Happiness Is Where You Find It

 
If there's one thing I love about early retirement it's that I can set my own schedule. I woke up at six o'clock and worked on my new writing project for a couple of hours. Then I thought I'd take a chance and battle the day after Christmas crowds at University Towne Center. 

With Miku as my Caribbean Aqua Metallic steel chariot, I was prepared for a literal Boxing Day. I used to play hockey at the ice rink on the south side of the mall so it tracks... except there weren't any crowds! I shopped at TUMI and Williams Sonoma without incident, and you'll see the items I picked up for my upcoming trip on Saturday.

Upon my return home I decided to get lunch. And two bottles of wine and a loaf of bread...

You've seen the interior and exterior of Dudley's Bakery in Santa Ysabel, so this is Highway 78 heading west from Artoria's driver's seat. Beyond the smaller hills in the foreground there's cows and horses running free on ranches on either side of the two lane highway. I only wish there was a shoulder to park on so I could take pictures for y'all. It's beautiful out here as long as there's no active wildfires!

I apologize for the seven layers of dirt on Artoria. We've had a constant 5% to 20% chance of rain where I live for the past few days, and it actually rained a couple of times. She'll have to wait until New Year's Eve to look beautiful again.

So this was my day up until three o'clock, and all of these fun activities really cleared my head to deal with the drama going on behind the scenes.

UPON FURTHER REVIEW: If you enlarge the second photo, there's cows out there on that field!