Pet food. My blue heeler has been scratching and licking up a storm lately, the culprit probably a new type of food from Tractor Supply. As we neared the end of that bag I returned to the previous variety and started her on it as soon as it arrived (Cookie isn't bothered by the other one, so she's finishing it off). The scratching has decreased dramatically in just a week.

These two announce important arrivals at the house: family, delivery people, the trash truck in the street, and the mail carrier. They get it wrong occasionally so I look out to an empty porch or driveway, but they're right more than they're wrong, so today I'm waiting for the bark that tells me the mail carrier is coming so I can hand off the last of the boxes from my delayed gift orders.

On his wish list this year my son wanted "normal human shirts" (not polo). I went looking for good cotton t-shirts and Reddit reminded me of LandsEnd, that used to be its own company then joined Sears and is now out there again as its own company. A friend from Chicago who liked to sail introduced me to them in the 1970s. Today's parcel contains their shirts for him, but since they sent an email about their clearance sale I found two light fleece jacket shirts (I've been looking for those for ages). They zip up the front and are great for wearing around the house in cool weather. The one I have is from Royal Robbins (a mountaineering company) and it won't last forever. I like them in particular because the sleeves are long enough for my arms but are slim so they don't snag on things. Like drawer pulls, or pick up jigsaw puzzle pieces as I'm working on one. (As soon as I placed the order I set their email to arrive only once a month. I hate getting swamped with store promotions.) Xmas money well spent.

Finally, I don't make new year resolutions, they are made to be broken, but I have a couple of behavior adjustments I've been working on that I can see from this point in the year have worked. I always used to pick up my phone when I woke and look at several email accounts and a couple of the social media sites (Instagram and Bluesky). The cortisol generated from messages about the resident in the White House set the bad energy into motion for the day and I'm sure was part of the PMR recurrence. If I pick up the phone in the morning now it is to look at one email address (that receives no politics but does tell me if there is anything in the mail) and the weather.