Road Trip!

If you've been reading my blog -- or worse, know me in person -- you might remember I've been talking about getting a new Christmas tree for a while now.  If you haven't been reading my blog --or are lucky enough not to know me in person -- I've been talking about getting a new Christmas tree for a while now.

The one I have is big, and gorgeous, full, and ... way too big for my little living room.  A few weeks ago, I'd gone up to Batesville to see what they had at Lowe's.  I found a tree I liked, but had decided to look around some more before committing to it.  I'd planned on going down to Jackson or up to Southaven to look around at places like Michael's or Joann's, but alas, the older I get, the less I seem to want to go anywhere, so I kept putting the trip off week after week.  

Along about Tuesday, Cody messaged me and asked if I was still wanting to get rid of my old tree.  He said they could use it in his office, and that's when it hit me.  Thanksgiving is next week.  Which means I'll be putting my tree up next weekend.  It was getting down to the wire, and I needed to make a decision.  After thinking about it considerably, I decided to go back up to Batesville and get the tree I'd liked at Lowe's.  You know what that means?  

Road trip!  

As much as a trip 30 miles up the road counts, that is...and hey, as curmudgeonly as I'm becoming in my dotage, that's a big deal.  

I'd thought whizzing into the Walmart up there and doing my weekly shopping, but I since I had some other errands to run in town here, I just got my tree and came on back home.  

It is now sitting in the snake/craft/obsolete computer room, awaiting its time to shine.  While putting it there, I turned around and noticed I had an observer. 

I think he approves.  This is Onyx, by the way.  He's a 16 year old California King snake, and the first one I got when I decided I wanted another pet snake.  

Back to my story...

I'm not sure which day Cody and Brennan will be coming down.  I'd suggested that if he wanted to spend Thanksgiving Day with Brennan's family, they could come down Friday or Saturday and help me put my Christmas tree up.  We'll just heat up leftovers whichever day they get to come down.  

Speaking of, you'll all be pleased to know I remembered to buy the fresh cranberries this time.  And they had fruit cake mix back in stock, so I got some of that, too.  I'm going to make my Dad's fruitcake recipe, and will put most of it into the freezer, since Cody doesn't really like it.  That will be tomorrow's project, though.  That, and finding a place in my refrigerator for my turkey.  By the way, the plant gave us a gift card instead of a certificate for a turkey this year.  From what I understand, we can spend it on whatever we want to -- at that particular store, I mean -- so that'll work out better for me.  I still have last year's turkey in my deep freeze, plus the free one I got with my ibotta rebate, so I'm set for turkeys.  

But I digress...again...

I messaged Cody from the Lowe's parking lot and let him know he could take the old tree, and that I'd have some lights and probably some ornaments I could donate as well.  He seemed pretty excited about that.  We'll have to dig through what I have and see what he can take with him.  

The rest of the day was filled with mundane things like grocery shopping and doing laundry, but you don't want to hear about those, do you?  Except that somehow, I managed to pull a muscle in my hip folding the laundry.  I have no idea how, but I have a feeling I'm not going to be able to move much tomorrow.  I'll be a football and knitting day, I guess.  

I do have a bit of exciting news.  I got the old telescope out and managed to focus in on Jupiter!  I was able to see four of its moons.  For some reason, my phone camera didn't want to focus right tonight.  I'm not sure if there was a fog on the lens or what, but this is the best picture I was able to get, though I could see them much more clearly than that. 

I'm really enjoying that telescope, but it does have one drawback.  The tripod isn't very tall, and even though I'm pretty short, to see anything above horizon level, I have to bend wayyyy over to look into the eyepiece.  When you get to be my age, you really shouldn't be bending wayyyy over anyway.  I finally found my old tripod that I'd bought to mount my camera, and put my telescope on it.  It's a bit taller, so I don't have to strain my back so badly. 

By the way, did you know there is a crater on the moon with a mountain inside it?  There is.  I could see it with my telescope.  One of these days, if I can pry myself out of my house, I'm going to go out away from city lights and see what I can see out there.  I need to find the closest dark sky preserve.  I think there is one in Tennessee, but I'm not sure.  

And finally, I caught Rylea and this doe having a stare down yesterday.  

The doe didn't seem to frightened of Rylea, I guess because she was laying down, and the doe knew she wasn't a threat.  I scared her off taking the picture.  Figures...

Oh, and I named the rat I caught in my live trap Templeton.  Don't ask.  I've long since given up trying to find an explanation for such things...