Odds & ends

• Well, the federal government has ordered Canada Post workers back to work as of today -- but the post office is warning that it will take quite a while to deal with the backlog of incoming and outgoing mail.  Too little, too late for Christmas cards & packages. The strike began more than a month ago, on Nov. 15th. I didn't even buy any cards this year, because I knew these things sometimes tend to drag on, and I didn't want to knock myself out trying to get them done (at an already busy time of year) when they might not even be able to be sent until well into the new year. 
• So for the first time in my adult life, I'm not sending a Christmas card. Not sure anyone will miss it!  (lol) but I always enjoy doing them and look forward to getting them in the mail (although the number I get has been dwindling over the years).  I posted about this on Facebook. (I'm guessing some of our friends & relatives outside of Canada probably didn't even know there was a strike going on.)  
• A few people have urged me to send out cards/letters (even via email) in the new year instead. I might, but it definitely wouldn't be until after the new year...! 
• I'm feeling a lot less foggy from my cold today -- but still coughing a lot (which has kept me awake at night for the last several nights). So I called our dentist's office this morning to rebook my rebooked appointment for tomorrow -- one less thing on my to-do list to deal with! I'll now be going there in early January. 
• The bruises and scrapes from my tumble last week are also fading, and should be just about gone by the time we fly to see my parents. (I haven't told them about what happened. "Why stir the pot?"  my sister said when I asked her if I should.)  
• Jody Day flagged this Substack post, saying "Sue Fagalde Lick NAILS it about the complex emotions on the effort/cost of sending gifts when you're a solo elderwomen... and the tiny amount of recognition or reciprocity we often see..."  (Partnered and/or younger childless women too, but I recognize it's especially difficult when you're solo and older!):  "Santa, I need some help over here!" 
• Jody also wrote a piece for the World Childless Week website that a lot of us might need/want to read right about now: "No Room At The Inn For People Without Children." 
• Y.L. Wolfe about being a perennial outsider in her new (and aptly named) Substack "On the Outside."  Needless to say, I could relate...!
• From the Life Without Children Substack: "Tears, Sweat and Blood — Seeking an Answer to Unexplained Infertility." Subhead:  "How an ancestor helped to solve the eternal question, ‘Why me?’ "