It seems to me that I was to bed last evening well ahead of 10 p.m., and my younger brother was not yet home. Upon finding sleep, there was to come a point where I was awake and ─ suspicious that the midnight hour might be deeply upon me, and thus late enough for my brother to have gone to bed so that I could rise and perform some work here at my computer ─ I checked the time and was quite surprised to find that it was around 2 a.m.
It is most unusual for me to sleep so well in an initial block of apparent deep slumber. I might actually have gotten to bed before 9:30 p.m.
Anyway, I rose and achieved a fair amount of work, and was back to bed by 4:30 a.m., I would venture. My plans for the morning involved a four-mile round trip hike to the nearest government liquor store (Google Map) in Whalley for a bottle of Scotch as well as strong (8% alcohol) beer.
However, the trip was contingent upon me getting underway before my brother was out of his bedroom for the morning. I do not like having my household members knowledgeable of my outings. Of the five of us in residence here, I am the eldest and the only one who does not drive; consequently, I prefer that my trips be privy to none of them.
Anyway, the bottle of Scotch is destined to be a part of my Christmas gift to my brother ─ I already have another bottle of a different brand on hand that I previously acquired for him from a different source. The beer would be for me.
It is unfortunate that I did not realize that the government liquor stores began opening especially early this month. Instead of the 9:30 a.m. start to its day, it actually got going at 8 a.m.
I hate going anywhere once the day starts getting to be busy, and today was a brilliantly sunny day. The only time I go anywhere anymore is early in the morning on a weekend ─ I remain home during the week.
I figured this morning that I needn't leave home until at least 9 a.m., so after returning to bed, I never worried about the time. Nevertheless, I believe that it was after 8 a.m. when I checked and soon thereafter rose and went downstairs to boil water for a mug of hot, black instant coffee.
My youngest stepson was up, for he would soon be leaving to go to work.
It is fairly rare for me to get away as early as I might plan; and in the case of this morning, I was not on my way until something like 9:37 a.m. ─ the store had already opened (of course, I did not know that it had actually opened over 1½ hours earlier).
It is so unpleasant for me to leave home once the day has become busy that I feel a strong introversion ─ it is nearly bad enough to keep me home. But I had to get the bottle ─ there are only two more weekends before Christmas, after all, and I can never trust that I will manage a postponed getaway in the future.
Fortunately, as is so often the situation ─ and as I was hoping and expecting ─ I quickly got into the swing of the journey and it was not all that impositional. I am fitter for these ventures than I sometimes believe myself to be.
I had brought a used face mask to slip on once I was at the store.
My original intention was only to buy 1½ dozen cans of beer, for the bottle would probably match the missing half dozen for weight (I usually buy a 'flat' of two dozen cans). However, the store was so incredibly neat that the brand of beer I was after had no partial flats, and I didn't have the heart to create one by removing a half dozen from one of them. So I opted to buy a full two dozen.
One would not expect a 750-ml bottle of booze to weigh all that much more, but over two miles the extra weight did become quite apparent.
The entire journey was without incident; and when I was back home and upstairs with my burden, my brother had never noticed me from where he was seated at the dining table reading the newspaper and drinking instant coffees.
I believe that it was 11:10 a.m. when I was dressing myself down in my bedroom, for I had gone there full garbed from the outdoors.
If only I had known that the liquor store was open at 8 a.m. ─ if I had been able to leave home at 7:30 a.m., it would have hardly been too 'daybroken' as yet (if I may rework the noun 'daybreak'). But I am sure that the exposure to the sunshine that I benefitted from was substantial.
As a result of the intermittent fasting schedule that I have been observing since last Summer, I take in no calories until after the noon hour's 12:30 p.m daily. When I have been active like I was this morning, holding out till then can be a strain, for I can't even enjoy a coffee that is not black and unsweetened.
Because of this, I often resort to having a nap to try and pass some of that waiting time, but I didn't seek one this morning. I believe that it was a little after 2 p.m. before I finally took a short return to bed.
Tomorrow morning I have an even longer shopping expedition planned ─ some groceries. This time, the store will be opening at 7 a.m., so I will be able to leave here while it is still basically dark ─ that's what I like!
Anyway, I have some exercising I want to get out of the way now, and then I hope to tune in a Christmas movie and have some beer with it to help enhance the expected emotion I am seeking. My brother may well spend the night at the home of his girlfriend Bev, so I should have the evening to myself. My two stepsons tend to leave me be when they are home, involving themselves with their own media in their den area.
The youngest lad just asked me if I wanted a donair ─ evidently he's planning on some outside fare as opposed to cooking up anything here at home. I declined his offer, for there is still some Thai curry left that his mother cooked up on Thursday that needs to be finished up ─ I'll do that like a good boy.
Before closing, I wish to mention a particular crow I passed by quite early in this morning's outward-bound hike. There had been two of them ahead of me, scouring the mowed grass by a paved walkway as they searched for things to eat.
One of them flew off at my approach, but the other was bolder. I kept my pace measured and didn't make any unusual movements as I came nearer and nearer. I didn't even turn my head, for crows seem savvy to being the recipient of a person's attention.
Thus, because I displayed no particular change in demeanour as I advanced ─ no increase nor decrease in gait or anything else suspicious ─ the crow allowed me to pass by within three feet of it. Had I been of deceitful malicious intent, I could easily have suddenly pounced upon the hapless creature, for it would not have had time to lift off.
But live and let live.
Be safe, my fellow living creature!
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