Living in a temperate zone at a northern latitude, the difference in daylight hours between summer and winter is significant. The farther north you live, the bigger the difference. A few hours of daylight in winter can be almost the opposite in summer. Down South, it’s not a big difference. I’d vote for sticking with Daylight Savings time year ’round, because I’d rather have the extra hour of daylight in the afternoon than in the morning. When I was in grade school, Nixon said one winter that we had to go on Daylight Savings time, and my brother and I had to walk to school with flashlights, so we could see where the road was, and didn’t fall into a drainage ditch.
We also visited mom today, and did some shopping for her. Brought over one of the late season tomatoes from our garden. It was the only one we had left that was bigger than a golf ball. First frost was only a couple of days ago, so we harvested whatever was still on the vine three days ago, to let it bench ripen rather than vine ripen. Hey, I was thankful for the Indian Summer. We’re normally done with harvest after the first week in October.
Also brought her the jar of Beach Plum jam I forgot to bring a couple of weeks ago. It’s a Cape May specialty. When we take a mini-vacay there, we always bring her back some little something.
When we did her shopping for her, she spaced out on giving me her credit card, and I spaced out on asking for it, so I paid cash. We didn’t find everything she wanted, as is often the case. She totally forgot about the credit card thing until we were ready to leave. I’m glad she brought it up. She gave me the cash to cover it.
Mom also made a bit of a production of celebrating my S.O.’s birthday. Since we visit every other week, it’s never really on the right day, or even the right week, but none of us really care about that anymore. We’re not kids. She gave him a couple of bags of Tate’s cookies, and a couple of bags of Ghiradelli chocolates, then told him he didn’t have to share them with me. As if he wouldn’t. *eye roll* She gave me money for my birthday, and I spent it on Lobster bisque, “crab critters,” and crab cakes from a really good local seafood market, which, of course I shared with him for dinner over the next week.
As far as Thanksgiving dinner goes, I asked her whether she wanted to go with the usual plan in which we cook everything at our place, then pack it into coolers and crockpots to bring over, or do what we did last year, stay home with our feast, and bring leftovers next time we visit. She’s still afraid to sit at the same table with us at the same time to share a meal, so she went with the latter. Easier for us, but not as fun as sharing a good meal with another family member who would otherwise be alone on a holiday.
The items I could not get on her shopping list I was able to find online from pharmacies elsewhere in the country. At some point, with these, I have to make an executive decision. She has a tendency to over-specify everything — brand, size, color, mouthwash flavor, etc. — and if I get one of those wrong, but the rest right, there’s a good chance I’ll either be told to return it, or get reprimanded. Sometimes, she’ll deal with it. My executive decision today was to order one of the items she wanted, in a three pack instead of two, because the three pack was cheaper than two of the cheapest individual ones, and to order two two-packs of another item, of which she wanted two. The latter is something in a size, brand, flavor, and with real sugar, that we can’t find around here or near her anymore, and she won’t settle for a generic or store brand version.
I’ll bring all three of the first item, and two of the latter next time we visit. I’ll save the other two of the latter for a Christmas present. At her age, that’s the sort of Christmas present she actually appreciates — along with things like underwear, and non-slip slippers, that most kids would be disappointed to receive, no matter how much they were needed.
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