“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 621 (Saturday)

Snow dusted.

The Friday snow fell periodically throughout the night, which I was witness to the four times Winston woke me up to let him out. Letting him out during the night at our house is easy and involves opening the front door to let him into the fenced yard, popping back into the house for a moment, and opening the door to let him back in. 

But we weren’t at home, we were having a sleepover at Mom’s, where we had arrived with an overnight bag for each of us, a dog bed, and a botte of wine. It's amazing how much stuff one little diabetic, vision-impaired doggy needs for one night away from home. 

None of the clothing options included footwear for snow, having somehow missed the weather memo. Nighttime pottying meant donning shoes that slip in the snow and a coat and hat, and guiding Winston in his harness and leash through the unfamiliar floor plan, furniture placement, down the outdoor steps, up the driveway, and into the back yard. 

The storm door slammed shut the first time we went out (1:00 am) and I was afraid it would wake the rest of the house, but the subsequent trips (2:45, 4:15 and 4:45) were quieter and therefore less stressful. The 4:45 excursion was my own fault for rushing Winston at 4:15, leading to some unfinished business. There wasn't a lot of snow accumulation, and the dusting was pretty.

When it was time to get up for the day, I was tired. The time in between the outside trips was spent trying to get back to sleep. After coffee, a shower, and breakfast, Mom and I headed out to some antique and gift shops in the Templeton area. The Country Roads Christmas program was happening in Templeton and surrounding towns with a list of 16 small businesses. We visited six of the locations and between the two of us, managed to spend some money at each one with Finnish coffee bread at the bakery, cheese dip at the cheese shop, home décor items, and small Christmas stuff.

After about three hours we called it a day and headed back to Mom’s for lunch and a quick game of Scrabble before Winston and I headed back home. It was a fun couple of days with all the games and food and hanging with Mom. Supper was a turkey and stuffing sandwich, one of the best parts of Thanksgiving dinner. There was no cranberry sauce to include in the sandwich, but it turns out strawberry jam is quite tasty. 

Catalogue tree.

The time in antique shops today had me in a retro decorating mood and the next thing I knew, I was looking online for instructions for the trees made of magazines. Way back when I was a kid, people folded the Reader's Digest magazines to make trees and angels and Mr. and Mrs. Claus decorations. It seemed like everyone had at least on version of a folded magazine thing. There are several videos available and after a few minutes of “research” a couple catalogues were retrieved from a pile of recyclables on the kitchen counter and  the pages folded to make a tree. It was fun to do. Once, anyway. There aren't enough incoming magazines and catalogues to plan for many more, which is okay, because it may not need repeating. 

The upcoming Sunday morning coffee musings will include whether to embellish the magazine tree with spray paint or doo-dads or not, and where in the kitchen to the hang the new decorator sign that declares “Drink Coffee - Do stupid things faster and with more enthusiasm.” These decisions could have been done already, but there was no valid reason to use up all the fun in one day.