Ordinary days.

[tedwords]

 

"Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary." Blaise Pascal

I'm not sure why Blaise Pascal coined that phrase, and I am not sure I entirely agree, but it occurred to me that lately I have been only posting when big events take place, such as weddings, birthdays or seizures, so perhaps as Corb decks the halls with our first Christmas tree at Green Victoria this afternoon and I am waiting to be of use, it might be a good time to try my hand at a more ordinary journal post.

First off, Thanksgiving. It was a nice one, held at Tom's new place, and very thankful for that. With Kyra duty taking place, and with that state of our finances with the wedding and vet bills putting us somewhere between a rock and a hard place, we were in no position to host this year. It would have been far too stressful and entirely budget oriented.

As it was, it was a muted affair. Tom's new place is lovely and has a spectacular view, nestled by the seaside in Plymouth, but for what they paid, it's a very tiny condo, and even with my kids not going nor Clark nor my mom, we were squished around a tiny table, and Lisa seemed super stressed and threw out at least two dishes because they were too cold to serve for dinner. But what she did serve was delish, especially her stuffing, which was based on my grandmother's original recipe and tasted every good as the original.

You'll note in that graf I said mom was not in attendance. She stayed home due to stomach problems (a bad reaction to the meds she was taking for a UTI), and dad seemed somewhat lost at sea as a result. It was his first Thanksgiving without her in over sixty years, he mentioned several times, and he would then recount how they had first met when he was a teenager, the day before Thanksgiving. I had heard mom tell this story (she always starts by saying they wouldn't have met had it not been for her stinky feet), so it was actually nice to hear Dad's version.

Funny the things that last through the years. Mom's stinky feet will make it through the decades, for sure. Dad even has a song about "I love my Beetie, she has stinky feetie." It still lives rent free in my head, after all these years.

We kept dad's spirits up and even played Scrabble with him, although the game was cut slightly short as it grew dark and Laurie called to say she called mom, who was getting grouchy, being alone for so long. Dad quickly high-tailed it out of there.

Meanwhile, Corb's mom went to Auntie Carole's and came down with COVID due to contact with Scott and Tina. So, we haven't seen her for a while.

Last night, we watched the new Doctor Who and really enjoyed it quite a lot. It was great to see David Tenant and Catherine Tate back in action. Yes, I cried. Theo came by to watch, along with Josie and Kaeden, and it was nice bonding time. We would like to do it again next week, although that is my birthday weekend (which will be interesting during this poor period) and there are also a few holiday parties planned. We will see how that works out.

I keep mentioning the poor state of our finances, but that will get sorted out in about one week's time. Corb and I have done a lot of talking about it and I guess the silver lining is that it forces us to do more with less and find value in the things we already have that don't cost us anything extra--such as, the ten Christmas trees that need to be put up, which brings us back to the start of today's story. He actually has actually had his best month ever with his business at Shiplap, so that is encouraging and hopefully will last past the holidays. The photo at the top is one of his latest projects, which I am a bit obsessed with. I like color in my chandies, and I think the black and gold really looks terrific.

Work is going well, although frankly, I can't see myself doing this forever. I actually like managing people, but if I am going to be honest, I am a writer first and foremost and this job doesn't give me much opportunity to do the creative work that I love so much. But I can do it for another year and I do wonder if I am eligible for early retirement next year...we shall see. I spend a bit of time thinking about that, thinking about what my next chapter is going to be about. As I wrote here a few months ago, I don't want to enter into my sixties doing anything I am not passionate about.

But then, life isn't always about passion, it is more often about enjoying the day to day, as best you can. And maybe that's what Blase Pascal was talking about--if you can focus on mastering the ordinary, then that by itself is an extraordinary achievement. Okay, ordinary, I am here for you. Let's make the most out of life, shall we?