Doofus

I am such a doofus sometimes!  Here I am, five days into my chocolate advent calendar, and I'm just now figuring out...

there is a story behind each flap!  Well, at least I've been enjoying the chocolate. 

In other news, I kind of gave myself a reality check today.  I'd been hoping that they wouldn't clear the woods all the way down to where I live, but that's just not realistic.  I mean, they haven't cleared any more in a week, but that doesn't mean they never will.  

Back when I moved into this house, the previous owners had apparently used the space over the back fence as their own personal garbage dump.  I'd gotten a lot of it cleaned up, but there was still a stack of tin -- and some other junk-- back on the edge of the woods.  So today at work, I thought to myself, "Self, you ought to get all of that there tin and put it into your shed so you can use it later."  

Then I got paranoid that by the time I got home, they would have cleared all those woods away and hauled off the tin, but they hadn't.  Said tin was still there when I got home. 

Alas, when I put my gloves on and dug into it, I discovered that most of the tin had rusted beyond usability.  Indeed, a couple of the sheets actually broke in two when I tried to pick them up.  I decided they could keep that tin, and if I needed some, I'd go buy some nice shiny new tin.  I still plan on pulling down those old chicken coops and leaving it just an open porch like thing, but with a roof.  Eventually...

So that settles that.  Now, the only thing I'll need to get from behind the fence if they do clear this far is the squirrel feeder.  I need to go ahead and get my new posts set, so I can hang it inside the fence, and also to move the bird feeder back to where I can reach it.  I couple more rains and the ground might be soft enough to dig those holes.  

OK, moving right along, my Whatever cactus is looking better and better each day. 

Yes, that is a piece of yarn you see there.  I put it there to separate the red from the salmon blooms, just in case I decide to separate them next summer.  And I am leaning that way.  I think I can tell by the leaves, though.  The ones with the salmon blooms have much less pointy leaves. 

Whereas the red blooms have much more pronounced points on the leaves. 

I should be able to tell them apart, but you know me.  It's better to be safe than sorry.  

Speaking of being safe, my friend Marcy suggested I lower the resolution for the stuff I stream in order to save data.  It won't help me this month, but I'm going to try it for next month.  I've already figured out how to do it on Hulu -- just turn on the data saver option -- but I have yet to figure out how to do it on Prime, mainly because I haven't been to Prime since ...I don't remember.  It's been a couple of days.  She said it doesn't really affect the video quality that much, and frankly, I've never been able to tell the difference between HD and SD anyway.  And if all else fails, I can still stream over my phone like I did when I'd had my internet cut completely off.  

And finally, today's advent figure is the donkey-- an ordinary means of transportation.

The verse of the day is:  In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.  All went to their towns to be registered.  Luke 2:13

Full disclosure, this is the song I'd penciled into the booklet all those years ago, but I'm not sure why I chose it.  Maybe the whole coming to Bethlehem thing.  I don't know, but there it is.