The temperature is plunging this evening.  Anne says if it falls to 20 we won’t run in the morning.  I can hope.  I have never taken much pleasure in dawn runs when it is cold.  Still, I enjoy what the running does for me.  It is a tonic, certainly, and keeps us fit for hiking, birding, and other grand exercises.

We are finishing the year with a rush.  Too much going on.  We bought a car yesterday, a new Ford Focus Hatchback with moonroof.  It replaces our 2003 Focus ZX3.  Anne wanted four doors this time.  That was easy.  All of them are now four-door.  We worked hard to find a good car for a dinghy.  Anne fell in love with the new Subaru Crosstrek, it has 8.5 inches of ground clearance and weighs less than 3,000 pounds.  The manufacturer certifies it to tow flat, but the tow-bar manufacturers don’t make a plate for it.  That is too bad.  The focus has only the six inches clearance that I consider for snow and gravel roads.  Clearance is becoming a serious problem today, manufacturers sacrificing safety for mileage.  Too bad. 

We bought the car at the end of a long day.  We made an expedition to York, shopped, banked, took my mother to a doctor’s appointment, and found my aunt signing herself onto hospice care.  We sat down and listened to her.  She is tired, she is in pain, she does not want to be sent to the hospital again.  We told her she could recover.  She said she did not want to.  So, we assisted her in the application process and shed a few tears to the side.

After that we should have come home, but instead went out for a light dinner and lots of coffee.  We went to the dealership knowing exactly what we wanted and how much it should cost.  I offered a much lower price and was told I could have it for a bit more than that.  I said fine and we came home.  We’ll pick it up tomorrow.

Our time till we head south is limited.  The new car should be fitted out with trailer hitch, towbar, and roof rack.  Perhaps not before spring.  We need dental and eye appointments.  Perhaps in Florida.  Anne is sewing and quilting furiously.  She made lovely curtains for Elley’s new home.  Also various Christmas gifts and favors.  I made plans for a garage installation next spring, but still need to apply for the building permit before we leave.

Today I took the old car into the shop to have the tow-bar and trailer hitch removed in hopes the apparatus can be applied to the new car.  I also bought stocking stuffers.  Tis the season. 

Tomorrow we return to York to pick up the new car and trade-in the old one.  We will visit my Mom and Aunt again too and also join the count public works association for a luncheon meeting with a meteorologist who traditionally gives the long-term winter weather forecast.  Long-term forecasts are still not much good, but they are improving.

On Friday we may put up our Christmas tree and continue with chores.  We were going to NYC this weekend to put up curtain rods and curtains for Elley, but we will wait until the end of the month to do that.

If anyone reads this tonight, there is a meteor shower tomorrow morning.  Too cold to go out for that here tonight.  But elsewhere . . .  Enjoy the stars, they are brighter than the earth below.  Our Congress could not agree a year ago on a deficit reduction plan and so agreed if they could not agree by now that taxes would go up next year and spending  would slow (probably not go down.)  Still no chance of bringing the deficit to zero.  Now they cry over that, call it “a fiscal cliff” and want to not raise taxes or decrease spending.   In they end, I know they will increase taxes and I think they will not decrease spending.  The deficit will only open wider.  Tragic.  And as we go broke we provoke our enemies.  Do we have a death wish? 

Ah, we should forget all that and enjoy this season of darkness and of lights.