Back to Reality

(and reality sucks!) I woke up to the alarm on Wednesday morning after a night of weird dreams. It was cold (37 degrees F. here) and I really wasn’t into the whole “work” thing.

But, I “endeavored to persevere.”  I got ready to go, turned the radio on for Caley and headed to work.

I was wearing a coat (for the first time in a week) and was bummed out by the bare trees. The trees in South Carolina have all leafed out, you see.

Back at work, I was greeted by my boss who had come in at 7:00 a.m. For some reason, we apparently now have the option to come into work an hour earlier, at the usual 8:00 a.m. or start work at 9:00 a.m.

Sidebar: I am still processing this. It would be nice to get home at 4:30 p.m. rather than 5:30. But do I really want to get up at 4:30 a.m.? Hmm…

I know I don’t want to work until 6:00 p.m., though.

Sometime in the morning, there was the high-pitched noise of motors. I asked, “Are they cutting the grass already?” (I don’t sit by windows). They said, “No, they have blower back-packs on and are cleaning out the flower beds.”

Oh, sh*t!!! The handicap parking spot is right next to the sidewalk, which is right next to the flower beds. Which means they have filled my truck bed with wood chips, dead crap and whatever else they blew out of the little flower (hostas only) beds. Damn!

I left for lunch with one goal. I need some eggs, milk and butter milk. Knowing I would be gone, I had dumped the milk and butter milk and boiled the last six eggs to hard boiled.

So, I wound my weary way (traffic is the pits on Plymouth, no matter what time now) to Larry’s Foodliner (the 24-hour grocery store just east of Farmington).

Sidebar: There is something just reassuring about a grocery store called “Larry’s Foodliner,” right? You go, Larry!

I got what I needed and headed back to work.

BTW, I was right. My previously pristine truck bed was full of crap. And, Plymouth Road doesn’t move fast enough anymore for it to blow out. (sigh).

I stuck the paper bag (another thing I like about Larry’s) in the mechanic’s fridge out in the shop.

I left myself a sticky-note to get the stuff out of the fridge, so just before 5:00 p.m., I retrieved the bag. Then I headed home. Traffic was horrible. With all the heavy truck, I would guess my average speed was less than 20 mph.

I left the truck outside, went inside and treated Caley. That’s when I discovered she had barfed on the bed. Dammit!

I went back outside and refilled the windshield washer fluid. Then I unlocked the tailgate, put it down and blew out the bed with the battery-powered blower. I put the tailgate back up, locked it and then drove the truck inside for the night.

I started the Wednesday night wash, supplemented by the bedspread.

Since I now had eggs, I took the remaining leftover mashed potatoes, added an egg and a little bit of A/P flour and mixed them up. I headed some canola oil up in my 12-inch skillet and made Fran’s potato cakes.

I watched a little TV, but soon switched to reading until bedtime.