It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Thursday, February 17
The troika this morning was marvelous…Everything was upped from Tuesday’s good-but-not-great session and ol’ Sparrow even bench pressed for the first time in ages, a change from the cable chest machine he’s been using the past few months…There were few people in the gym today and the Smith machine was wide open.
The big news is on the elliptical, where yours truly finally settled in on an interval training workout…At the start a few months ago, it was a base level for two minutes then you up it a level for one minute before going back to the base level and then two minutes later upping it two levels and so on until minute 30 is done at ten levels above the base level…It’s a pretty solid workout, especially as you get stronger and start upping the base level.
Today, tho, I started at level one and two minutes later upped it to level eleven and at minute three went to level two and then level twelve and then three and then thirteen and so on: the upped minute was always ten more than the base rate and the base rate was upped a level every three minutes…Now, those of you keeping score at home might have figured out that the last minute would be at level 20, but ol’ Sparrow was not desirous of dying today, so levels seven and 17 were the levels for the last few minutes.
Recall a few weeks ago Ol’ Sparrow whined, rather loudly, about a Thursday day off that more closely resembled a sentence: ol’ Sparrow was busy from the time he started project work early in the morning and spent the day running around and wasn’t in his beloved chair reading until mid-afternoon or so…It was more of the same today, except for the fact ol’ Sparrow enjoyed the entire immensely.
Key, in part, was getting a Level II cleaning in – words not heard around here recently unless accompanied by the words “blown off” – before heading to the gym…Recall for the past couple-three weeks ol’ Sparrow, the rascal, has been heading into the gym right after completing morning project work with the result being the weekly cleaning was put off…Then last week there was the trip to the big city…The result was a cabin that was in desperate need of some attention…Now, we probably could’ve gotten a cleaning on other days during the week, but my commitment to consistency in my personal habits remains strong; it was put off until today.
A vacuuming, in particular, was desperately needed, so much so that it felt like yours truly was vacuuming a rock pile in places…But in the end, a satisfactory Level II cleaning was done: the floor swept and carpets and runners vacuumed and dishes and laundry done.
Not everything was accomplished in the next county that was wanted because I forgot a couple of things…First, I forgot the submarine veterans flag I bought to take to Pam at the framing shop so she could frame it and I could hang it in the veterans service office (VSO)…Second, I forgot to go to the thrift store in town…It’s been a long time since I’ve gone and it’s good to peruse these places fairly regularly because you never know what you might find and ol’ Sparrow would not dismiss out of hand the prospect of coming across a nice floor lamp that only cost a few bucks.
Lunch as at the chain restaurant, mainly because it’s closing at the end of the month…Plus ol’ Sparrow was in the mood to use utensils for his meal…They were doing really good business, too, the type of business that probably sees them staying open if they’d been doing it regularly…They’re understaffed, of course, and service was a bit slow, but the food was up to their usual standards…Ol’ Sparrow, in the mood for something different, had a cheese and onion omelet with – get this – hotcakes instead of toast!!!…I am not making that up…Plus some sausage.
Provisions were running low and $145 was blown at the retailer…Now, yours truly bought a lot of stuff but prices are going up, too which, of course, you notice when you regularly buy the same things at the same place…For example, the cat’s treasured canned yummies are up a few cents a can and our fave donut shop knockoff coffee is up a buck and some change, maybe even a couple of bucks.
A busy day off but instead of whining about it, ol’ Sparrow regards it as a triumph…A good day.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 1800 Wednesday until 0100 Thursday…7.0 hours for the nite and Herculean 35.0 hours for the week, the highest Thursday total since Reconstruction.
Now, you don’t want to count chickens before they hatch, of course, but with the Friday and Saturday sleep sessions still to go, plus the Friday Nap (FN), we could be looking at a record sleep week come Saturday…God bless all of you.
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The Diary of a Nobody is a novel. All elements are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Anything else is a coincidence.
It was inspired by the 19th-century British novel of the same name.
Gaylon’s books can also be found at The Reading Salon.