Tuesday, November 4 - Thursday, November 6

Tuesday was the usual busy-ness, though Greta had a late musical rehearsal so Lucia took both piano lessons then came home and had her tutoring session. I worked from home so the day felt manageable.

Wednesday took the busy-ness up a notch, with a late work dinner for me at Duquesne. I took the bus there and it took forever and felt like I was venturing out at midnight--I'm still not used to the darkness of late afternoon with the time change. I also took the bus home, and my route was inexplicable. I couldn't see anything out the windows because of the darkness, so relied on the electronic screen showing the stops, and I did eventually get home--but was the bus heading in the wrong direction at some point? Did I unwittingly circle all around downtown? Only the driver knows for sure. I regretted my choice to take the bus that late at night (it was 6:00pm); was grateful to myself for the mask I always keep in my work bag when a woman a few rows up began covid-coughing; but I refuse to drive outside of the East End unless it is absolutely essential, so bus hassle is what I get and, probably, deserve.

Thursday again piled on. I went to work, Andrew went to work, Greta had musical rehearsal, Lucia came home at 3. At some point she and Andrew went to the garage to put air in the tires of Greta's bike, which Lucia will use on Friday for the annual XC bike ride. Of course the tires were flat, and of course Andrew found himself back where he was at exactly this time last year, not being able to find the proper adaptor to use for the bike pump. Last year he had enough time to order one from Amazon, but it has since disappeared into the great maw of our garage (or basement, or mudroom, or any number of other places where a tiny brass valve might hide).

So I had Andrew put the bike rack on the car, and Lucia and I drove with her bike to the Trek store so they could inflate the tires (and sell us another valve). We had just enough time to do this before we all had to go pick Greta up at musical rehearsal and then head immediately to Target for our flu and covid shots. None of us had eaten dinner. The day just seemed unreasonable in every way.

But! The day was redeemed when we realized that the two slips of paper the pharmacy shot-giver handed each of us after our shots were actually Target coupons for $10 off any $20 purchase--offering the opportunity for a shopping trip where everything was half-off. Lucia chose some favorite snacks and a nail polish. Andrew got snacks for his work trip to Germany. Greta got bobby pins for musical (she was too exhausted to enjoy this exciting and high-energy turn the evening had taken). I chose a winter bird from the Christmas section and a 2026 planner. I also got cute new gingerbread-themed flannel sheets for the kids, discounted 40% and then BASICALLY FREE with our coupons.

We used 7 of the 8 coupons, stopping the flow of the self-checkout because we had to pause to use a coupon each time our total reached $20 (only one coupon could be used at a time), effectively checking out 7 times. Worth it.