Meet Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Thursday, June 11
A good, busy day today, as I put in some time tending to The Shire.
After morning project work was done, I dove into the new chair for some reading, usual for Thursday morning, but I had a gnawing feeling this wasn’t what I should be doing with my time right now…I should be mowing the lawn, but it still wasn’t even 0600 so I made myself useful cleaning the bathroom and the kitchen.
The bathroom really needed it…I cleaned the throne and the sink and the tub, pretty thoroughly, too, or, more accurately, Sparrow Thorough, which is about half what a professional would do…I half-assed the kitchen, too, getting the dishes done and the floor swept, but I couldn’t be bothered to vacuum the rug…Still tho, both are noticeably cleaner than they were before.
The lawn really needed attention…There are still some dandelion stems sticking out eight inches, but the worst appears to be over but recall we had some snow and rain earlier in the week and the grass itself was higher than we like and it was fun diving in and doing my own lawn, even more satisfying than watching Cody do it…I wore the overalls, of course, and it was cool enuff to warrant a long sleeve shirt which also provided protection against the mosquitos, which were out in force this morning.
After the lawn, I headed out to the next county, first stopping at the self-serve joint to wash the new ride…This was the first new ride washing, but I’ve only had it for eight months, which isn’t too bad…I had planned to use the soap brush on it but I lost interest after a few minutes and only waved the wand over the new ride a few times with soapy water and the spot-free rinse, which is false advertising because it leaves spots all over the place.
My first stop was the hardware store in the next county…I need a weed wacker and I went there instead of the retailer because you get what you pay for in these matters…I probably spent about $30 more than I needed to, but this puppy should last many years…I got expert help, too, which is why I went there instead of going to the hardware store in the small town. (It’s the same chain.)…The guys there, while meaning well, don’t really know their products as well as the guys in the next county.
The only thing is I didn’t put it immediately to work, in deference to the robins…I bought an electrical one and the outdoor plug is, literally, directly below their nest and I don’t want them dive-bombing me and am giving them their space and I put the new weed wacker in the shed.
Then I went to the retailer, where I completely lost my mind and bought some healthy stuff, like carrots and green stuff for juicing and more kombucha, because I’ve been out of the habit for a couple of weeks..I’ve been eating like a pig lately and my walks have been less frequent and I am not happy with myself…I celebrated my new healthy lifestyle by having lunch at the Mexican joint.
The big news is the 2020 robin models have hatched…Recall we’ve suspected that for a couple of days, but today I got visual verification…From the inside…I opened the kitchen door and risked life and limb by also opening the screen door for a peak and there they were, three (at least) baby robins sticking their beaks up waiting for a worm to be put in…I don’t know how many worms baby robins require each day, but when I was mowing the lawn and later water you could see ma and pa robin out there poking in the lawn trying to rustle up food for their babies.
In other bird news, the bird feeder, finally, is up…Recall than and the 40-lb sack of food has been sitting in the new ride for a couple of weeks…In the past, we kept the sack of food in the kitchen but I don’t want to do that anymore, so I put it in the shed…Exactly why it took two weeks to make this command decision will probably always remain one of the Wonders of Sparrow, but the neighborhood birds are being fed again…Recall, I splurged on the premium birdseed, so we should some pretty birds to look at instead of the feral, dead common birds the cheap birdseed attracts.
I finished off the day with some watering, by hand, because when you’ve been working the land as long as ol’ Sparrow has, you know hand water from time to time keeps you in touch with your lawn…This was a lot of fun, too…Most of the lawn is looking pretty good, and I focused on the usual drier areas that pop up every year.
Regular readers of this crap know that on Thursdays I try to have the day’s work done and retired and in the chair reading by 1300 or so…Not today…I didn’t get to the chair until 1600 or so and I was sufficiently tired that I only got some cursory reading in before starting to nod off.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 1800 Wednesday until 0200 Thursday…8.5 hours for the night and 27.5 hours for the week. Not too bad a weekly total, pretty middling, actually, considering the 2.5-hour fiasco of Tuesday night
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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