This Far Away
Friday. To bed at a reasonable hour, a good night's sleep, up early and on to breakfast at the usual place, the sun out, the air crisp, the attitude good. And a little tired, but it's eight in the morning and you're supposed to be a little tired, right? Now that you're retired. Retarded, re-treaded, but not quite re-calibrated yet?
The plan is to drive down to Jack London Square a little later and pick up some of those tea lights. In looking at my candle stash I have enough votive candles to last for years, but the tea lights are hanging on by their wicks and when you light them, they burn in a flash. Important stuff to know, here in Oakland, home of tea lights and candlesticks.
And that's it? That's what you've been focusing on? Tea lights?
That and a slow but steady cleaning and rearranging of the bedroom. Clean the desk area of dust, rearrange the battery chargers so they're all connected to the same surge suppressor and can be turned on as a group with the flip of a switch, something you think about when you notice how much light they emit when it's dark. The whole apartment is LED lit well enough to maneuver without any other light in the middle of the night. Yes, yes, I understand it's a waste of energy and I'm working on it, OK? That and putting sweaters and things in storage boxes, the plastic ones I've been buying lately. Pretty good progress for an old fart. And the tea lights, the votive candles? I don't burn them very often, really, but I do light them now and again to bring back old memories. I'm not quite far gone enough to burn incense. Keeps the head on straight at eight on a Friday morning, don't you think?
Later. That was quick and easy. A drive over to Bed Baths & More to pick up two packages of the tea lights as well as hangers with clips on them for hanging pants. Something I've needed but never had the sense or seemingly the time to buy, hangers for pants. Two hundred tea lights. That's enough to last a while. A teeth cleaning appointment coming up later at noon. Busy day.
Later still. A restful session in the dentist's chair, the young woman dental technician digging assiduously into my teeth, all the while commenting this one looked OK as did that. I closed my eyes and drifted, her voice in the background, the time slipping by. This in a dentist's office in Berkeley. My, my.
So, a street fair on Telegraph this Sunday, another lunch with the old office folks on Monday and a triple-A baseball game in Sacramento on Tuesday. Sounds about right. That trip up the coast? Wednesday and Thursday? Easy to say when it's this far away.
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