Meet Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Friday, January 10
Received my 15-year pin at the Legion meeting Thursday night…I was surprised because I thought I was only at twelve or 13 or so, but no, the big one-five and I’m a relative newcomer, too…Mike A got his 50-year pin and there were several in the 30-to-45-year range, too…Still, tho, 15 is nothing to sneeze, at either…It’s identical to the 10-year pin, except it has three stars, each signifying five years of membership.
Doc also talked about his project to write short biographies of post members…After his chat, he came and sat next to me against the back wall because all the seats at the table were filled up.
Who’s doing your bio, Doc???
My tone was sarcastic and Charlie, sitting on the other side of Doc, started laffing while Doc indicated he’d already interviewed himself and written his blurb.
Sparrow: How do we know it’s not a crock of shit???
Charlie: Yeah, how do we know you don’t claim to have slit the emperor’s throat or something???
Doc laffed, but declined my offer to proofread his bio.
The meeting was led off by the top three kids in a recent essay contest reading their work…They weren’t too bad and afterward they were standing up front together when Dennis, our Sgt at Arms and a guy who loves asking questions of this sort, asked them if they thought it would be possible for people and nations to talk out their differences in the future…The kids promptly got the blank looks you might expect of kids who were just asked a question of this sort…I usually leave Dennis alone, but I couldn’t resist.
Dennis, they’re twelve, they don’t have the answers to our deepest questions yet…
I said it loud enuff for only the back of the room to hear, which got some laffs and left the front of the room wondering exactly what the hell the back of the room was up to, something I always wondered when I was the commander and sat in the front of the room.
After the meeting, I got good mileage out of my story about being the first customer at the new convenience store in my small town…This came after Jack had mentioned how the small town sure could use a goddamned new place to eat…This came just in the nick of time, too because the glow from being the first customer has, frankly and tragically, started to wear off.
Busy at the Veterans Service Office today…I signed three people up for VA medical care and let me tell you, if you’re eligible for this benefit go and sign up for it now…Don’t wait…One gentleman is in his 70’s and he’s in good health, but boy, if Fred had signed up years ago it would have been ideal…One gent wasn’t a whole lot older than me and he is sick…His private coverage expired and he needs treatment for a variety of things…He was philosophical when I told him it would take six weeks to hear back, but that’s what you get for dawdling…I did say if he could hold out until then he should be all right…The VA will take care of him.
I should have had some MPG figures for the new ride for you, but that got mucked up…The gas light came on last night as I was heading home from the Legion meeting so I pulled in to the gas station on the end of town but they were out of the mid-level gas I like and I didn’t want to pay $18 a gallon for a full tank of ultra fru-fru premium, so I only got two gallons or so…Now, I didn’t reset the trip odometer so I could add the two gallons to what I get at the next fillup, but I don’t recall if I bought 2.0 gallons or 2.3 gallons or what, so any MPG figure will be suspect…Apologies are issued.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log:
2230 Thursday until 0530 Friday
1830 Friday until 2130 Friday
10.0 hours for the day and I don’t have the weekly figures handy…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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