Starbucks is uncrowded. I sip my coffee and
listen to the 16 year old baby dyke from Phillips Academy
talk about what a bummer it is to have to go home to
Indiana for the summer. I guess Indiana wouldn't be my
first choice of a place to spend the summer either. More
PA kids filter in between exams. They're so young!
None of the regulars are around this morning. I get as
far as writing the date at the top of my notebook page
before I give up on the notion of writing today. I pick
up Earth Warrior and immerse my self in the saga
of Paul Watson and David Morris aboard the Edward
Abbey. I'm reading a lot more fluidly now. For one
thing, no one is talking to me about how great the right
wing regime in Singapore is or how f***ed up the state
college system is or how capitalism and communism are
both spiritually empty... I can just read. Reading in
Starbucks invites interruption but is still easier than
reading with the huge mass of demented orange cat
clinging to my neck. Just try to see the book over his
bulk!
My cousin Richard wanders in on his way to or from a
trade show. He tells me my mother wants to know when I 'm
gonna get a job. I shrug.
Anne and JoJo come in. JoJo is dancing with a
chocolate chip cookie. They go next door to
Bruegger's.
I lose myself in the book. I'm starting to feel
seasick just at the thought of the Edward Abbey
lurching about in gray choppy seas trying to take in a
Japanese drift net.
Suddenly it's noon. I realize I have been there 3
hours or more. Oops.
I walk back to my car. A woman sits alone at an
outdoor table outside "Giant
Burgers, 18 Different Beers". She's staring at the
clouds, head back, left hand shading her eyes from the
sun. There's nothing in particular up there. She's got a
huge mug of dark beer on the table and it looks
untouched. I can see the ominous orange of a parking
ticket tucked into the driver's side window of the
Auntmobile. It clashes with the burgundy of the car.
Once at the car, I tuck the bright orange missive into
Earth Warrior and head for a gas station since the
gas gauge reads way below empty. I notice that a
raspberry slushie has been melting in the cup holder
since yesterday afternoon. The cup holder is now a pool
of blue liquid. Pretty but sticky. And it makes the cup
holder not a good place to stick a cup of takeout coffee.
At the gas station, I dump the blue liquid and the
slushie cup in the trash and use a few "service towels"
from the dispenser to clean up the cup holder. Then I'm
on my way again.
Passing by "Giant Burgers, 19 Different Beers", I
notice the same woman staring at the clouds. Her glass is
still full. She's still the only one sitting
outdoors.
After a brief stop at CVS to replace my Dr. Grip
pen, which inexplicably broke in half and covered me with
blue ink at Tuesday's Purrfect Companions meeting, I'm
off to Home Depot for wallpaper adhesive and a roller to
fix the seams of the bad wallpaper job in the bathrooms.
On my way into Home Depot, I notice a man who looks
familiar. He and I have vanished into separate aisles
before I realize he's somebody I knew at MASSCOMP.
I wander around looking for the wallpaper aisle.
Somebody stops me and asks if I work there. Would I look
this lost if I worked here? And wouldn't I be wearing one
of those stupid orange vests?
I'm wandering through the storm door aisle when a
shopping cart loaded with 6 foot lengths of pipe comes
barreling toward me. The guy pushing it is looking
backwards over his shoulder as he races toward me. I
dodge the pipes in the nick of time.
Finally, I find the wallpaper aisle and get what I
need. Paying for it and getting home are anticlimactic.
No more loads of pipe trying to run me down...
It was downright cold last night and today is a
cool fall day. The only problem with that is that this is
June not October. This is becoming a news story. Somebody
told me this is the coldest spring since 1941... ah yes,
I remember it well...NOT
Just wait til it hits 90. Everybody will be longing
for the forty degree temperatures again....
I was going to go into Harvard Square tonight before
my meeting, but I heard on the radio that Harvard
Commencement is today. This means:
traffic
no place to park
full restaurants
in short, no fun to be there unless you're commencing.
Gotta go to plan B I guess.
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