Rainy Days and Saturdays…

I woke up late on Saturday. I should have set the alarm, I guess, but that just seems so wrong on the weekend. But, as a result, I was five minutes late for my massage appointment.

Margaret had finished her barn door project, so she gave me back my pipe clamps. She showed me a photo of the door and it was beautiful! We talked about the computer desk project and she gave me a couple of helpful hints.

Sidebar: I like collaborating with fellow woodworkers!

It was raining when I left her, BTW. From here I went and got my hair cut. I was a little early, but Michelle was free, so she took me right away. That sounds fine (and it was) but it threw off my tight time line!

So, when I got close to the Laurel Park Mall, it was only 9:45 a.m. So, I pulled into the nearby Big Boy and got breakfast. It was just okay, but cost me $8.00 (for a so-so breakfast) and I kicked myself in the butt that I didn’t just head east after the haircut to Leda’s and get the corned beef hash.

Then I went to the mall. Now, why was I at the Laurel Park Mall? Because Jos. A Banks was having a sale. It wasn’t that long ago I bought new pants, but they are all fraying on the bottoms of the cuffs. It took me a while, but I realized I am still buying the same length of pants that I have forever, when I am shrinking with age. As a result, I’m dragging the bottoms of the pants on the ground.

So, I tried some on that were an inch shorter. Perfect. Not dragging, but not floods. So, I bought six of them.

Since I was that far west, I went to Border’s and restocked on books.

From there, I went back down Six Mile to Merriman, took that to Five Mile and went to Kroger’s. I had few enough items in my cart that I got through the “15-items or less” checkout.

Next came Westborn for two more items. Then I went to the gas station I had scoped out on the ride this morning and got the cheapest gas (I found, anyway) available in town ($2.75 a gallon).

Finally, I stopped at the corner gas station and got my five cans of Cope. I had to laugh. The gas station is owned by an Arabic family and I know the boys who work there on the weekdays quite well. But about two months ago, their sister (or cousin or something) started working on the weekend. She’s a young woman, quite pretty and is constantly being hit on by the guys who come in. At first, she wouldn’t look at me or smile, just asked me in a dull voice what I wanted. But that gradually changed.

Today, she asked me what I was up to and I explained I was running errands in the rain. Then, when I asked for my usual five cans, she grabbed a roll off the counter. I smiled and asked her if she had saved it out for me and she said yes. She gave me a beautiful smile back and told me to have a great day so I told her to have a nice weekend.

Sidebar: I am always getting teased about having waitresses as my “girlfriends” because of how they act around me. I don’t think it’s because I am hitting on them (they are usually far too young for me and I’m not that good at it) but it’s because I treat them like friends, not servants. If a new waitress doesn’t bring me my soup first, I don’t upbraid her or tip her poorly. The next time I just ask if she would bring the soup right away. Simple, but effective.

It totally pisses me off when people treat waitresses (or gas station attendants) like slaves.

Okay, so off my soapbox.

I dropped everything back home. I treated Caley and put everything away, except for my new pants.  I want to try each pair on “before” I take the tags off and wash them, just in case.

Then I grabbed all the paperwork I took to the Secretary of State office and headed out to the Redford Police department. I explained the whole thing to the officer at the desk. He said I needed to bring the bike in to be inspected! I showed him the VIN tag photo and he said they couldn’t go by a photograph.

So, I totally played the old crippled guy card. I told him I already put the bike up for the winter and it was too cold to ride it to the station now, so I guess I’d bring it over in the springtime and get this fixed.

He said, “Wait a minute, Mr. Goerlich. What if I had the nearest squad car stop at your house to check it out?” I said, “Really? You could do that? That would be great!”

So, he typed some stuff into the computer (he asked for my address and when I started to spell out “San Jose” like I always do, he laughed and said, “I know!” I said, “Of course you do, you’re the Redford police!”) and told me to go straight home. So, I did. I managed to get my clothes changed before the doorbell rang.

It was a kid, dressed as a police officer. I swear it! He made Jake look old. So, I opened the garage door and he checked out the bike. My heart stopped when he said the number stamped on the engine was different from the VIN on the plate. I suggested that was an engine ID, not the actual VIN number. But, he found the VIN stamped into the frame was the same as the VIN on the plate and on the title. So, he signed off on it.

Then we spent another 15 minutes talking about the bike (he was a rider, I assumed). I explained how the Royal Enfield bike had survived and he mentioned the handgrip seemed to be made by Suzuki.

Then he left. BTW, he didn’t pull in, but just parked in front of my driveway. I smiled, thinking, “Take that, townhouses! You’re not the only ones who have cops at your place!”

I shut the garage door and went inside. It was just after 2:00 p.m. I filled in the blog entry to date and then went to take a well-deserved nap.

It was still light out when I woke up and the rain had stopped. So, I went out back to refill the bird and squirrel feeders. I noticed the suet was gone, so I went back in to get some out of the fridge. But there wasn’t any there! I put it on the grocery list.

I moved the Game Trail camera back to its old position (facing the back of the house). I’ll have to deal with squirrel and bird videos, but not trucks pulling into and out of the Coney Island. I hurried because it was getting dark and I didn’t want the spotlights to come on.

Back inside, I warmed up the last pork chop and the rest of the butternut squash and had a hearty meal. I cleaned up the minimal mess and went into the living room to read. I turned on both the fireplace and the electric heater in it. I had been chilled all day.

I read until 11:30 p.m. when I began to get sleepy. So, I called it quits, tuned everything off and went to bed.