Meet Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Thursday, May 7
The checkbook didn’t balance today, for the first time since I began handling my own money…I eventually went tactical and got it all squared away, and it’s all my fault…The problem was last week I stopped entering figures immediately after using the debit card and every couple-three days I’d tally everything up and make one deduction in the checkbook app.
It worked the first time…It didn’t work this morning…It was $29.37 off…So I scanned account activity at the bank’s site and couldn’t find a corresponding amount…So I re-added the raw figures and subtracted it from the balance in the checkbook app and it was still off…Crap…I’m hardly Mr Financial Management but I’m not a complete idiot so, amid fears of complete financial ruin, I deleted the last combined deduction and started over at the day both the checkbook app and the bank site balanced and worked back from there.
The pad of quad ruled paper I keep handy was key because you can put individual numbers in a box and everything lines up, key in an evolution like this…I’d enter an expense in the checkbook app and enter the balance and check that balance with bank’s site and then put an X next to the figure when it balanced…There were over a dozen charges to balance, plus the latest direct deposit from the hotel and, of course, everything balanced and I still have some zero clue why it didn’t balance in the first place.
Lesson learned this end…I am back to entering everything immediately.
In other financial news, I paid the water bill today the same day I got the bill!!!…I am not making that up…It was in the PO box today and when I got home I got out the checkbook, wrote the check ($113 for water, trash and sewer, $4 less than last month) and took it to the town hall.
It is still cool at times up here and I was obliged to wear both a watch cap and gloves for this morning’s walk…I took North Street up to the post office and discovered yet another house with red fucking tulips…I am being mocked…The Shire only has yellow, of course, and I am envious of the red tulips and part of me wants to go and rip them out, but I’m refraining for now.
I made the usual Thursday trip to the next county and made four stops…The first was at a picture frame shop…Recall The Ex took the large, framed world map that was on the living room wall when she fled and I’d ordered another one, so I scoped out framers in the next county and met a nice, funny lady named Pam…The tube hadn’t even been opened yet and after removal we were farting around with the tube the map was in when I looked at the map and noticed what appeared to be the coast of Massachusetts…Oh good gravy, I double-checked and, indeed, I had been sent the same map of the US that hangs on the wall next to my desk…I was prepared to call in airstrikes on the company but I checked my email receipt and yours truly had, in fact, ordered the US map, not the world map.
Then I went to the farm and ranch store on the far edge of town, looking for a pocket knife…They had a modest selection, but they had a couple that I liked to look at and in the end picked the smaller one because I’m not going on safari, just doing some things around The Shire…Pete talked about it expertly, too, and it was on sale to boot…It listed at $99 but the display had a red tag showing it had been priced to move at $79 and the bugger actually rang up at $49 at the checker…The kid who brought the knife to the checker mentioned the difference and the girl checked the price tag and it turned out the $79 on the box had been crossed out and $49 written in.
Then I went to the retailer for a couple of things and topped off the excitement with lunch at the Mexican joint.
The big news is the new dishes I ordered are in, three days early, too…They look really good, deep red, with a fake brass ring and they’ll look good on the new green checked tablecloth, tho I always eat at my desk, but it looks good against my brown desk pad, too.
Between the boxes the dishes came in and the boxes from the new bed frame that were still in the carport, there was a lot of cardboard lying around, so I put the new knife to use and broke them all down and threw it all in the recycle trash can where it will probably sit for a while because I have some zero clue when the recycling bins are picked up…They’re not picked up weekly like regular trash.
The Kid is coming over Friday to do the lawn…Since I’ll be at the Veterans Service Office, I left his fee on the kitchen table…I warned him not to try and pet the cat.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 1800 Wednesday until 0130 Thursday…7.5 hours for the night and 25.5 hours for the week.
I love – a word ol’ Sparrow does not throw around lightly – my new bed…The headboard, sheets, blanket, everything…It looks sharp and I am sleeping great and I am so thrilled with it I am actually making the bed immediately after rising!!!…I am not making that up…Previously, the only time I made my bed was in the Navy and when I was expecting a chick over, a rare enuff occurrence…So far, tho, I’m 2-for-2.
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.
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