Friends, it’s Read Free Week here at The Diary of a Nobody, where you can read Sparrow’s daily entries the next few days with our compliments.
Meet Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Thursday, May 16
A busy day…Or morning, rather…I had a lot I wanted to do: lift weights, oil change, and mow and water the lawn and in an almost unprecedented display of inspiration and energy I had everything I wanted to do done by noon, except the watering, but you can’t water the entire lawn all at once, even with the new 100-foot hose I bought, which is more than we need but what the heck, maybe I can water neighbor Jerry’s yard, too.
After morning coffee and putzing around with some projects for a bit, I was in the gym around 0545 or so…Key, I’ve learned, is giving the new organic, plant-based workout supplement time to take effect…The old stuff, you were ready to go in 30 minutes but the new stuff you don’t really feel until 45 minutes to an hour, so you plan accordingly…I was strong, too, stronger than when I got back in the gym a couple of weeks ago…I’ve already upped the weight on a couple of exercises and will be ready to do so on the others here soon…I’ve upped the between-sets squats up to 20, too.
I have the kissed and made up with the car repair place here in town…Recall last time I got an oil change they gave me an estimate of $25, which seemed low, so I verified it three times and it turned out the new girl (who’s still there and not new anymore) didn’t know what she was talking about and I got charged full price…Well, I needed an oil change and it’s inconvenient to get one in town now, so I called and made an appointment Wednesday for 0800 today…I waited, too, but at 0830 Ryan comes in and shows me my air filter, which even I can tell needs to be replaced…Unfortunately, they don’t have one in stock and won’t have one delivered until 1030, so I walk home and tell them to call me when it’s done…I could have driven the car home, I suppose, but I was feeling strong and it was a nice day for a walk.
This really happened: before Ryan came in and told me about the air filter we were all treated to the sound of sirens and horns, and the sight of a variety of cop cars and ambulances going down Main Street…They didn’t seem to be in too big of a hurry to catch anyone tho, and we were wondering what the hell the deal was when we saw a school bus drive by: it was the track athletes getting a send off to the state track meet in the big city…They have all divisions at one site and the small school prelims started in the afternoon…I had just read an article on the state meet in the local paper and our small town is sending no less than 24 athletes to the state meet, including several defending state champions, which is a really good total for a small town.
As I’ve noted here from time to time, the thrill of actually doing the lawn started fading a couple of years ago, but boy, a freshly mowed lawn sure looks good, especially after walking home from the mechanic and seeing all the unmowed lawns in town…Good gravy, show some pride, people…Our small town isn’t out of Leave it to Beaver or anything, but it would look a lot nicer if people looked after their lawns.
Because there was no one there to stop me, I started in on the watering before I was done mowing!!!…I am not making that up…The heart garden right out front on Main Street needed a good soak, so I put the old sprinkler on the new hose and started in while I finished up mowing the back sector, adjacent to the alley…Then I got the new sprinkler – the one where you can adjust the length and width of the water, and started in on giving that a good soak, too…We haven’t had rain for a few days, and I gave every sector a good 45 minutes, sometimes an hour, maybe more because it was hardly as if I had a stopwatch running.
Though I still had the prospect of moving the sprinkler every hour or so the rest of the afternoon, I declared a General Holiday after mowing….It was all of noon, and I showered and spent the rest of the day at leisure…It was a very good day off.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 1930 Wednesday until 0300 Thursday altho ol’ Sparrow didn’t roll out of the sack until 0330…7.5 hours…I’m very happy with the new routine of getting up at zero dark thirty on Thursdays…I’m rested and feeling strong…I do miss the Wednesdays where I would knock out a minimum of 15 hours in the sack – and I know you do, too – but we’re adaptable.
The Diary of a Nobody is a novel. All elements are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Anything else is a coincidence.
It was inspired by the 19th century British novel of the same name.
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