Working...

This getting old sucks. I was so stiff and sore yesterday at work that I could barely move, and when work entails standing for 8 hours, making pizza like there is no tomorrow and then climbing, reaching, lifting and pulling to get products onto the cooler shelves (beer is HEAVY in the quantities they seem to drink it here! LOL) it is truly, well, WORK.

However I do enjoy working in the store, and especially so yesterday. Many parts of the local communities were out of power for protracted periods, the schools were closed and the roads treacherous (especially mid-day when I had to go to work). We only lost power at the store for a bit, and even then could continue to make pizza, as that oven is propane-powered. But it was really obvious how much of a service a small local store is to the community, as we were very busy all day with folks coming in for milk and bread (yes, the usual storm fare, LOL) but also lunch stuff, take-out meals (for many without power, their option for a hot meal) and gas or kerosene for generators and auxiliary heaters. And though the stores were open in Bangor (about 20 minutes away to the closest one, on a good roads day) I think most folk opted to stay closer to home.

But that meant that I was so beat by the time I got home, that I did not have the energy to do a moon ritual last night. I did greet the bright, full moon as I laid down to sleep (the clouds had passed and the moonlight was very bright on the white and icy landscape) and again this morning, as she was setting as I let the dog out for her pit stop. But I will do a bit more this morning, after I change the altar over to a more wintry setting.

I still have cards to complete and mail and the gifts must be wrapped and posted as well, but I with my work schedule having got messed up from my trip, that will happen first of the week. I close again tonight and (thankfully) though I work daytime hours on Sunday, don't have to start until 9. Then I do not work until Wednesday, which should give me enough time to get the stuff wrapped and sent and the chaos cleaned up a bit.

I am most happy at having got the Craft room -- FINALLY -- mostly under control. Though I had been using it pretty much from the time we moved in, I had not really made much progress on putting stuff away. There is still organizing to be done, but at least now there is more than just a narrow path from one end of the already narrow room to the other, and space on my work table there to, well, work. And with the little heater I have set up in there now (My Buddy propane heater, hooked up to a grill tank) I can be as warm and comfy as need be. Yes, the addition has a heater vent, but like the bedroom and master bath, only warm (not hot) air flows out. What is now the Craft room used to be the bedroom for the previous owner's young daughter and I cannot imagine little Rosa spending much time playing in her room this time of year!

I am enjoying the "first year in a new place" cycle, learning a lot, getting a feel for the cycles, making plans for changes and upgrades starting next year. One thing I have set in my mind... Samhain will be the "put the outside to bed" deadline. We did not get all the mowing quite done this year (some of the lawn went un-tended, as did the front "fenceline".) There again, that can be an ongoing project for the year as well, instead of playing catch up and not even being able to start until the cooler temps of fall, on account of K's over heating. And along with getting the Yule stuff out, I need to make sure I am on seed catalog mailing lists, as I have not yet got a single one!