Quiet day --- laid low and watched tv between naps. Headache is gone but pretty congested. A couple of friends seem to have the same thing, all testing negative for Covid.

I watched a documentary on Peacock about Ghislaine Maxwell. Fascinating story about a very interesting woman who made incredibly stupid choices.

Also, RIP Betty White

felt a little off this morning. My eyes have been kind of watery and scratchy, which is unusual for me. Allergies? Who knows. Went to Target to pick up a few things and by the time I finished up, was definitely feeling a scratchy throat and headache coming on. Ugh...with the holidays, I've been around so many people, some of who have had colds, flus, etc. . I'm all vaxed and boosted, but it seemed prudent to get a COVID test. Long story short, there were no appointments available either through Walgreens, where I would normally go, or even through my doctor, until next week. We're supposed to head to Florida on Saturday, so I really didn't want to wait that long.

Drove back into town and cruised by a walk-in testing place. There was a line of people threading out the door and down the sidewalk (adding that it's 25 degrees and misting here). That looked like a trainwreck.

Steve, trying to be helpful, told me to go to the place in the parking lot at the local mall. He drove by there and one of the poor overworked nurses told him you did not need an appointment. I was skeptical but went anyways. No, you don't need an appointment but still need to fill out an online form and get in the queue. And it's not free --- the rapid test is $129. At least you could sit in the privacy of your own vehicle and not have to stand out in the elements. It took about 2 hours to finally get tested and on my way, and results were negative.

Spent the rest of the day lying around, feeling like crud. Fingers crossed that this is just one of those 24-hour things.

Cold and rainy day. Had a haircut in the morning and then lunch at Mom's. We are headed back to Florida on the first for a couple of weeks, so I've started the packing process.

Had good intentions of getting a ride in today --- spent the morning organizing Christmas gifts. For some reason I received a lot of socks as gifts this year. Not sure I'll be able to use them all so some of them may go to Goodwill.

Reorganized all the gift wrap, tissue, gift boxes, etc. from the disaster on a shelf in the basement to a better arrangement using a big flat plastic box that can go under a bed. In the process, I found an old gift card in a wine bag for a local liquor store. Ugh, it's so easy to miss little things like that.

It started raining so I went to hop on the trainer and oddly, had a flat tire. It took way longer than it should have to get the bike off the trainer and the tube changed. Not sure what happened, seems to be the valve stem. Whatever...by the time I was back in action, the urge to spend any time on the trainer had passed.

Merry Christmas BT
We had a very nice Christmas, starting in the morning when Steve's daughter and family spent the night with us. It was fun watching their kids open gifts. They packed up and left mid morning to go to the other grandparents' place, and we hosted lunch for my side of the family. Everyone made it except for a nephew who was sick (not COVID) and stayed home to rest. My niece brought her boyfriend -- first time she has introduced him to family, so it may be getting serious.

After lunch and opening gifts, the crowd moved to the basement and played pool and ping pong for a couple of hours before heading home.

All in all, a very nice Christmas -- I hope we have many more like this