The in-laws are here for the holidays. My mother spent Thanksgiving here, and they are here for Christmas. It still feels strange to not travel everywhere for the holidays, but it is also nice to make some of these moments in our home.
And don’t underestimate the practical value of not being constantly on the move. That’s not what it is about, but sometimes that’s what it becomes, which is not what it is about.
If that makes sense.
Anyway, they arrived safely, brought some cold down with them, and we will have a fine old time this week.
I walked by the Dickensian village at just the right time today. I enjoy the village. I’d vote to keep them out for longer, just for the classic scenes and all of the little activities and details you can find. The designs are charming, the lights in them, in the evening, are a delight.
And, today, the sun streaming in was creating these lovely little shadows.
I wish we had the space to display them all. (We have a lot.) Alas, we have a Catzilla.
When I hauled the garbage can to the end of the drive last night, I looked up to see …
… not drones. (That’s Orion. And if this confuses you, get an app, or crack a book.)
Let’s talk about the bike. I did nothing for the first two weeks of December. It was, I thought, an uncharacteristically long lull, and it felt like it. I rode 21 whole miles the weekend before this, just to see if my legs and feet could remember how to make tiny circles. I got in 70 miles on two days last week, just to see if I still could. This weekend I pedaled my way through 72 more miles.
Now we get to the problem of the spreadsheet. Since I log all of these things — in about three different ways — I know precisely where I am. I know what the trend lines look like, what’s possible, what is beyond reach and, dangerously, what might be feasible, if I stretch.
And that’s always the dilemma. Is it authentic if I see those benchmarks coming and push just a little more to get there. Even if only barely?
This is what I can get to, if I ride a lot in this last week: a new-to-me round number. It’s a small amount, so I don’t even want to say it aloud. I could finish the year with the number of miles equaling the circumference of the earth, at this latitude, anyway. (Next year I’ll finish my first equatorial circle of the earth.) Doing all of that also means I could also set a new record for the month of December.
In all, it seems unlikely. I had that lull to start the month, and time is short.
But if I push, I thought as I pedaled through 30 more miles today, if I could somehow get 300 more miles this week …
That’s not a lot. Except, to me, it most definitely is.
That spreadsheet just sits here, taunting me.
