How I Lost My Afternoon

Although it was after 10:00 p.m. when I went to bed last evening, my younger brother was still not home from wherever he had been drinking.

Fine by me!

I had my bedroom's ceiling fan running all night ─ the weather has already become that warm. At least my wife will not be feeling chilly after returning back from a holiday in Thailand where she has been visiting her mother for over a month, for she is supposed to land at Vancouver International Airport sometime this evening (according to information I got from her eldest son a couple of days ago).

It had been distinctly chilly around here when she left on that holiday.

As for my night, it was quite typical. My first break in sleep of any substance was probably around 2;30 a.m., and I slept no more.

I was up and at work less than an hour later at today's content assignment for the new post I have in production at one of my six hosted websites.

I did not finish that task before my eldest stepson had risen around 6:00 a.m. to ready himself for work, so I remained up until after he had left in order to be certain that the front door was locked.

It was already after 7:00 a.m. by the time I was back into bed.

My youngest stepson seems to have a free day today ─ or at least,  he is still home at 4:34 p.m. as I type these words, but it is always possible that he might have a later shift.

When I had some further sleep and rose anew toward 9:30 a.m., I expected to find my younger brother downstairs watching T.V. However, he had yet to emerge from his bedroom ─ a sure sign that last evening had been rough on him.

Nevertheless, he was just finishing a shower, so he soon enough did go downstairs and turn on the T.V., and I joined him at 10:00 a.m. to put our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box to use and spare him having to watch banal basic cable programming ─ he doesn't know how to operate the Android TV Box.

Then toward 12:30 p.m., he was ready for a return to his bedroom to rest up before taking off for the afternoon and eventually ending up drinking somewhere again.

While he was resting, I had some exercise out in the backyard tool-shed.

But for the second consecutive day, I did not do any sunning despite a gloriously sunny day.

Yesterday's justification was an afternoon nap to try and ensure that I would get out early in the evening and make the four-block hike to the Shoppers Drug Mart outlet at the Cedar Hills shopping centre at 128th Street & 96th Avenue (Google map) here in Surrey.

I managed to do that errand.

But this afternoon, I wanted to get away fairly early ─ before the schools were out ─ and make the same essential hike to do some grocery shopping at Deepu's No Frills store.

I had thought that I could still do some sunning after getting back, but that was not to be. Instead, I was solicited by a heavyset, tattooed chap in a tank top who was seated at a small table in front of one of the other stores. He was hyping raffle tickets to an Eagles draw to be held later this month.

Tickets were $2 each, but I had no cash and only enough change to buy two of them.

The guy looked like he might have been a biker in his glory days, but he was into his 60s now and in ill health. He showed me an awful abdominal scar right up his entire abdomen that he said was to save his life from some sort of cancer.

He joked ─ but spoke correctly ─ that his belly now looked like a second posterior. The recessed scar segmented the two halves of his swollen belly so thoroughly that it almost appeared to be someone's ugly bare bottom.

And boy did Gerry or Jerry want to talk! ─ even though his wife or girlfriend was in a nearby parked car, and often joining us. He was also doing a dreadfully poor job of soliciting passersby ─ he must have occupied me for at least an hour, and the only time he got any further money donated was when one fellow just passed over a toonie without participating in the very minor draws.

My very garrulous Eagles' representative's wife or girlfriend finally pressed him to call it a day, and that was the only reason I got way when I did.

I had already made one failed attempt to get on my way much earlier. Gerry or Jerry was just one of those guys who had no trouble ignoring such overtures. 

He said he'd likely be back tomorrow doing it again. From his accounting, he and his lady together volunteer a huge amount of their time on behalf of various charitable efforts.

He also told of how he has had some luck getting into T.V. series and movies filmed in these parts, and had photos saved up on his smartphone to prove it. He claimed to have been involved all the way back to the 1980s when Johnny Depp had his introduction to showbiz with the Vancouver T.V. series 21 Jump Street ─ a feature Gerry or Jerry had at least one bit appearance in.   

I liked the guy, but I knew we'd never really mix. He no longer drank due to his health, but I got the impression that he had no problem with 'pot.' I may not be able to afford to drink much, but I'm not into any kind of 'dope.'

The only use I can ever imagine having for any kind of 'dope' is as a means of ending my life one day.

By the time I was on my walk back to home, I was feeling weak from thirst and hunger ─ I had eaten nothing all day except my two hot caffeinated beverages.

I haven't eaten any kind of meat in a few days, so I had bought a $7 pack of regular ground beef.

Once I was home, I slow-cooked just over half of it in a covered frying pan with coconut oil, ghee, Himalayan salt, freshly ground black pepper, and turmeric.

At the end after I had turned off the heat, I added some sliced-up fresh ginger and three sliced-up, good-sized garlic cloves. And since I had bought some organic limes, I used the juice of one of those and then ate the rest of the lime with my ground beef dish.

And now it is 5:42 p.m., and my meal is weighing rather heavily within me. So I am going to take a break and lie down for awhile.

oooooooooooooo

Okay, I took that break, but I don't think I am going to prolong this post. Besides, it is already 6:41 p.m., and I have no idea when my younger brother is going to show up this evening ─ maybe he'll be early.

And then there is my wife.

I have laundered our bedding, but I could use some 'laundering' myself ─ i.e., a bath. 

Consequently, I am going to bring this post to a close with the following few photos that were taken over a year ago ─ February 25, 2018 ─ when a niece of my wife got married.

I suspect that the photos were probably taken in the city of Udon Thani.

The first photo features the bride's father ─ my wife's brother-in-law:

And this is my wife with her brother-in-law:

Apart from the bride's father in this third photo, I can only identify the young fellow at the left ─ a cousin of the bride's, and thus also my wife's nephew: