Christmas Tree III

I decided I was going to complete my Christmas decorations with some pretty pricey fake candles...we’re a little gun shy about flames....In order to do that I had to go to the little shopping center closest to us which has been dead as a doornail for months. I hadn't been into a store since March, but I needed to get out of the house. 

The place was really busy. NO place to park. All the shops open (if they haven't already permanently closed) and busy. I had had a notion of browsing a bit in the shop which I like and have browsed in and made purchases. It was really busy so I dived in, went straight for the candles and got in the queue to pay. Everybody was wearing a mask but it's not a big shop and it was hard to keep a distance. The woman who was waiting to take my money has worked there for years and asked me how I was. 'Still standing', said I. She looked really concerned and asked if we had lost our house. I told her that it was close but our house didn't burn down. She said they had been wondering about us because they hadn't seen either of us since the fire. 

I still tend to think of myself as an outsider here, but incidents like this make me realize that I have been here for eight years and have actually made a lot of connections here. 

I put the batteries in the three candles, set them to turn on at 5pm and arranged them on one end of the kitchen counter. I usually go out and forage for greens but there are no greens to be had around here now. They look pretty without greens and quite realistic.

We're now trying to figure out what to do with the remains of the deck that were custom built to go around the hot tub. There are a lot of choices to be made for a small space...breaking up concrete, digging out roots of a dead tree, finishing the fences, planting plants. I think John and I just want it to be cleaned up and not a work in progress forever...

Tomorrow is another day...we'll spend the day gathering up the last of the burned and destroyed stuff destined for the dump...burned garden furniture, charred plants, an old dog bed, melted irrigation pipes.
We’re hoping it’s the last trip to the dump for awhile...