Although my younger brother was home last evening around 8:10 p.m. from wherever he had been drinking, his arrival was not to spell a late evening for me ─ I was into my bed by 9:25 p.m.
The early retirement became possible because not three minutes into the very first episode of the one the T.V. series that I had tuned in for us to watch via our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box, I saw that he had fallen unconscious.
Annoyed with him, I turned off the Android TV Box and switched the T.V. over to its basic cable package. He revived during that process, but I am inflexible about this. If he drinks himself into insensibility, then I am done with him.
I left him to drink and watch T.V. alone. I wasn't keen on sitting up anyway, for I was sickened with myself over earlier depraved occupation of my time following publication of that day's blog post here. I wanted to lose myself in some sleep.
I also wanted to be able to rise early in the a.m. in order to do an ATM deposit of his share of the annual home insurance ─ the due date is tomorrow; and from there, I wanted to proceed on to do some shopping at the nearest Save-On-Foods outlet about 1½ miles from here.
I do not drive, so I would be walking. And I prefer to do my grocery shopping as early as possible in order to avoid the public ─ the store opens at 7:00 a.m.
I had my usual fragmented sleep once sleep finally arrived, but I resisted getting up until around 3:30 a.m. And soon, I was at work adding content into the post I ought to finish and publish tomorrow at one of my six hosted websites.
I don't think that I actually began readying myself for the hike until a bit after 6:00 a.m., and it was about 6:40 a.m. when I set off. It had just recently begun very lightly raining.
I found myself in a poor mood ─ this had taken hold long before I left home. I am sure some of it related to my avowed misconduct following the publication of yesterday's post. Mostly, I was feeling forlorn, but there was also an anger there.
I made the deposit almost a mile from here at an outdoor ATM at the headquarters of Coast Capital Savings Federal Credit Union (Google map), and then continued on to Save-On-Foods (Google map).
I haven't shopped at Save-On-Foods since these COVID-19 shutdowns or lockdowns began, so it's been a few months. I always bring a couple of tote bags to haul my purchases home in. I even have a small baggie or two in my pocket in case I decide to buy some unbagged produce or fruit.
Doing my bit to minimize that plastic waste, you know!
Well, when I walked into the store, a young turbaned South Asian chap was on duty to prevent people from bringing in their own reusable bags, so I had to leave my two tote bags at the station he was in charge of.
I did decide to buy some pears, so I used one of my own baggies.
When I got to the only cashier on duty, I asked about my tote bags ─ could I go and get them to put my purchases into to save on their plastic shopping bags?
Nope!
I had to accept that I was going to have my stuff put into three throwaway plastic shopping bags. And when the late middle-aged South Asian woman saw my bagged pears, she became quite unpleasant, lecturing me on the health risk I was putting her in ─ "I don't know where that bag has been!"
And then she made a big show of having to throw away the see-through plastic gloves she was wearing, and then putting on a new pair because I had contaminated the pair she had been wearing.
I was practically seething ─ I am so damned sick of these neurotic hypochondriacs the world seems full of now!
I'm unsure if I'll ever be going back to Save-On-Foods after this. I usually grocery-shop at Walmart Canada or the Real Canadian Superstore ─ thus far, they haven't objected to me bringing my own tote bags and walking around inside the stores with the things rolled up in my hand.
Anyway, it was good to get back home. My youngest stepson was up from bed by this time, for he would soon be leaving to drive to work.
I remained up until within 15 minutes past the hour of 9:00 a.m., and then returned to bed for further needed sleep and an improvement of mood.
Perhaps I was in bed for 1½ or so hours, rising to find my younger brother now up and at the dining table downstairs reading the Saturday morning edition of the Vancouver Sun that I subscribe to. When he was done with that, he watched some T.V.
And then around 1:00 p.m. he sought bed rest ere he headed off for the afternoon to ultimately resume his drinking somewhere.
I soon had my first meal of the day. And after my brother was back out of his bedroom and had taken his leave. I then sought another needed nap ere getting to work on this post.
The day has been mostly cloudy, but there have been numerous sunny breaks.
Following up on the visit late Thursday afternoon of my younger paternal cousin Doug who lives in Edmonton, but had been over to Vancouver Island earlier in the month to make some visits and then had stopped in here on his return drive home, he E-mailed me a photo he took around 2:14 p.m. that Thursday afternoon of another two of our paternal cousins ─ sisters Cheryl and Colleen.
My younger brother and I had not seen Doug for perhaps 50 years, at which time he was only around 12 years old. However, we (my brother and I) may have last seen one or both of our female cousins at the funeral of our father quite early in 1983 ─ so 37 years ago, if it indeed was so.
This is the photo of the sisters, apparently taken at the Parksville Community Park "just before we said goodbye and I then drove to the Nanaimo ferry terminal" (to quote Doug):
Doug believes that Cheryl (left) is the youngest of the two sisters, and approximately my younger brother's age (67). If so, that would make older sister Colleen my age (70), or a year or so slightly older.
Despite the photo of the sisters, I know nothing of their lives. Doug is in fact the only paternal relative I am in contact with. I don't quite recall when we got in touch, but it was within the past 15 years.
I also have some photos that were taken right around this time two years ago when my wife was in Rome to visit a sister of hers who has made Italy her home. Google Photos created this collage today from five of the photos:
My wife obviously took the two selfies; and the boy with her in one of the photos is her nephew Daniel.
Here are the five original photos, beginning with a view of one of the Medici Lions at the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence, Italy.
This next photo was taken on the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge over the Arno River. I don't exactly understand it, but that stretch of magnificent structure along the shore may be part of the Vasari Corridor:
Finally, this is a shot of the Florence Cathedral:
All of the photos were of course taken in Florence, Italy approximately on June 14, 2018 ─ my wife's sightseeing had taken her beyond Rome by this point.
I had to research all of these photos from scratch as I worked on this post, for I knew nothing of them. As you might imagine, it took me some while, and now my evening is upon me.
I have some exercising I am scheduled to perform, so I must take leave now and publish this post.
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