random thoughts – Day 1,269 – (Thursday) – long one

It was a long day that began early, like too many days since July, with Physical Torture at 7:30 a.m. PT had been going great until two days ago. That's when I told the physical therapist that it was going well and there had been no pain from knee to ankle. As I walked from the office to the garage on Wednesday, there was a return of the weird, original pain from knee to ankle that had led to the PT. Ugh. This was mentioned this morning during the hip muscle prodding and massaging that leads to the pelvic tilts and stuff involving squishy balls, rubber bands, foam pads, and pulleys. It was all mostly okay, until I walked out the door of the torture chamber and halfway to the car the twinges were back. What. The. Heck.

Pigeon in a garage.

School was cancelled today and tomorrow due to the forecasted heat, which was wonderful for traffic calming, even though I was having old people flashbacks to “when I was young, we went to school in hell fire blah, blah.” 

I was glad for the usual quick ride to the office which was infinitely better than the half-hour hell ride of Wednesday. Thursday is usually a remote day, but I switched it all up today to make life easier getting to an event after work. Crossing the parking lot from the office to the event at 5:00 would be infinitely easier than crossing a bridge to get downtown. 

The office-office workday had some surprises. The first was a pigeon flying in the fourth floor of the parking garage. It landed on a concrete support where there were squeaky baby bird noises. The big pigeon fed a young one in the nest which was not nearly as tidy a nest home as the one over the drain pipe at The BungaLowell. There was a lot of pigeon poop drips on the concrete. 

Ice cream yumminess.

The best surprise du jour was an ice cream social fundraiser with ice cream from Kimball’s and a full series of toppings. Three of us headed across the parking lot and across the street to drop some things off in a storage closet and pick a couple other things up and to have a chilly treat. So yummy. 

After work was the “Still Summer Cocktail Party” fundraiser for The Brush at Fuse Bistro. The menu we had chosen was tasty – teriyaki skewers, popcorn chicken, tomato soup shooters with grilled cheese bites, pizza, and a charcuterie board I neglected to visit because I was too busy photographing my beer and logging it in to the Untappd app (Maine Brewing Lunch IPA) and then talking to people. And talking. And talking. 

Beer ad Fuse.

It seemed I had a lot of saved up socializing, and the atmosphere was wonderfully casual and conducive to artsy minds making grand plans and talking about photography and painting and collecting and less artsy boring-ass things like life insurance and healthcare. 

Before long, the event was over and it was time to go because all good things must come to an end. In this case, the end meant 7:45. Social me could have stayed out longer, but practical me has been allowed to take the wheel and soon I was home again, home again, jiggity jig.