I'll Be Warm

 

This coming winter I'm going to be warm and cozy in my baby alpaca hat and mittens.  I finished the second mitten this afternoon with less than two yards of yarn left in the skein.  The hat took almost another whole skein.  I have more of the same yarn in other colors and am sorely tempted to knit a hat and mittens in each color so I can change around but I won't.  Maybe.

Dad's roses are really enjoying the cool and damp weather we're having.  Every time I look out of the window I see more of them open.  Today there were a half-dozen buds just opening.  And no hungry beetles anywhere around.

Today was a droopy day for me and I'm not sure why.  Probably because of the string of cloudy days we've been having.  I checked the cellphone weather app and it's supposed to be partly cloudy for the next few days so maybe we'll have some peeks and pokes of sunshine to perk me up.  I have to start remembering to turn on the full spectrum lamps on cloudy days.

29 September--Barbara Malcolm, Better Than Mom's. 

Norman swung by the car wash on his way home from the diner and had his pickup cleaned inside and out.  He even paid extra to have a squirt of lemon air freshener put under the seat.  He polished his favorite shoes and pressed his Levis.  He sent his shirts out to be washed and pressed so he did not have to worry about finding a clean, not wrinkled shirt to wear.  He debated over what color shirt because he did not want what he wore to clash with what Fay was wearing.  Do not be foolish, he thought as he went into the bathroom to shave and shower for the second time in the same day.  He caught himself humming as he shaved.  He grinned at himself in the mirror when he thought about that old adage that went "old men shave in the morning, young men shave at night."  How true, he thought.  It had been years since he had shaved after he got home from work.  Usually he pulled on a pair of baggy jeans and an old ratty flannel shirt, made himself a TV dinner, and sat eating it in front of the television as nature intended.  He favored science programs and documentaries rather than the pseudo-cop shows so many of his fellow officers watched.  He had had quite enough of police work over the years and he did not want to spend his off times watching it as entertainment.  He did not think it was particularly entertaining anyway.  Who wants to watch bullets and blood spray across the screen or bodies falling or worse yet, forensic geniuses pulling clues out of thin air and solving a crime in fifty minutes?  It was shows like that that made the public lose respect for their local police force.  People were always expecting miracles when they were the victims of crimes, now with those silly shows it was much worse.  But Norman was not thinking about work or how frustrated he got over people’s expectations as he stepped into the steamy shower.  He was thinking about Fay and how pretty she had looked that afternoon, flushed from work, when she stood across from him and said she would go out with him tonight.  Tonight!  Just like that she had said yes, that must mean she had been thinking about it, right? 

Women were always two or three steps ahead of men, more probably, and Norman just hoped he would be able to keep up, or at least not make a total ass of himself before the evening ended.  He dried off and splashed on a little cologne, not too much, he did not want to overpower Fay; he just wanted to smell good for her. 

Today's toss was a stack of six office trays that Durwood used to file his account papers in.  They were terribly dusty so I had to use 409 to clean them, a Swiffer duster didn't do it.

I heard from DS that they're going to do the first bottling run at the brewery tomorrow.  I can't wait to go down and watch.  Once it's up and running their distributor will have Zambaldi beers in liquor stores where people can buy a six-pack which has a longer life than a growler.  Beer doesn't stay carbonated in the growler for more than a day once you open it so you have to be thirsty or have friends around so it doesn't go to waste.  Exciting times.

--Barbara