pretending is enough

 Carm was up early this morning and on his way to Costco by 7:30. Apparently it was worth the effort as the store wasn’t busy. We are wondering if it will get too crazy there by the time Christmas rolls along forcing us to do our grocery shopping elsewhere.

We actually do a lot of our food shopping there: red peppers, zucchini, green beans, broccoli, brussels sprouts, mushrooms, are but a few of the staples we get there. Sure, the bags are big, but that just encourages us to eat more produce! Also, it tends to be uber fresh so lasts in the fridge a long time.

The sun actually popped out for a few hours this afternoon, bathing the dog futon in golden warmth. I felt like curling up with the dogs but they looked so peaceful. Plus I was a bit too antsy to settle down.

I didn’t actually pick up the book today but I think it is time for some Alice Munro. I need the inspiration of impeccable prose and thought provoking themes… and it would be grand to read something that has punctuation. Yes. I’ve spent way too much time mindlessly surfing the moronic comments sections of CTV and CBC news articles and now is the time to break the habit.  It’s amazing how quickly one forgets the difference between to and too or your and you’re. Bad grammar is slipping into my posts.

Not all of my facebook surfing is news though, I also scroll through reams of recipes, clipping the most interesting ones into my recipe software. I made 2 new soups in the last week and a half, and have 4 or 5 more new things tagged to make soon. I keep track of what I make every night which helps when I have no ideas of what to make for supper. Plus it reminds me of things that we liked but haven’t made again. We started using Google Calendar at the beginning of Covid so that Carm could peruse, but I’ve been putting the data into my database app for 7 years… in fact 🙃 I could tell you what we ate for supper on December 8th 2014 (a stirfry with Snowpea, mush, carrots, water chestnuts, baby corn, lemon, white beans). Same day in 2015: leftover shawarma... that’s some kind of crazy!!! No person in their right mind should know these things!!!

Tonight’s beer was a delightful lagered ale from a brewery about an hour from here. It was full of flavour but not overpowering. A definite do-over :-)

“The rest of the year, I wondered if the point of Christmas was just spending money and getting fat and opening gifts. Indulging.

But when Christmas finally comes, and that warm, tingly, mints-and-sweaters-and-fireplace-fires feeling gathers in the bottom of your stomach, and you're lying on the floor with all the lights off but the ones on the Christmas tree, and listening to the silence of the snow falling outside, you see the point. For that one instance in time, everything is good in the world. It doesn't matter if everything isn't actually good. It's the one time of the year when pretending is enough.”

~Francesca Zappia