Yard work

Going meta for a moment. Weekend posts are going to come all at once for the foreseeable future. Rather than recaps, I prefer separate posts so there’s a record of the day to look back on, but there’s never time in the evenings to sit down, write and post. Those evenings when I have time to write, I simply spew, getting down everything so I don’t forget what happened or what was said or what stood...

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Perfect walks

It has been awhile since I’ve seen Izzy. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of me walking into the house all by myself. She greeted me with her usual happiness but then walked down the hallway to see if Paul and Eve were there and wasn’t sure what to think when she didn’t find them. I took her for a walk right away. She did beautifully. No pulling, no going crazy, just absolutely perfect loose leash...

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Friendship

I peeked in the mirror before I left work and thought my face looked unusually shiny. I keep a cosmetic bag of incidentals—comb, Neosporin, bandages, mascara, pressed powder and the like—at work for emergencies. I don't use any of it often but have used all of it at least once. I pulled out the pressed powder and because I was in a hurry, I opened it and began dabbing. By the time my brain processed...

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This and that

The urologist is retiring and suing his employer for age discrimination. Also, he’s looking for someone to reupholster a teak sofa. Henry visited my office today. He’s just back from back-to-back-to-back, etc., trips, some for business and some personal. He and Julia attended a family wedding in Maine, and now he wants to retire to a quaint village they found. Julia, however, refuses to live in a...

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Reading

I’m listening to an audiobook about the sinking of the Lusitania and reading a book published in 1915 about the Lutheran church in America. Overnight I became an 89-year-old, gray haired, tweed jacketed gent who has doilies protecting the arm of the most comfortable reading cha...

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Hospital

I’m not good with situations such as this: Eve’s Mom is in the hospital for tests  to figure out something that is baffling but not life threatening. I have never met Eve’s mom so it isn’t appropriate to stop by the hospital; however, I want to offer Eve support during a stressful time. So far I’ve relied on a text here and there to let her know I’m thinking of them. Until now I’ve never given...

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Yeah, toast!

Typical for Saturdays now, I went to Mica’s in the morning so we could take the little white dog to the dog park before the heat of the day hit. Until now we have avoided teaching him “dog park,” because we didn’t want to have to start spelling that in conversation. We’ve changed our minds with the hope that he will learn to associate car rides with fun. I don’t know. We spend too much time trying...

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Paris no more

Right after work I drove downtown and met Blaine at his office. There was an art exhibition we wanted to go to at a gallery that is only open late on Fridays. I called him as I was arriving and we met in the lobby of his building. The timing worked out well because he didn’t have time to go to his car to shed his jacket and tie. Later, on the way to the restaurant, he would but that even worked out...

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To do and should do

I can’t recall if I mentioned I changed the way I keep track of things I need to do at work. A week ago I switched from a Post-It-stuck-to-every-surface-haphazardly system to a color coded document divided by the different divisions I support. It’s rather fantastic. The colors make me happy. There’s tremendous satisfaction when I can put a double line through completed tasks. It gives me a record...

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Rainy

There are days when it’s very strange to write here as if there is nothing crazy, dispiriting and alarming is going on in the world, yet that’s what I choose to do. Some days though... damn.It’s rainy here today. The only impact it had on my day was that I couldn’t pick up display panels for Henry for fear of them getting wet. The printer I use for large-format prints is downtown and the only parking...

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New phone

For three years the 2, 7 and 9 on my office phone have stuck and stuttered. Finally, today I got a new phone. I had hoped for an upgrade to one with a speaker that I can use when Henry calls and wants me to make changes to a document while he’s feeding them to me. No joy there, but I can dial out without having to try two or three times, so I’ll not grouse. Because of the death of my coworker, I’ve...

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Saturday and Sunday

On second thought, there isn’t more that needs to be said about Friday. On Saturday Mica and I had hair appointments. I don’t remember if I’ve explained that the stylist we go to books us together. We’ve been going there for years, long enough that the three of us have a lot to talk about. I asked Mica not to reveal that I’m dating anyone because while it’s fun to talk about it when it’s going well,...

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Tuesday through Friday

Despite appearances, I did not bleed to death Monday night. I just didn’t have a night to myself to sit down and write. So, a recap. The garage door hook was decommissioned. Blaine came by Tuesday night and secured the door with a zip tie. He wanted to remove the hook but I asked him to leave it until I know the zip tie will last a while. He returned Wednesday night with a roll of white tape (matches...

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The hook

Texts, 20 minutes ago: Me: Remember when your arm bled all day? How did you get it to stop?   Eve: It finally stopped on its own, probably after that Anacin I took wore off. Are you bleeding?? Me: Yes. I was dragging a giant package of toilet paper out of the backseat of my car and bumped against the hook that holds the garage door open. It jabbed me good on the shoulder. Eve: Is it deep?...

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1, 2, 3

I hate to enter the territory of TMI but it helps explain my headspace this week. I was going to skip writing anything at all but last night when I woke in the middle of a night and couldn’t fall back asleep I went back and read everything I’ve written here and decided to keep going even when I know I sometimes will write things that make me cringe later. The TMI isn’t too bad. It’s simply that...

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Fourth on the third

What to do for the Fourth first came up a couple of weeks ago. I found out that Blaine, like me, hasn’t actively celebrated it for a number of years. He typically gets invited somewhere or will go to Allison’s if they don’t have other plans. I typically hang out at Mica’s during the day and try to get home before people start setting off fireworks in the middle of the streets.This year Allison, Ty...

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Cold spot

I woke up relaxed to the point of feeling boneless. I could not and did not move for the longest time. Toward evening I went to Mica’s. We wanted to do something with the little white dog. With all the rain it was too muddy to go to the dog park. On the other hand, the storms dropped the temperature to a tolerable level, making an extra long walk through the neighborhood a possibility. We walked along...

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