Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 2:00 a.m. in "The City."

I am writing this blog in defiance of the automatic settings of my virus checking program which came on @ 2:00 a.m. I like the program, but when I first set it up to turn on in my absence, I was, well, absent at this time. Lately, I seem to be here @ this time. Oh well, I can pause the program whenever I want to allow me to finish my work.

It is official, the Christmas season is here! Much like how I decide when spring actually springs, ie, the first day of spring training for baseball, I use the set-up of our Christmas tree as my barometer to signal when the Christmas/holiday season has begun. Mary prefers that I wait until the Thanksgiving Day holiday is over before I start my celebrations.

I mostly agree, but I get excited about the seasonal change that comes with this time of year. While gift-giving is mostly for the children, I still love the feeling that comes with the holiday and the decorations. I can do without the snow part though.

In fact, I waited several days past Thanksgiving this year to set up our tree and then Mary took a picture of yours truly and Ginger as we sat next to this year's finished product. I say this year's because our tree display changes every year to allow me to add the places we have visited in the year since the last season. That's something that we borrowed from Steph and Adam, and we like it.

In fact, this year, we added some things that actually belong to our children but which they store in our basement, a model of a Christmas store and a trolley. Sadly, the picture quality is not up to my usual standards. We'll try again later today.

Blurry, but you get the idea.

We have a current temperature of 53° under clear skies with windy conditions. Later today, after the sun rises @ 7:53 a.m. and not all that long before it sets @ 5:11 p.m., the NWS is forecasting a high temperature of 53°. So, using my vast knowledge of meteorology, I can safely say that there will be no change.

Today, I plan to bake some sugar cookies, make some vegan sausages, and perhaps grate and prepare some Cole slaw too. As Mary says, I need to recognize that I have my limitations and so I use the word perhaps for the Cole slaw. If I am not feeling up to it, the slaw can wait for another day. Maybe in that way, I can also fit in the applesauce that I also want to make.

I might mention that we had a vegan version of "Meatloaf" with green beans for lunch yesterday. Mary prepared the loaf using an internet recipe, but while the taste is perfect, the recipe needs a few tweaks to make it a keeper. Dinner last night was the balance of the Thanksgiving leftovers. Not to worry, there is more loaf for today.

Later today, Mary has an appointment at her beautician for a haircut. I'll be busy in the kitchen much of the day. We didn't get up until late yesterday, so the only thing I accomplished was to set up the Christmas display and to work the crossword puzzle. Mary would say that I need to pattern myself after our former neighbor, Marshall, who did just a limited number of things, often just one thing, each day and saved other things for another day. I think he was right.

When you get to a certain age, you have to conserve your limited physical resources. I do have to bag up some leaves on the vast PE so I may have to limit my activities still further. The fact that rain is in the forecast for tonight makes the leaves a necessity. Or, they can wait until Thursday. Yes, that sounds preferable.

Otherwise, not much is happening today. Mary still has to walk the fur-children since my yak will not allow me to go any distance without aches and pains. I can ameliorate the pain with a non-NSAID painkiller, so that's what I am doing. Ciao.