Monday, March 28 – Sunday, April 3, 2022
The Week in Hello Neighbor Part 1: My work week began Monday at 6:30 am with the alarm blaring. I mean, blaring. I do not usually wake up to blaring. I like something softer. Sometime in the last couple of years, I decided that I don’t want to be roused of bed. I want a soft alarm that quietly introduces me to the new day. I switched away from waking up to a loud AM radio station where, as a good liberal, I felt the need to whack the alarm clock. This is not a positive way to start the day. Now I wake to a very melodic, soothing iPhone ring tone. It’s been lovely.
But, unbeknownst to me on Monday morning, my phone sound was set to levels not experienced by my AM self. No one was more surprised than me when my phone rang out at approximately 1 million decibels. Well, the other surprised person in this story would be my wall neighbor. I heard him jump as I was jumping. Ugh! Not very neighborly of me. I would have said, “sorry neighbor,” but that would have been creepy. Anyhoo, I don’t know how is morning went, but I was up and at it!
The Week in Hello Neighbor Part 1: Grabbing tacos at on Taco Tuesday, one of my building neighbors walked up to me to say hi. I hadn’t seen him much since the start of the pandemic and he wanted to tell me he got a new job in the neighborhood and he was having a drinks to celebrate. Then he showed me a picture from his phone that he apologized for it’s nerdiness. It was a shot of the neighborhood taken from his bedroom and it looked like a painting. He said he loved the picture so much, he had some prints made. And yes, I did want one, cause I’m a nerd for my neighborhood, and I loved the picture, too. When I stepped out the next morning, the print was there on my door mat. Now it’s on my wall at work.
The Week in Wine: My after dinner walks are usually just that, a walk. But this week I grabbed my tiny back back, loaded up a book, and incorporated 1215 Wine and a glass of red wine into my evening walk. I’ve talked about 1215 a lot on the blog. It’s one of my faves and I’m just starting to get back into the habit of going there a couple times a month. Last time I was served by my most familiar long time bartender, and this time I was served by a rarely seen long time bartender. I asked if I hadn’t seen her because she worked days but it turns out she’d bought the place and that’s why she’s rarely behind the counter. That was a neat, surprising, story.
The Week in Righteously Aging: On of my pals had a health scare with her aging parent this week and we met to discuss that in other of life’s issues at the Righteous Room. I always forget how much I like the vibe there during the week. It was conducive for exchanging notes on helping our aging folks without treating them like kids, and coming to grips with how little we know about aging. Neither of us, for example, knew that toenail clipping was going to be a thing. Well, it is a thing. At some point, you age into not being able to reach your toes. Who knew? Well, my Mom knew and now she goes to a podiatrist 4 times a year. Now my friend’s parent knows, too. At least that surprise was easy to cope with. Who knows what’s next? It’s an adventure.
The Week in Work vs. Work: As I’m planning my summer to add a stint of working concessions at Reds games, I was hoping to gain a concession from my full-time employer to flex some work hours to get to the ballpark for workday evening games. Full-time work said, “no” and that put the kabosh on weeknight games. The Reds are cool with me working Saturday/Sunday only, so my quest to pour beer for the people is still on!
The Week in No Waste: If the week began with a bang, it ended with a clean fridge. I made a batch of what I lovingly call Garbage Soup but a restaurant would call “soup of the day.” Basically, I opened my vegetable bins and dumped anything usable in a soup pot with a pound of some fresh ground beef I bought for the occasion. I used up the end of cabbage, and the rest of the bags of carrots and potatoes, all of which were on sale a week or so ago to wrap up St. Patrick’s Day. I’m looking for the saint of Frugality!
Nothing Ever Happens on My Street 