random thoughts – Day 1,521 – (Saturday) – streaming

Once again, the list of potential activities for the day was long-ish. Possible entertainments included Doors Open Lowell, with 19 historic buildings open for tours; an art exhibit reception; drop off book donations for the library book sale; label items for sale at the booth with Mom and Sis; store the winter sweaters and organize the spring/summer things; buy paint for the bedroom; go to the sales yard for the company with the fancy and pricey sheds.

Avocado and tomato on olive bread.

I made it to the gym. Lunch/brunch was a very yummy grilled olive artisan bread slices with avocado and tomato. The current shed was measured (8’ x 10’) to know what size to look for. The stack of paint chips was analyzed and the choices were narrowed from far too many to still a few too many. The bedroom was measured (11’ x 17’) to know how much paint to buy.  Gym clothes were exchanged for jeans, shirt, and bomber jacket in anticipation of shopping. 

There was a time-consuming online rabbit hole filled with fitness watches in search of one that tracks dance. Some claim to have 100 fitness activities, and it took forever between reading reviews and visiting company sites and Amazon. There are watches sitting in multiple shopping carts, waiting for something else to happen. Some of them track stress level and blood pressure which would have been interesting data last week when I was waking up at 3:00 am worrying about work and then sitting at my desk enjoying heart palpitations at 3:00 pm.

There was an exciting Kiki breakthrough when she let me put my hand into her hidey bed and feed her treats from my hand. It used to be a stare down scenario until I placed the treat in front of her and withdrew my hand. But today, she ate from my hand.  

In the end, I didn’t go out. It was raining and a downtown walking tour, which felt interesting on Friday, was suddenly less appealing. The paint purchase can wait until next weekend, closer to the staycation when the painting will take place. The mostly stream of consciousness unplanned activities that bumped the loosely planned ones didn’t surprise me. 

Shot glass travel memories.

The shot glass collection, which has lived in a box since 2007 and on a shelf in the laundry closet since 2016, was unwrapped and inventoried. There are 17 of them, most of which are travel souvenirs with all but one from my own trips. They commemorate vacations in Seoul, the Korean DMZ, Reykjavik, Paris, Las Vegas, New Orleans, York Beach, Washington D.C., Dallas, Fort Worth, San Francisco, Jamaica, Canada. I’ve been to some fun places. I don’t remember who went to Seattle but someone brought me back a memento from there. The intent was to make labels for them for the sales booth, but they need washing and no labels were done.

Like so often happens, suddenly, the day was done and there wasn’t a whole lot to show for it beyond the additional clutter of shot glasses and unfurled packing paper on the dining room table.

Saturdays usually end up being a day to decompress, shake off the workweek, and go with the flow. Often, not much else is accomplished, and it’s usually Sunday afternoon before I’m finally ready to actually do something. I really need a regular schedule of three-day weekends to get through things. One full day to decompress from work, then two for a proper weekend of activities.