed this morning, wide awake and knowing I was late!  How late could I be at four a.m.?  Days late, that's the answer.  Anyone expecting a card from me this year might start checking their mailbox around June next year. 

I sampled the first Christmas cookie yesterday.  I didn't bake it.  My friend Tom drove up while I was still down in the barn with the goats (a little later than usual; what a surprise).  The girls plucked at his jacket, rubbed against his hip, and repeatedly untied his boot laces while he stood outside the half-door as I finished milking the last doe.  Carrie and daughter Corrina have made cookies to share every year.  The decorations this year are quite elegant and artistic.  I well remember when Corrina was very small and the reindeer and stars had smears of frosting with tiny fingerprints.  She's growing up.  Tom bakes the world's best stollen, learned at his grandmother's knee in Germany.  It took all my resolve to limit myself to just one slice.

Propane Guy and Helper Dude showed up.  Going downstairs was like dropping into Antarctica.  I rarely to never go down there anymore, and the cobwebs at the window gave it all the charm of Miss Haversham's rooms.  I had hoped that it was just the pilot light in the gas fireplace and Propane Guy could make it all right again.  No.  The thermocouple had gone wonky and Propane Guy doesn't do thermocouple.  Thermocouple Guy won't have time to even call me until next week sometime to tell me when he might be able to come out.  One step forward and two steps back.

The day was already shot, so I spent the rest of the afternoon paying bills.  Big whup.  Stepping outside at dusk, the temperature had plummeted.  It's been pretty darned cold this last week, but this morning it's a frigid twenty-three degrees.  And did I get more firewood hauled up to the porch yesterday?  That would be silly question number two and doesn't deserve an answer.

Today I will be going to the Winter Solstice party, so I know in advance I won't get much done.  Thank goodness I'll have all those extra minutes of daylight tomorrow!