It is possible that I was to bed last evening by 9:30 p.m. ─ certainly ahead of 10 p.m. I had done so right after becoming aware that my younger brother had arrived home from wherever he had been drinking.
Normally I nap away the latter evening as I pass the time awaiting his bedtime, for doing so has the dual purpose of avoiding having to sit up late with him in operation of our Android TV Box, and it restores me for those overnight hours when I can get some work done here at my computer.
But I went to bed last evening with the resolve that since I wanted to get away early this morning as soon around 6 a.m. as I could to make the 5.625 round trip hike to the nearest Real Canadian Superstore outlet (Google Map) to do some grocery shopping, I would not impose upon myself the stricture of putting any work into the post I am developing at one of my two hosted websites.
The shopping was paramount, and I was going to do what was best for that outcome.
And so it was that I do not believe that it was until around 1:30 a.m. that I made my first check of the time. I felt some need to use the bathroom, so I rose for that purpose. My brother of course had long before gone to bed for the night, and I admit that I did have some slight notion of remaining up for a while and doing some work here at my computer, but I quickly dismissed the thought as folly.
I correctly believed that I might yet achieve further sleep.
When that proved to be true, my next time check was not until something like 3:57 a.m. ─ and I could barely believe it. This was magnificent! I had at outset conceived that if somehow I was able to sleep through to around 4 a.m., then I would be able to leisurely gear myself up for the shopping expedition with no sense of urgent haste in the equation.
I was able to have a black (unsweetened) instant coffee and do some work on a post in my private blog. Nevertheless, I did have to pick up the pace a little in readying for my outing, for it was 6:03 a.m. by the time I had set off.
The Sun was yet to rise, but it was already daytime out there, with birds singing, crows squawking, and a full blue sky.
I had one stop to make approximately a mile from here ─ the Coast Capital Savings headquarters over by the King George SkyTrain Station to use the outdoor ATM to deposit a $400 cheque that my brother had given me last weekend. The cheque was his contribution towards the $1,855 annual property taxes that had been due earlier in the month (April 6, I believe) for which I had written out a cheque in payment. My two stepsons united and covered $1,055 of that billing, thereby reducing the share for my brother and I to $400 apiece.
All went according to plan. And a strain that I developed exactly two weeks ago of the more lateral area of my left foot's plantar fascia (my self-diagnosis) did prove to become aggravated during the return leg of the journey when I was of course bearing a fair load suspended from each hand in a pack or carrying bag that I had brought along for my purchases.
The added weight and its constant interference with my body's natural equilibrium founded the concerns I had about that very thing manifesting. It is good that I never made a foray yesterday for a couple dozen cans of beer ─ this morning's shopping might have been jeopardized by the strain of that additional four-mile round trip hike.
By the same token, I will not be doing any further trekking later today. The beer hike can wait until next weekend. (I do not drive, so I must walk for these necessities.)
My slower gait coming home this morning resulted in me not arriving here until just a tad past 8:30 a.m., but no one else was yet up from bed for the morning.
After I had put everything away and dressed down, I completed work on that post in my private blog, by which time my brother had risen and gone downstairs to have coffee and read the Sunday morning edition of The Province that I subscribe to.
It would have been pleasant to have watched some videos with him that I have downloaded onto a USB flash drive (we can do so on T.V. via our Android TV Box), but I declined too far and needed to return to bed where I was to nap and not be checking the time afterwards until 10:44 a.m.
My brother was watching some T.V. at that time, so I thought that perhaps I would have my chance at 11 a.m. However, when I went downstairs to the kitchen to boil water for my day's second black (unsweetened) instant coffee, by the time I was set to join him, I found that the T.V. was off and he was not present.
He had gone upstairs to change into some clothes to do some lawn work ─ weed-whacking. My eldest stepson was soon to join him and put our lawnmower to use.
I took these two photos of the brawny younger lad at work in the backyard at 11:41 a.m.:
My brother was meantime in the front yard weed-whacking, so I managed these two shots of him at 11:44 a.m.:
It occurred to me several minutes later to take some photos of the both of them together as they worked in the front yard ─ I got these three candid shots around 11:58 / 11:59 a.m.:
My brother thereafter had some minimal bed rest before he headed away around 1 p.m. to ultimately end up drinking somewhere once more, but I would hope that he first gets in a good walk prior to that dissolution this brilliantly sunny day.
I might as well add a selfie that I took three days ago at 2:54 p.m. while I was sitting out in the backyard sunning:
All 71 years of me.
I got in more sunning this afternoon ─ just over 40 minutes whilst wearing naught but a pair of shorts and lying prone on a pad on the freshly-mowed backyard lawn, and then an additional session of just over 20 minutes while I was seated low in a deck- or lawn-chair and facing directly into the Sun.
My early shopping expedition has taken its toll ─ apart from that foot problem that will be my prime excuse for remaining home the remainder of the day, my feet are otherwise sore (it feels like all of the various small bones in my feet have been deeply manipulated chiropractically), as are my stiffened and aching knees which feel downright arthritic.
In other words, I will not be doing any sort of exercising. That outing was my workout for today.
I was a wee bit displeased to weigh myself in those gym-style shorts and a tank top before I had yet taken in any calories today, and I was encroaching 181 pounds. What the heck had I weighed before tackling that taxing outing? On both Monday and Tuesday, and then Thursday and Friday, also prior to taking in any calories and while attired in just my undershorts, I consistently weighed 180 pounds.
It just doesn't seem fair! I had to have lost at least one pound while undergoing that shopping expedition, surely! Yet I weighed less on four different days earlier this past week without having done anything?
My consolation is that I did look remarkably good before going outside to do that sunning. That selfie above lends no evidence for that claim, I realize. So at some point yet this coming week, maybe I will seek to take a full pose of myself to flaunt my new Summer-like colouring.
I won't dare it in the present, however. You see, following that session of sunning, I finally had my day's first meal, and I still feel bloated from it. I even had to lie down for an hour or more, and I'm still feeling like I won't have any problem getting to sleep this evening.
By the way, my wife's huge package from Thailand that DHL's website is still estimating will be delivered on the 15th has yet to show up. As I expressed in yesterday's post, how can these people be so wrong? And why has no one at DHL bothered to amend that delivery estimate with a new guess?
That's pretty shabby.
My afternoon has just finished and my evening is now upon me, so I am going to quit and publish this post, and then enjoy a beer or two while watching an episode of my current favourite T.V. series The Last Kingdom.
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