Back to near normal

Christmas is over for another year. We had a lovely one, maybe one of the best—if oddest—ever. It was strange how it worked out, but the lad and I ended up talking all Christmas Eve night long and greeted the sunrise still talking. We decided to just keep going and open presents that had been so very recently wrapped. Needless to say, by the time mid-afternoon rolled around, we were just a little tired. But it was all worth it. We had so much fun that it’ll go down in my books as one of the very best Christmases ever. And, as it turned out, we both seemed to be on the same page and managed to offer each other a pretty eco-friendly selection of gifts. All well-loved and happily received.

Now the lad is off at his Dad’s house to do Christmas with the family in Alabama. I think they’ll fly out early in the AM. I’m not sure exactly when he will return. Sometime between the 2nd and the 6th. Whichever...it’s fine with me.

I drove the lad down to his Dad’s house about mid-afternoon. It takes just a couple of minutes shy of an hour to get there. I figured that I had rush hour beat by about a half an hour on the return trip. I figured wrong.

By the time I hopped on I-95 for the return trip (4:40 PM), the traffic was already bumper to bumper. I forget, sometimes, that rush hour in Boston starts around 3:30. It’s kind of a mesmerizing experience to be in four lanes of bumper to bumper traffic going 20 miles an hour. I just paid attention to the bumper in front of me and listened to the radio. So it went for several miles. And then, suddenly, I thought, “Hey, I shouldn’t be seeing signs for Cape Cod. What the heck?” And then I saw signs for Quincy and the JFK library. Oh boy.

To my everlasting puzzlement, somewhere along the line I departed I-95 and wound up on I-93, heading straight into Boston. During rush hour. O frabjous day. Speeds decelerated to about 5 miles per hour, bumper to bumper and I kept saying to myself, “How the heck did I wind up on I-93?!” I still have no idea. Guess maybe I oughta have been paying attention.

It is an alternate route and if it wasn’t rush hour, no harm done. It still gets me where I want to go, although a slightly longer route. But still. Not during rush hour. I didn’t roll back into my driveway until 7:03 PM. I surely wouldn’t want to do that kind of commute every day. After a couple of trips like that, I’d be purchasing a train pass.

Oh well. I’m home safe and sound. Now I have a few days in which to put the house back in order and keep things turned off.

I read the electric meter today and, while it wasn’t a shock, it wasn’t exactly a happy moment. The last I’d read it was on Monday morning. We used a powerful lot of electricity in the last two days. More than I used the entire previous week. Between the Christmas lights outside and those on the Christmas tree (plus extra lights on in the house and the large television going), we blew blew through 23 kWh in two days. I forgot to turn the outside lights off on Christmas Eve and the tree lights burned steadily for about 24 hours, too. Yeesh. I was totally excited and jumping up and down in my car seat when I pulled in the driveway tonight. My next door neighbor is done with Christmas and her Christmas lights were off. I can get with that program. I’m done with them, too.

Next year, I am going to do my best to prevail with the non-electric decorations. Starting early with attractive alternatives to entice my neighbor into an electricity saving Christmas. Putting the Christmas tree up on Christmas Eve was kind of cool, too. That stands a pretty good chance of becoming a new tradition. Well, we’ll see.

Anyway, it’s over and time to pack everything up for another year. I was sorry to see it go so fast, though. I would love to have been able to bottle up some of the magic of Christmas Eve this year. It was very, very special.