What’d you do today?

In spite of having done very little of consequence today, for some inexplicable reason I feel as though I have accomplished a great deal.  This, by the way, includes an afternoon snooze during which I slept uncommonly soundly for at least an hour. But when I awoke, it was without reluctance that I immediately re-engaged in my day of indolence and irrelevance.

For one thing, I pored over my latest weekly copies of Country Life magazine. Though this may appear to be a singularly small achievement, it signals the review of what has been outstanding because of the Canadian postal strike since my birthday early last December.  The particular edition at hand was published for the period December 11 – 18, 2024 “The Christmas Double Issue“.  It recalled the effervescence of Christmas, the flavours and images of the season (mulled wine, Christmas tree lights, Alpine snow-covered mountains, gifts with large red bows, chestnuts, The Revd Dr Colin Heber-Percy speaking of the secularized calendars, Rolex Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master 42 in 18 CT white gold, puppies, Mark Hedges Editor’s Christmas wish to family and friends, pinecones, wreaths, radiant red cranberries judiciously supporting gold bracelets and gems, mincemeat pie, gingerbread, the clove-studded glaze of the succulent Christmas ham and of course the Cotswold Hills).

Naturally I heightened this languishing experience by listening to the algorithmic delicacy of Favourites Mix by Apple Music®. Nor had I any hesitation to adopt this exceedingly tranquil mid-January mode. In part we expiated the inactivity by having done a bit of grocery shopping early this morning.  We have lately reanimated the truism that grocery shopping before ten o’clock in the morning assures a sizeable measure of latitude to what normally otherwise characterizes the mandatory endeavour. By coincidence, just as we were preparing to return to the apartment, a call came from the IDA pharmacy in Carleton Place to advise of the arrival of the prescription compression stockings I had ordered.

All this is admittedly by way of acknowledging our looming departure in a week to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina for a couple of months. I hasten however to observe that when driving en route to the pharmacy today through the rural farmlands I cheerfully remarked upon the beauty of the wintry landscape throughout the expansive fields. This speaks to the correspondence of immobility and vacationing. The distinction – or, if you will, the separation – succeeds to elevate the two to their advantage. Oddly the condition humaine is strengthened by the difference.  It is the curious removal from that which we pursue which so often augments the encounter of it.

If the further truth be confessed there is too an element of contraction and definition which savours these varied pursuits. It is only in these past several days since our return to Canada last spring that we have finally concluded our numerous outstanding obligations and medical imperatives (not the least of which was cancer surgery). As we slowly adapt to our latest digs on the north side of the river – a process which I know from experience routinely exacts a minimum of one year – we have unwittingly revived an interest in strawberries and whipping cream, a metaphor of the passion I have for fundamentals. This was the historic choice at the Opal ocean resort in Jupiter, Florida and the Westin hotel on Jekyll Island, Georgia. The revitalization is serendipitously commensurate with the commencement of Ozempic about which I have nothing but astonishment and approval after having taken but one injection. My uneducated summary of the drug is that it is like stepping from a puddle onto a dry walkway. The transition is seamless from what to me was a constant and normally boundless appetite to an agreeable state of satisfaction, no longer moored to implacable custom and need.  Honestly I cannot overstate the utility and gratification of the drug.

Tomorrow we complete the cycle of change and amendment by visiting my sister and her husband in the city in anticipation of our upcoming departure for the remainder of the winter. Family continues to survive as a paramount ingredient of my life. I am thankful that my two nieces, my sister’s children, are doing well; and, that my brother-in-law’s family also thrives. Yesterday we communicated with my partner’s family with equal satisfaction.

Note: Featured image, etc. from Country Life.