It’s not going to last forever, but Read Free Fortnight continues.
Meet Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Thursday, October 22
Boy, I had lousy strength today lifting weights…My mind set the pace, informing I didn’t really want to be there even tho when I woke up I could have sworn I did…Every rep was fought tooth and nail and the weights were a plate less than what I’m accustomed to when I have good strength.
The walk, tho, was a triumph…It was freezing when I set out and nice and clear, too, a gorgeous fall morning, the kind that makes you glad you moved here, the kind you think about when you have to plow the driveway three times in order get all the snow cleared…It’s sort of like when the cats are kittens and they’re so adorable, which is how they get you to cater to their every whim for the next ten years while they secretly plot your death.
Actually, personally speaking, fall is over because most of the leaves on the River Route have fallen and the spectacular show Mother Nature favored us with the past couple-three weeks is over until next year…That’s OK tho, you can’t whine about nature and, besides, if you had 365 days of fall colors they would get old and you wouldn’t appreciate them.
I got the snow tires put on today, too…Recall I’d made a 1000 appointment earlier in the week at the tire place in the next county because long time readers of this crap may – or they may not – recall I’ve pledged never to spend money at the local tire place unless it is completely unavoidable…Dale, the guy who runs the shop, is a reason why because he could give me lessons in customer service and that isn’t easy to do because I have a lot of experience delivering 5-star service to everyone from the homeless to US Ambassadors.
Groove on this: I was greeted by name as I walked in and he remembered I’d bought the snow tires from him last year, right after I’d bought the new ride, and he asked how I like them…Well, that would make even Hitler feel welcome…It took an hour, a bit longer than I thought it should have, but I had a book, so the time passed pleasantly.
I ran into Chuck from the Legion at the tire joint, too…Chuck asked after The Ex – he was always running into her at the retailer – and he was sad to hear we’d parted…Chuck’s been married for 50 years and I’ve learned you don’t want to tell people like this it was actually for the best, so I merely agreed with him.
Chuck is also head of the executive board of the local senior’s home and bitched about the newspaper’s coverage of the virus, saying they were making it sound like the home was ground zero for the virus…He had a point because I’ve gotten that impression reading the paper, that all residents and staff were on death’s door…Chuck also said he’s having back surgery next week.
After that – and this is hardly the Upset of the Year – I had lunch at the Mexican joint and then went to the ranch store for a long-sleeved t-shirt sleep in…I’d bought one there ages ago, when we first got to town, and it’s starting to show wear…They had a couple of options, one had the brand name in big letters down one sleeve and the other had a pocket with the company’s logo on it…Neither of these was ideal: I don’t really need to advertise to the cat and I don’t need a pocket indoors, but those were the only two options and I went with the one with a pocket, in a nice forest green color…Then I went to the retailer and stocked up for the week.
The plan for the afternoon was to head into town, do some project work, go to the 50’s diner for dinner and maybe get a soak in at the hot springs before the first meeting of our Legion post since before lockdown…It was a pretty good plan – a nice change from the usual Thursday routine – but this plan ended up not being executed.
I got home from doing errands in the next county around 1230 and the plan was to be out the door an hour later but regular readers of this crap know I’m usually done for the day around this time and that happened again, I was nodding off and not in the mood to do anything and I didn’t make it into town.
The post meeting was to talk about Veterans Day plans…Usually, we’re treated to rather nice presentations at both middle schools in town and we go to the senior’s home but we can’t do any of those things this year, of course, and we might have to take the year off.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 1900 Wednesday until 0230 Friday…7.5 hours for the day and 27 hours for the week.
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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