It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Sunday, April 11
One way to get out of doing work is to appear willing to do it…At 0530 the bell rings and there’s a gent there requesting two towels and two washcloths…I point to the back office, noting we probably have them here and go back, haul town the towel basket and see that while there are plenty of towels and hand towels, there aren’t any washcloths…I take two towels out tell the gent this, adding it would be my pleasure to deliver two washcloths to his room.
Brilliant move…He takes the towels and – plainly thinking I’ve worked hard enuff tonight – shakes his head dismissively, saying there was no need, he’s grateful for the towels and they will be enuff.
I finally got around to making hotel reservations for the road trip, which may sound funny from someone who continuously blasts idiot guests who need rooms on sold-out nights…But it’s a buyers market right now and there was no problem getting reservations…I kept with my policy of not spending too much on myself for solo lodging: not cheap, but economical.
About 0300 or so I started getting the idea of getting the lawn done today…The snow’s been gone for a while and the grass is no longer dormant and, of course, ol’ Sparrow couldn’t be bothered to get the leaves up last fall, so the lawn was looking sort of scruffy.
The more I thought about it, the more enthused about it yours truly became and in an hour or so it was decided…In fact, the only question was whether or not to workout first…Initially, I decided not to, but as I got in the car it was still below freezing and there’s no sense doing yard work in that so I went to the gym and had a pretty good session, which you would expect after 13 hours of sleep the day before.
No soak, tho…I get a soak in and I’d be too relaxed and disinterested in yard work upon return to The Shire and nothing more strenuous than feeding the cat would be attempted.
There was a lot to do…The worst of the leaves were raked up and thrown away and then there was no small amount to twigs and branches to be picked up and it wasn’t too long before ol’ Sparrow was wondering why in the hell he didn’t hire the kid to come and do this because the initial enthusiasms wore off disturbingly quick and I almost stopped…Then I shamed myself by reminding me of the fact the only barrier between me and a nice yard appeared to be me then reminded myself of the extreme feeling of satisfaction that always came with working in the yard…Childishly, I held out the prospect of breakfast sandwiches from the convenience store as a reward if I finished.
It wasn’t easy because like an idiot the only nutrition I’d had after workout was my protein shake and I was actually starting to get weak…The lawnmower, tho, had started right up on the fifth try or so – about par for the first mowing – and I muddled thru mand the lawn doesn’t look too bad…I put off the decision on texting the kid to see if wanted to hire on again for the season until later, tho…It was a nice feeling at the end.
The only fly in the ointment was I was done so late the convenience store no longer had breakfast sandwiches out, so I rolled with a burger and some pizza slices, the usual stuff when I dine there on Wednesdays…It’s lousy nutrition and sometimes lousy nutrition like this is eliminated in fairly short order, but I was so starved for calories my body treated it like it was something from an Olympic training table.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: THERE IS NO SLEEP TO REPORT FOR TODAY!!!
I am not making that up…0.0 hours for the day, the very worst possible start to the sleep week…The afternoon feeding perked me right up and, of course, I got 13 hours of sleep Saturday and I didn’t even start yawning until 1900 and wasn’t even all that tired when it was time to leave for the hotel.
Oh well…This has happened a handful of times in the past and it’s not the end of the world…It’s slow enuff that I might get a nap in at the hotel anyway.
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.
Go Gaylon! Follow him on Facebook.
