Holiday Time

Well we've finally reached the holiday season, after surviving that pesky Thanksgiving that interrupts the flow of Halloween to Christmas. This is the first "full" season I have in my new place; I moved into my new condo in the second week of December last year. So I still had a bit of the season left to play with then, but it's not quite the same as having the "full" season - where you can officially start putting up Christmas decor - without inciting ridicule - as soon as the sun rises on the morning after Thanksgiving. Well, okay, I started on Saturday. But in my defense, my son was sick again with the flu. Delays, delays.

In any case, on Saturday afternoon I pulled the tree out of the garage along with my boxes of ornaments, and unlike last year I put up all of my Disney-themed ornaments on the tree. It's been a few years since I was able to do do a fully Disney-decorated tree, owing to most of my belongings being in storage, and I have a handful more ornaments than last time, since I still went to the Disney store right after Christmas in previous years to acquire new ones on sale.

No more Disney stores now, so I probably won't be acquiring any new ones at the conclusion of this season.

And the kid helped decorate; in previous years I was wary to let him touch my very breakable ornaments, and instead got him his own smaller tree to decorate. See the 2019 video for more on that. But this year, despite his general lethargy owing to being sick again (6 days of missed school since October 21), he put up 5 or 6 ornaments on the tree. And he did a good job, at least nothing was dropped, fell off, or otherwise was broken. Good boy!

And on Sunday morning I put up some holiday lights around the front porch. It's the first time since 2019 that I've done lights, and fortunately I had enough strings of lights already that I didn't need to buy any more. Though I did need to get some extension cords and a new timer. But that was all bought with State of California stimulus funds, so no out-of-pocket expenses. 

I don't really know how old these strands of lights I have are; they're not LED lights, but they don't appear worn at all, but I'm not sure when or where they were last used. If at all. But they all lit up, so that's a good sign. However. There's a serious issue with the blinkability factor. And yes, I made up the word "blinkability". Creative license. Sue me. (Please don't).

I have two lines of lights basically, each on its own extension cord. One on the left side of the porch, and one on the right. The one on the right has a blinker light. Actually it has a couple. You know, the one you remember from your childhood that are clear with a red tip. Stands out like a sore thumb. But this line does not blink. The one on the left has no blinker lights...yet half of the line blinks. Why? More importantly, how??

I've come to the conclusion that my lights are haunted, possessed perhaps, by a ghost. I do not yet know whether this spirit is friendly or has malicious intents. But having no evidence to the contrary, I have to assume it's a good-natured ghost. In any case, it's pervading the functionality of my lights and causing them not to behave as expected. I believe the only solution short of a seance would be to either a) ignore the problem and see if it fixes itself, or b) throw the whole thing out and buy new ones.

I...might just throw the whole thing out. It would be nice to get some new LED ones anyway, maybe ones that change color. 

Well. We'll see. Maybe next year.

Pancakes!

This, is a food post. Much like my Instagram page, which frequently features pictures of food, or drinks at least. And even this blog, which started with a post about food. Way back in 2009. Which is now 13 years ago.  13 years! Where did all that time go?

On Friday, yesterday, I had pancakes at Denny's. A Value Slam, to be exact, which used to be called a Grand Slam and cost $2.99. Now it's $5.99, Still a good deal, comparatively, to most everything else out there. But I had been thinking of stopping for breakfast on the way to work for a couple of months. Mostly because I drive by Cornerstone Cafe downtown every morning, and often go for walks around there when I'm early enough to do so. I kind of wanted to stop there, though I know it would have been twice the price. Though perhaps twice the ambiance as well. But as things happen, the weeks fly by and before I know it, it's Saturday and I've passed by my chance to treat myself to breakfast on the way to work. And then I look back and wonder why I didn't make it work, why I always got distracted or fell behind or just talked myself out of it. Why I didn't just...treat myself.

And that's important, to treat yourself! Now and again, at least. You deserve it. Well, I deserve it.

I don't have time to stop on weeks I have my son, as I have to drop him off at school and barely have enough time to make it to work by 8:00am as it is. Occasionally I hit enough green lights through the downtown corridor to afford the time to stop at the drive through at Del Taco for some Breakfast Rollers. Easily the best breakfast deal around. But yesterday, Friday, I stopped at Denny's art 6:00am and got some pancakes. They were good. It was worth it. I also had cocoa.

Today I could have gone to spend the day in San Francisco, but I didn't. I talked myself out of that, much like I talked myself out of stopping for breakfast for many weeks. Whether it's saving money or saving hours on the roadway, or both, it's easy to convince myself to just change course. Or perhaps maybe it's just hard to convince myself to do things, sometimes. It's easy sometimes, within your own mind, to present a reasonable argument and convince yourself not to do the things you had just recently fantasized about doing.

But it was okay today, I walked to the North Natomas Regional Park where they were having a holiday faire, had a breakfast burrito from Donna's Mexican food and a hot apple cider from a food truck there. Complete with whipped cream and caramel drizzle! What a bonus. And only $4, a bargain in these trying times. 

I also rode the choo choo train. It was free, and I'm a kid at heart. I won't apologize for that, nor should I.

So, it was a good morning, and a good day, in which I did little beyond this than rest and reflect...and get caught up on Alaska Daily and Ramy on Hulu. I may have had some corn dogs. And I did run some minor errands, if only to feign productivity. 

And yes, I know, I could make pancakes at home. It's not that hard. But it's also not quite the same. And now that's checked off my list.