Meet Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Friday, May 17
Longtime readers of this crap may – or they may not – recall that we’ve established ol’ Sparrow is as strong in the gym on Day 2 as he is on Day 1, so I was back at it bright and early this morning, a bit after 0500…The weights I upped Thursday still felt strong, and I am close to upping the weights on the other exercises, too…Well, maybe not the bench press…My max weight, which used to be the warm-up set in the old days, is still going up ten times on the last set, but I am not close to doing it the twelve times required, more or less, to add another plate.
It’s been established, however, that Day 3 is significantly less strong, so ol’ Sparrow won’t be in the gym again until Sunday evening.
The bad news at the VSO is that I am unable to send in claim forms electronically (known as D2D in the VSO racket)…I could have sworn I was, but evidently, that is something reserved for those in the state office (and they don’t always use it) and denied those of us in the trenches at the county level…This, of course, means I don’t really need the keypad to capture electronic signature I had Phil in IT get for me, so I wasted a couple of hundred bucks of taxpayer money, which means I wasted my money, which I don’t really like.
Corky, a frequent client, came in again…This time he still fretting that his CCW is being held up because he is in some law enforcement database that says he is incompetent to handle his affairs despite the fact he is in possession of a letter from the VA that says he isn’t…Or is…Competent, that is.
Well, I can do what I can, but I am paid to help veterans deal with the VA, not ensure their CCW is squared away…Still tho, since the VA’s determination that Corky is competent might carry some weight, I said would contact the Sheriff’s office and see what I could do.
I did some research first, tho, and came up with an 800 number that was some zero use and then I ended up talking to a gal at the FBI who was helpful and confirmed that contacting the Sheriff’s Office was what I want to do…So I called the detective in charge of this and left a message.
Because it’s Friday everybody was ordering me to have a good weekend…I always say sure or you, too, but folks, my work week starts on Fridays – with a 16-hour day, and my only day off is Thursday…I don’t have a traditional weekend and I want to smack people when they say this, even tho they mean well….I’ve stopped explaining this, tho, because then people feel sorry that ol’ Sparrow has to work odd hours even tho I rather enjoy it.
I ate very well today, too, key to maximizing your weight lifting…Had a hamburger patty with some Worcester sauce after workout, before heading into the VSO, and my protein shake, as well…At the VSO I keep some power bars for thru-the-day snacking and I also brought some chicken salad, too…Well, chicken salad is a bit of a misnomer because it indicates there are a lot of tasty ingredients in there…There are not…Remember The Wife is still off visiting the kids in Sin City and Sparrow’s chicken salad is merely some canned chicken with some vegan mayo thrown in…It’s not straight out of the Weightlifter’s Handbook, but a guy reduced to bachelor duty for a couple of weeks does what he can and I give myself big points for not making two sandwiches out of it.
I did some shopping after the VSO shift…First I went to the health food store for some freshly made almond butter and some more veganaise…It ain’t cheap, $21 for three items (two almond butters because they don’t last all that long and it’s more convenient to get two of them) and similar non-organic crap at the retailer for a few bucks, but you can’t really deny the organic crap is better for you.
Then I went to the retailer…I didn’t really want to because it’s on the other side of town and I wanted to get back to The Shire to get a nap in before heading to the hotel, but it’s raining today and will be for the next couple of days and I need new windshield wipers…As usual, I bought the ones that are easiest to install…These happen to be inexpensive ones, but I’d’ve forked over more if those had been the easiest to install…I like the ones that can be slipped over the hook…Some might recall I got some others that required the viewing of a video to aid installation, and I immediately took them back in a huff and exchanged them.
I miss the people I worked with at the retailer…I don’t miss the job because VSO is worthwhile work and, besides, sitting behind a desk is my only real talent in the workplace – but it was a pretty good part-time gig.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log:
1930 Thursday until 0330 Friday…8.0 hours…Virtually the same as Wednesday night.
1830 Friday until 2130 Friday…3.0 hours and 11.0 hours for the day….I don’t have the weekly totals handy, tho…Apologies are issued.
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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