I Made It

All that last week of work before I got off for Christmas break, I was saying to myself, "I can't wait to be off so I can stay up as late as I want!"  Apparently, as late as I want is 9:00.  

Yeah, and sleeping in is 6:30.  Oh well, at least it's better than having to get up at 4:30!

Even at 6;30, though, it was cold this morning, and that fire sure felt good.  By the way, you'd all be proud of me because I think I've finally figured out how to start the fire without filling the house with smoke.  I've managed to do it for five fires in a row.  The secret seems to be to add a few twigs at a time, instead of stuffing a whole bunch into the stove at once.  

After a leisurely cup of coffee and a Great American Family movie, I got myself dressed and headed up to Batesville.  The first stop I made was to the Goodwill donation center to drop off the three bags of clothes that have been riding around in my car for nearly a month.  I was going to go to Walmart first, but I told myself, "You know you won't go after you get out of Walmart.  You'll be tired and will just want to go home."  So, Goodwill came first. 

I know there are places in Grenada that take donations, but they're never open.  There is one thrift shop that is supposed to take donations, then sells stuff to support the battered women's shelter.  Honestly, I don't know if they're even still open, but it doesn't matter.  In the 29 years I've lived in this town, I've never ever seen them open -- even when I went during the supposed hours of operation.  

There are other places that supposedly take clothes, but you have to call and make arrangements for someone to meet you there.   Why?  It's so much easier just to carry things up to the Goodwill place, especially since I was going to Batesville anyway. I just pulled up to the place, asked the lady there if I could borrow her cart to bring in some donations, and she said, "Oh, I'll come get them", and she did.  

Next, I drove up to the Mounds...well, let me just say, next I took a wrong turn and drove out into the middle of nowhere, then had to use my GPS to find the Mounds, but I made it there eventually.  I walked around a bit and like to have froze, because like a typical Southerner who doesn't know how to dress for the cold, I didn't...um....dress for the cold.  

Oh, it wasn't that bad.  It had warmed up to 43° by the time I got there, but still, that heater in my car felt mighty good once I made it back inside.  

Next, I drove through their town square to look at the Christmas decorations, but there weren't any places to park, so I didn't get to stop and take pictures.  I mean, there are parking spots, but they were all full.  The decorations were nice, though.  

And finally, I made it to Walmart.  Alas, their candy selection was even worse than ours.  They did have the chewable CoQ-10 that I like, which our Walmart is always out of stock of, so I picked up a bottle of those, and some coffee pods in flavors our Walmart has been out of for ages.  A few other little things, including a 4 pack of Red Bull that Brennan had put into her wish list, and that was my shopping for the day. 

I briefly considered running by Kroger to see what they had, but by the time I got out of Walmart, I was tired and ready to come home.   I'll just get up in the morning and run into a couple of the local Mom and Pop grocery stores here in town and see what they have.  

I got home to find that the last gift I'd ordered for Brennan had come in, so I got it and the Red Bull wrapped, and that's that for Christmas presents.  All I have left is to put all this mess away.  

Unless I decided to buy that one last gift....

That's about how my day ended, but it began as always by adding today's figure to the advent poster, which is a wise man. 

…”We have come to pay him homage.”  Matthew 2:2