“Remoted” Day 250 (Saturday)

It was a day with minimal accomplishments, which seems to be a new trend. There was a late-morning ride with the dogs out into the world to pick up the artworks won in the recent Humane Society fundraiser auction. There was a designated pickup time, and if there is one thing I love to inspire action it is a deadline.

Art Auction winnings and treats!

The ride across town was done without using Waze, which felt old-school and like a gamble but it turned out okay. Shamefully, I have not learned the streets of Lowell since moving here. I rode past the intended destination twice because I was looking at the road and not the buildings and both times, as I sat at the traffic light just beyond the entry way I realized the navigational error. The lady in Waze would have told me I had reached my destination.  

Luckily, there were no other obligations for the day. During some of the extra random driving, the new location of the new St Vincent de Paul Society thrift store location was passed a couple times and if the dogs hadn’t been with me, I would have stopped in to look around. In another instance of, “If I didn’t have the dogs with me,” I would also have swung by a local shop to grab some lunch with the gift card I got in last year’s office Yankee Swap.

The plan was to hang the new artwork right away. One is already framed and ready to go and just needs a nail in the wall. There are few suitable walls for hanging art in the house, and they have sat empty since moving in four years ago. One dining room wall is begging for art, but much of what I want to go there is in a box in the spare room, in the far corner, under other boxes, blocked by more bags and boxes. I went upstairs, stood in the small place available for standing, turned in a complete circle to survey the mess, felt overwhelmed, and walked out of the room empty handed. No artwork was hung. It’s now day five of the mysterious olfactory hallucination of smelling cigarette smoke when there is none, and at this point, it is 100% annoying and consuming too much energy.  

There was a package supposed to be delivered today, but I didn’t know through what courier to estimate the approximate time based on my extensive new knowledge of FedEx, UPS, and USPS deliveries gained from eight months of being at home. Several hundred steps extra were logged from jumping up and running to the door to peek outside with anticipation and excitement every time there was the sound of a vehicle outside. It sort of felt like being a kid and looking for Santa on Christmas Eve, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and beats feeling dead inside all the time.

The mailman arrived at 5:30 with the awaited package, which was from work in celebration of Enterprise Bank being named the #1 Top Place to Work among large companies by the Boston Globe. Any benefits from the extra steps and pacing were offset by the consumption of three snack bags of Frito-Lay products – Cheetos, Cool Ranch Doritos, and Lay’s Potato Chips during the long wait. And now that the work treat box is in the house, there is a mix of sweet, salty, dried fruit, and cheese tasty bits from the Lowell Culinary Collaborative that will be the perfect mate to a glass of wine. Thank goodness no precious digestive real estate was wasted with supper. Let the party of one begin!