It’s a chilly Saturday morning. The last day of November, 2013. I’m sitting here trying to decide the best use of the limited time that I have today.
At 28°, do I go out and continue the work on leaves that was cut short by last week’s rain?
Or do I work in the garage trying to finish up the reorganization that was supposed to make the Christmas decorations more accessible, but only made a mess?
Or do I sit here and scroll through the Interwebz where I find things like people complaining about the race of characters in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire or where people actually think The Hunger Games are real and President Snow is the One Percent.
You’ll have to find your own links for those conversations. I wasted enough time on them already this morning.
It’s. A. Movie. And a book. And I wasted too much time on them this morning already. (I liked the movie, by the way).
But starting around noon-ish today, begins the marathon that is Glorious Christmas Nights. For the next two weeks, everything will revolve around final rehearsals and then performances which start on Tuesday night.
The cycle through December 15 becomes work, show, sleep.
It’s all good. We choose to do this ministry. And we know every year what it will be.
And we know every year we hit this weekend and the leaves aren’t up, the house isn’t as clean as it should be, and the Christmas decorations aren’t up. Or even out.
We did manage to get candles in the window. Years ago we found these amazing battery powered candles at Walgreen’s. They take two AA batteries. You turn them on at 5:00 p.m. and they burn for 6 or 8 hours and go off. Then, they’ll come on automatically at 5:00 p.m. for like…ever. Seriously. We leave them in the windows year round and most years they’re still going in October.
But, I digress.
This summer, I told myself that there would come a day when I would regret having stored Christmas decorations in the outdoor storage shed and not the garage.
This day is that day.
I had different plans for November, and Christmas decorations. The Veteran’s Day holiday was to be the day I put up the outdoor decorations. That didn’t happen.
An accident which we all thankfully survived, but the car didn’t (it’s totaled)
A stressful Thanksgiving (it’s a long story)
And the crowning jewel, an administrative error in my paycheck that was resolved, but took a couple of years off my life before that resolution was achieved.
So, yeah, I’m not going to miss November.
Wednesday night at my parents’ I was the last one up watching Gone With the Wind. I joked on Facebook that I was trying to stay awake to see if Rhett finally gave a damn.
I didn’t make it. Nor did I make it to hear Scarlet say “tomorrow is another day.”
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Walgreen’s. They take two AA batteries. You turn them on at 5:00 p.m. and they burn for 6 or 8 hours and go off. Then, they’ll come on automatically at 5:00 p.m. for like…ever. Seriously. We leave them in the windows year round and most years they’re still going in October.
