Slog Along Day

Both of the human inhabitants of this homestead slept poorly last night. Papa Pea developed a stiff neck late yesterday and it kept him from any kind of comfortable sleep during the night.

After having a WON-derful night's sleep night before last, I woke at 1:50 last night for a potty stop and when I shuffled back to bed found that even though I was tired, I couldn't fall back asleep for love nor money. (Insert frustrated scream.) WHY does that happen?

So the outcome was that we both looked and felt like something the cat dragged in for most of the day.

My main aim today was to get all the fall/Thanksgiving decorations taken down and put away and the Christmas decorations up. Needless to say, there will be no decorating in the living room area this year, but I will do what I can to make things look festive in the kitchen. I also do a little decorating in the bathroom and bedroom.

Did I complete my task? Nope, but I'm about 80% done. I should be able to finish up tomorrow and still have time for other things.

I'm thinking I'm not going to put up a tree this year. (Papa Pea is not happy with this idea and when Chicken Mama hears of it, she will throw one big, royal hissy-fit.) No way can one go in the construction zone of the living room. There is only one safe (far enough away from the wood stove) place where I could put a very small tree in the kitchen.

It would be on the closest end of the above cabinet in the southwest corner of the kitchen. The phone and answering service are on the opposite end of the unit and need to stay there. (You can see the unfinished door into the living room area on the right of the picture.) Strings of lights, usually put on the tree, are resting on the top of the cabinet. If I don't put up a tree, I'm thinking about figuring out some way to string the lights around the windows so we can have them on in the evening and early morning. Although I must admit, at this moment in time that, too, seems like a lot of work.

We've lost virtually all the snow cover we got a little over a week ago. Outside it looks, and smells, like spring. However (dum-da-dum-dum), the forecast is for a mixture of snow and freezing rain (oh, joy) starting at midnight tonight and continuing until 6 p.m. on Saturday. The snow we would welcome, but ice is not nice.

I meant to take a picture today to show how much the gardens look just as they do in the spring, but the daylight slipped away from me a little too, too fast. Don't know what the situation is in all of your various locations but come 5 p.m. in our neck of the woods these days, it's durn close to pitch dark. And in a couple more weeks, it will be 4:30. So, so different than in the summertime!