I was to get to bed early last evening because my younger brother did not arrive home (from wherever he had been drinking) until nearly 9:00 p.m. In fact, I had just finished watching an episode of Parenthood (I'm late into season one), and then turned off the T.V. and come upstairs here to my computer where I was about to check the latest arrivals in my E-mail Inbox, when I heard my brother coming into the house.
I could not have timed it better in getting away from the T.V. in the living room, for although the T.V. can just be turned off, it takes a little extra time to first back out of the episode source link and then the 'app' I used in the T9 Android 8.1 TV Box, and then to turn off the Android TV Box and switch the T.V. over to its basic cable connection.
I had already gone through that whole process, fortunately, and was here upstairs.
Before shutting myself up into my bedroom, I listened to confirm if my brother was as excessively inebriated as I anticipated, and it seemed to me that he was ─ judging by some muttering as he removed his footwear and jacket at the door, and then went into the kitchen to open his first beer where my eldest stepson happened to be cooking.
My brother began regaling the 25-year-old with some anecdote relating to misadventure my brother had incurred in negotiating his way over some fence.
That was sufficient for me to accept that my bedtime had come, and any T.V. time with my brother best avoided.
Incidentally, I asked my brother today about his hapless stint at 'parkour'. It seems that upon leaving the pub he had been in, he chose to shortcut where he knew a rickety old fence was to be his only obstacle.
Well, the fence had been replaced with a newer mesh model.
He succeeded in cresting it, despite his overweight and drunken 67 years; but in his descent, his jeans got snagged and he ruined them by tearing nearly a face-sized hole in the upper thigh / buttock area.
No physical harm to himself, however.
I had shopping plans for this morning even though I am typically uncomfortable about conducting business on the day I deem to be the Sabbath. Notwithstanding, I only ever find myself free to do any shopping anymore on the mornings of Saturday and Sunday, so I am too limited as to options when I only shop Sunday mornings.
I do not drive, so I have to walk. As a result, I can only shop at one store anytime I venture forth.
The store outlet I intended ─ the Real Canadian Superstore (Google map) ─ is nothing less than a full three miles from my home. It opens at 7:00 a.m., so I wanted to arrive as soon thereafter as I possibly could ─ and that meant not rising as early overnight as I might otherwise have done.
I had my usual fractured sleep, but I kept resisting my usual impulse to rise to put work into the post I have under construction at one of my six hosted websites. I would check the time, and then seek to relax and find another bout of sleep.
It was around 4:00 a.m. when I decided that I had waited long enough ─ I rose and dressed.
I sustained myself with a mug of hot, black instant coffee; and then around 5:30 a.m. I began the lengthy process of readying myself for my journey, finally getting on my way just a very few minutes ahead of 6:00 a.m.
There was no need to push myself, for I knew that I had more than sufficient time to achieve the store's opening. In fact, at one point I even decided to detour to check out the end of 80th Avenue as I walked up the King George Boulevard hill toward my destination. I was curious if there was a pedestrian passageway leading from the end of 80th Avenue (Google map) over to a backstreet by which I could continue my journey away from the highway.
I have known of and quite often used the passageway that exists a block farther along the King George, and basically across the highway from the terminus of 79th Avenue at the King George. I have used that narrow passageway at least as far back as the 1980s, usually while cycling.
But I was just curious about whether another such passageway existed at the terminus of 80th Avenue.
I was to discover that one did not. However, that was probably only because there was an amazingly steep, deep, and thickly wooded gorge created there by Hunt Brook (I never before knew the name of that creek ─ thanks, Google Maps).
In all my years, I never knew that gorge existed. The passageway a block farther along that I often used in the distant past did not hint of any such magnificence. I think that I can recall a very short bridgeway with mesh wired fencing along each side that crossed over a creek, but everything there was so densely overgrown on each side by brambles and other greenery that I don't think I understood just what that short bridgeway was covering and concealing.
I knew there was a creek because it was very audible, and it seems to me that it was not too much below the short bridgeway itself. Perhaps it was narrow or choked there, and giving no hint of the depth that it would carve for itself into the Earth just a short distance downstream.
The deep gorge at the end of 80th Avenue seemed to be far, far wider than what could possibly have been covered over by the bridgeway a block farther along that I was remembering.
I took three photos, but I have since deleted them because they were not satisfactorily clear or sharp. It was 6:44 a.m., and the morning heavily overcast. At times it was even lightly raining.
I wound up buying more than I intended at the store. To be truthful, I was only going to shop at all if I found that the store had the litre-sized cartons of heavy whipping cream that I love using in my two daily hot caffeinated beverages.
Nowhere that I know of sells such liquid whipping cream for anything near the price ─ $3.59 apiece when two cartons are bought. There might be one other chain store that sells the cream for about a dollar more, but all others charge over $5 for a carton.
I had hiked to a different Real Canadian Superstore early last Sunday only to discover that they had absolutely none on their shelves, and I had been since doing my best to extend the life of the only remaining carton of cream that I still had on hand.
So if I found that this store, too, did not have the cream, I would not have shopped for anything else. My outing would have been for the exercise alone, and I would have paid more for a litre of cream close by home.
Since I did not intend to be buying much, I had only brought one tote bag, and I was to find that the final mile home was something of a workout to walk due to the extras I was to purchase.
It was a few minutes past 8:30 a.m. by the time I was back home. My youngest stepson had apparently risen meantime and driven away to work, but no one else was up.
I got back to that website post, but I do not habitually take in sustenance until 10:00 a.m. ─ my version of an intermittent fast. I knew that I would begin to decline physically after my exertions, and that held true.
Anon my brother had risen for the morning, but I resisted returning to bed for a nap until something like 9:44 a.m. And although I did get some sleep, I was awake an hour after getting into my bed.
However, I was so stiffened and body sore from lugging home my purchases that just laying in bed was akin to the relief one would find in a sick bed when ill. It was no easy matter eventually getting up from it.
My brother ultimately made a return to his own bed for some rest ere driving away in the earliest afternoon, not to return until sometime in the evening.
After I had my day's first meal, around 2:30 p.m. I sought yet another nap; and again, after an hour or so of returning to bed, I was once more awake but nearly powerless in will to resurrect myself from the supreme comfort of just laying where I was.
The afternoon seemed to predominate with periods of sunshine, but I didn't seek to sit out in the backyard to benefit from it as I probably should have. This blog post was my priority.
It is now just after 6:30 p.m. and I want to be done with it for today, so I am going to close out here.
No comments:
Post a Comment