Writing the above I remembered I'm late in getting my Protime blood test - checking on how the blood thinner is doing after it got out of balance last month - so I drove over to the hospital and had it done. Took forty minutes, waiting to do the paperwork, waiting in the lab, getting to the car with three minutes to spare on the meter. Next time I'll pop for an hour as I've done in the past. Too much grief to save fifty cents. I'm too old and cranky to be checking my watch as the minutes drag - are there meter maids about? - I'm into some personal responsibility here. The pressures on a retiree never seem to cease.

“Never seem to cease”? You can do a better retirement riff than that.

Still overcast, still periods of light rain, still, still.... We'll let the lack of cleverness stand. There are always things to do, inside or out, we'll not carp and take care of business instead. There's a tax issue to be addressed, payments to move from BofA to Wells, cheese and crackers to eat. A cat to feed. And feed. And feed.

Later. A walk down the way toward the bagel shop thinking maybe a cup of coffee at a table our front, but without much enthusiasm I must admit, taking a picture or two of the trees against the sun and clouds as I set out, a picture of the new grass next to the white columns by the lake now that they've taken the plastic fencing down. The acid character of coffee gets to me, for some reason, although why not in the early mornings with breakfast I can't say. I settled instead for ice cream.

I passed a small gift shop. I'm not sure how to describe it exactly, but it sells small, eclectic, interesting items for home and kitchen for not much money. Bric-a-brack. Stuff like that, most everything under twenty dollars and, although I usually avoid such places, this one has a buyer with a good eye - good eye meaning he or she has a handle on what gets mine - and today I went inside and noticed a set of plastic play figures (for kids). You know, toy soldiers, Star Trek characters and such?

This one was called the Paparazzi Play Set and includes nine plastic figures, six of which are shooting cameras. Obviously a necessary item. Later, walking back to the apartment, it occurred to me I could use them to create a photograph for the main artandlife entrance page, allowing me to futz around with my product lights and tripods and such on a rainy afternoon, if rainy it turns out to be. Kismet and it's not even noon! I may, however, need to buy a second set. It's quite possible six camera figures won't be enough.

Oh, and in downloading the images from the camera when I returned I realized I had a couple from my lunch date in San Francisco last week. None of the lunch itself, but this guy called out to me as I was passing and demanded a picture. I naturally complied.

So good. The laundry is in the dryer at the moment, a short argument with self when I returned from the walk. It's Tuesday, the day I usually do laundry, if I do any at all in a given month, and the time required to kick it off is nothing. Minimal. Nada. This is not always a winning hand - nothing, nada, minimal, no effort involved - in the laundry game, but today it flew and the ten or fifteen minutes of actual effort involved, other than picking it out of the dryer in another thirty minutes, is done. After all these years and I'm still amused by how much effort I expend in dodging something so easy? If I ever buy that condo, and I might; believe me, there'll be a washer/dryer in the god damned bedroom! I'll use the washer for a clothes hamper. I will.

Later still. The doctor's office called and said the Protime results were excellent, back on schedule please for another test in a month. Coming out of the hospital I ran into my doctor and mentioned I hadn't had that lung x-ray yet. He hadn't really been all that serious about it, right? It was an optional idea he'd had, delaying wasn't a problem, right? My, my. Another task to be completed before the week is out. No sense of humor, my doctor. Probably comes with the shingle. I didn't ask him how he felt about the new health care legislation, although they say family physicians do pretty well, all of us needing more of their services and everything? Best not to push my luck.

Well, your mood is at least halfway decent for this early in a week and you haven't devolved into puns.

Those who actually read this far may have noticed I've now got a comments section again. Sherry poked me about it on Facebook so I went back, downloaded the code and fired it up. It worked this time, although I still have to figure out how to make changes in how it looks. Progress on a Tuesday, don't you think?