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Yesterday (Tuesday), as Jack and I were headed to his school, he asked "What are you doing today Dad?". As I attempted to respond, all I could think of was a visit from a handy man to replace some old smoke alarms.
That was not until 2:00. That meant I had almost 3 solid hour of NOTHING to do. (Ok, a clarifier here. At any given moment in this house, one of the 735 voices in my head will be barking orders at me. "Clean me, sweep me, fold me, pick me up, put me away, hang me, pack me, unpack me, throw me away, organize me, read me, hide me, get more of me,etc.) But at that moment, I actually had a three hour window of free time.
I assumed that retirement would provide many huge blocks of time to do NOTHING. I was wrong. I dropped (you have to be careful of that word because if you misspell it as drooped, it does not show it as misspelled.) Jack off and went over to the lake in our community and went for a short walk and used my iPhone to research what pastry dough really is. Devin had a recipe the other night that called for pastry dough.
After three stores, all we could find was pie dough, pizza dough, and phyllo dough. She was attempting to make an olive tapenade wrapped in pastry dough. We abandoned that, and a typo in a William Sonoma cook book ruined a simple mustard vinaigrette. (They said to whisk the oil with the mustard. You actually whisk the vinegar with the mustard. I wonder if WS publishes erratas?) But I digress.
I finished my walk and bought the hat trick of dough (pizza, phyllo, and pie), as that night Devin and I were preparing pan fried halibut, butter salad with mustard vinaigrette, and olive tapenade pastries. Well, she did most of the work.
But before that, I made it home, and managed to clean up over 800 emails, and get my Spiketrade Journal up to date, and make a couple bucks in the market. Life was good.
Jack and I are making a good team since I have 1.3 hands for a few weeks. When we get in the car, I now just pull out my seat belt and he knows to grab it to secure it in the receptacle. He has chosen to do this as it is painful for him to watch me slither on my side and try to do it with my left hand.
He finds it terribly amusing to see me grab the wheel with my right hand and almost always inadvertently trip the window wipers with my grotesquely huge right hand. He just explodes laughing. Sick little puppy.
I am now officially tired of answering, "What did you do to your hand?" For three weeks I have been content to reply with, "I had a passionate moment with a solid door." I am now working on a long list of replies just to remain sane. Here are a few that seem to get attention:
"I dropped a ring down a garbage disposal and. . ." Always good for a facial cringe.
"I was golfing with Tiger Woods and. . . ."
"I was sparring with Mike Tison and . .. ." They look at your ear every time.
"I hit my quota at giving blood at the Red Cross, but now they take fingers."
"I was shredding "Purple Haze" with my telecaster on fire when . . . ."
"I was eating my bagel the other morning . . ."
Most of these got interesting reactions from people.
Tonight, my lovely wife and I enjoyed a marvelous meal at Hanna's. We sat at the bar and were entertained by the comedy team of Kyle and Dave S. They did their best against the onslaught of thousands of thirsty patrons while last week's guest barkeep, Fred M., just sat at the bar shaking his head.
The place was jumping. Devin and I had a nice meal and I settled up with Dave Hanna to secure my wine lockers for yet another year. I tried explaining I was on fixed income now and the penthouse pricing on the lockers were almost out of my reach.
He rubbed my shoulder and yelled out, "Taking applications on locker number one!" Everyone turned and looked at the two of us as he wrestled away my American Express card. I suggested that maybe my devotion and loyalty should be rewarded with the smallest of price breaks on my other two lockers."
Dave stood on the bar and yelled, "Deadbeat alert, now taking bids on lockers 30 and 31." I waived my napkin in surrender and said, "Put it on the card." He replied, "Will do BC, and none of this broken hand crap, I want the signature on the line so I can see it."
Yeah it was a great night.
Before we get into the stock stuff, thank you all for the great book recommendations. (Except the reader who suggested Fifty Shades Of Gray.) I am taking a tip from my daughter who suggested Mistress Of The Vatican by Elanor Herman. It is the historically based story of Olimpia Maidalchini, who with her brother in law, Pope Innocent X, ran the catholic church for 11 years (1644-1655). Some referred to her as Pope Olimpia. After about 25 pages last night, I am off to a good start.
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Since 12/31/2012
