Volume 12 - Day 220/146, 2020 - Friday

I went to Costco today for the first time in at least three months, mainly because one prescription that I get filled at Costco is a ninety day prescription, and I have one pill left. Now I have ninety one, but I digress. Costco does not hold the same allure for me that it used to. I do not need a meatloaf that will feed thirty people. Five pounds of cottage cheese no longer calls to me from the dairy case. And I do not have enough wet iPhones that could cause a hundred pound bag of rice to jump from the pallet into my basket. What I ended up with was a case of bottled water, a box of Cheez-Its, a box of Skinny Pop, a couple bottles of Vitamin C Gummies, some breakfast crackers, and dog food. $64.17, not including the prescription. There was a time that I could not get out of Costco for less than $250, so that is just more proof of the weird times in which we live. The most distracting thing of the day was these two ladies, the one on the left in particular. Her face mask hid more than her whatever they are. I was about the sixth person to be leaving, these ladies were fifth. At one point, they both abandoned the basket and went to talk with friend at Customer Service. It was a Karen moment if there ever was one, and I remained calm, and put my head down on my cart handle and wept. People behind me applauded. The people with the pink highlighters at the door praised me for my calm demeanor, and the people outside gathering shopping carts made me a special path to my car with their abandoned carts. All-in-all, the day didn't suck.

Volume 12 - Day 219/147, 2020 - Thursday

I did nothing of any particular interest today. I had three Zoom meetings and one Skype meeting. The Skype meeting did not work because Skype does not like the particular Mac operating system version I have on my laptop, so we did that one by FaceTime. That is the first FaceTime call I have ever done on purpose. I have accidentally called someone using FaceTime, but I quickly disconnected the call. SO, having no photo to include with this journal entry, I went back in time to today in 1951. I was not yet born, but I really don't care about that part, it is just a couple months shy of my actual birthday. The photo I am using in this post is a 1951 Buick LeSabre concept car, and I have to tell you, I think it looks pretty cool. I still wonder how far we are away from flying cars, but that is a topic for another day. By 8:30 this evening, I will have watered all the trees (at least the ones that I water) on the property. Each tree today got one hour of dripping water, so I hope they appreciate it. 103 degrees today, and a pretty decent wind. And by then, I too will be ready to call it another day.

Volume 12 - Day 218/148, 2020 - Wednesday

It seems like the weekdays go by very slowly, and the weekends just go past in a blur. I feel like the three days this week have taken a week each day, and before you know it, it will be next week, and it all starts over again. I had a 10 o'clock Zoom meeting this morning, and I wanted to be in Austin, which meant I had to leave a little earlier than usual. On the way in, I stopped at Lowe's to buy some AC filters for the condo (I am having to have that system serviced). The appointment for that service was supposed to be around noon today, but they called and said they had been held up on another job, so we rescheduled for Friday, first thing. That means, I will need to be in Austin at 9 o'clock on Friday, but I would rather get it done in the morning so I can schedule other stuff for the rest of the day. It is always something. I had one zoom (should Zoom be capitalized?) meeting today, and I have three Zoom meetings and one Skype meeting tomorrow. I have never done a Skype meeting, so I hope I can follow the instructions and get it done with no issues. It is hot like the hinges of Hell in central Texas right now, our second heat wave of this season. Every day for the next fourteen days is expected to be at least 103 degrees, with NO chance of rain. We will survive this, and as soon as it starts raining, we will start complaining about that. But I digress... After my visit to Lowe's, I stopped at an Austin institution that has (so far) not declared bankruptcy, Taco Shack. This is the original on Medical Parkway, and they have four or five more. I got sausage, egg and cheese breakfast tacos on corn tortillas. Corn tortillas are the best, no question...

Volume 12 - Day 217/149, 2020 - Tuesday

The day started out beautifully (if you saw my morning Facebook post), and it is ending beautifully, and the middle was not too bad, either. The last of the containers (okay, I know, there were only two) was removed today, so I have the driveway back and I don't feel so claustrophobic. The gate opener on the gate was installed today, only six or seven days late, but it is done. All those things are good things. I still have the one chair in the back of Jody's truck to take to Goodwill (I forgot all about it last weekend), and I still have twenty one boxes (I just went out and counted them) in the garage that I have to unpack and do something with the contents. I'm getting really close to being done with all the chaos, but I totally expect that I will come up with some sort of new daytime-drama to deal with. I honestly, at this point, hope not. I am really ready to just chill out for a while, and take life easier, and not have to deal with schedules (usually other peoples) and the coordination of stuff. Wandering aimlessly for a while really sounds kind of good to me, so I am hoping for a chance to experience that. In the meantime, I will just enjoy the sunrises, the sunsets, and the clouds. I am a lucky man.

Volume 12 - Day 216/150, 2020 - Monday

Apparently, the road to Austin is not paved with good intentions, either. I had every intention of getting in to Austin at some point today, but it just did not happen. I had one LONG zoom meeting today, broken into two parts; 8:30 until 11:30, and the second session from 1:00 until 3:00. I had considered making a mad dash in to Austin during the 'lunch break,' but I decided it would be more trouble than it was practical, so I stayed home and did some business from home. That hour-and-a-half turned out to be pretty productive, and that is always a good thing. My 'to-done' list is relatively void of tasks, and so I feel rather accomplished. I will definitely get in to the office tomorrow, but my departure time keeps getting pushed back later and later. We had just about a trace of rain this afternoon, 3/100" if you really need to know the details. All around us gets much better rainfall than we do here on the Edge of Nowhere, and I do not know what gives about that. Places that have had plenty of rain (that's you Mikey) keep getting more and more, and I am totally jealous!

Volume 12 - Day 215/151, 2020 - Sunday

The chicken coop is cleaned, I emptied some boxes, three garbage cans are out on the road, and I am pretty much done for the day. Going through boxes, I found some interesting stuff that belonged to Jody, including this coin holder (I used to have something like this a long time ago). I did not bother to count the coins inside it, but none of the coins are later than 1992, which is also the year Jody and I got together. I also found his High School Graduation photo, his High School Graduation Program, some photos from when he attended the University of Texas, and lots of other stuff that people keep in boxes in attics or storage buildings. Some of it I kept, most of it is in one of the garbage cans up at the road. You can't keep everything, and you especially can't keep stuff of people that you have never met in your life. I did get a chance to go into Georgetown earlier today, where I caught up with Mike and Candy. I got a couple things at Best Buy, but honestly, I am too chicken to try and connect it yet (new router and extender), so I will wait until the tech support is on regular time. Looking out the office window right now, the crippled raccoon is on the porch, getting a drink of water. I put a pan of water down especially for him where I had seen him last, but I guess he is a victim of his own habits, just like we all are.

Volume 12 - Day 241/152, 2020 - Saturday

Barney came up to get a drink of water at least twice today, once while I was having breakfast, and then this evening as I was feeding the girl dogs. It is always nice to see him, especially when we are experiencing weather extremes, either really hot or really cold. I think I may have mentioned this earlier, too, but I think there are more hummingbirds this year, or perhaps I am just staring out the windows more this year than before. Almost every day, when I am watching the news in the bedroom, there is a hummer outside the window checking out some of the flowering plants. And almost every day, morning, noon or evening, when I am sitting in the office, there are hummers checking out the cannas and the Pride of Barbados. Quite often they will go and sit on one of the fountains and have a drink. I did very little around the house today, and I really do not have any plans for doing a lot tomorrow. Casey came up this morning to pick up the boxes of books, and right now, I envision a little lady somewhere in Buda (a volunteer for the Friends of the Buda Public Library), opening boxes of books and hoping they can be sold and benefit the operations of the library. I hope that is so, anyway. Tomorrow, I may try to move a few things around in the garage, and there are a couple boxes I would like to go through in one of the storage buildings. I also am suddenly motivated to go get a new router for the house, one with a signal extender or a 'mesh unit.' Of course, I will be totally unable to hook it up, so, even though I think I should probably leave well enough alone, I have never been keen on taking my own advice! Plus, it's August already...