"Boots"?

It was to happen this wee a.m. that I slept so poorly that I finally checked the time ─ it was 2:57 a.m. My 3 a.m. cellphone alarm was not going to be needed, so I turned it off. Even so, I was ill slept and had been experiencing much trouble getting to sleep throughout the night.

Nonetheless, I rose.

I had been considering at least doubling the six-block walk I have taken for what seems nigh a week now, this time challenging my damaged right knee with the walk to my financial institution's nearest ATM maybe ¾ of a mile from here so that I could deposit the small ($112.86) monthly expenses reconciliation cheque that my younger brother had written out for me early in the month. It's serving no purpose just lying here on my tiny bedside computer desk.

But I managed to dally in getting underway, and by then it was just past 4 a.m. once I was outside ─ all heart for the trip had fled me. For one thing, I had no idea how much doubling the walking distance would come to slow me down, and the earliest commuters would soon be on the streets. The first King George Skytrain starts at 5:07 a.m., and there are surely buses running by then to bring distant passengers to the station. My ATM is located adjacent to that station.

So the last thing I want in my present vulnerable physical condition at age 75 is to be around a growing population of people out there ─ I don't want to be near to anyone.

I think that I would have needed to leave home before 3:30 a.m. because even at six blocks, speed is not my middle name. So to double that distance, I am not entirely confident that my knee could handle the walk.

Yes, I am bearing a five-foot improvised walking stick, and I am otherwise equipped with a dagger on my hip and a Titan baton flashlight stun gun in my tote bag, but I am not out there seeking confrontation. If it was to be thrust upon me, I feel that I would have no choice but to react with deadly force because I dare not risk my own well-being against anyone who would actually assault another human being.

The denouement of my quandary was that I forsook the venture and just had another six-block walk. Note that everything was wet from recent rain.

I will see how things go tonight. If once again I am not properly invited by my brother to come downstairs early enough this evening to operate our Android TV Box so that we can watch a few of our shows that we follow in common, then maybe by getting to bed relatively early this evening I will finally sleep well enough that I will find myself awake and keen on checking the time a half hour or so before 3 a.m.

He bused off mid-afternoon to visit Donegal's Pub for what has come to be a weekly visit to play pool and drink beer. The plan for me is to wait until 8 p.m., and soon thereafter I will tune in a show here on my computer to watch, while enjoying a can of beer. My brother can bask or wallow in the company of his girlfriend Bev and thrill to whatever ludicrous nonsense she watches all day and on into the evening on T.V., if that's what he is content to do.

We have watched none of our formerly usual shows since Thursday evening last week.

Anyway, I don't believe that I got back to bed this morning until nearer to 6 a.m. than I like. Also, my wife had not come home last night ─ her second consecutive absence.

Morning for me began well past 8 a.m., by which time my brother was already watching T.V. downstairs. Still, I waited until just after 9 a.m. before going down to boil water for my day's first mug of instant coffee, and then to join him.

By then he was set to have me take over control of the T.V., so I put our Android TV Box to work, leading us off with a fun and short (4:53) video uploaded yesterday to YouTube's AnitaK channel: I couldn't resist posting this! Jimmy Dore and me on pipelines and "boots."

I next tuned in another YouTube video that was more substantial by far, but I cancelled out of it halfway through because it was just too legal-centred than interested me. When I did cancel out of it, my brother offered his support that it was "too dry."

We then watched a 50-minute (50:47) video streamed two days ago to Rumble's JunoNews channel: Trump says he PREFERS the Liberals in Canada.

The video lacks a description, so it is important to note that it was practically co-hostessed by Jasmin Laine.

Thereafter I tuned in a very interesting documentary running maybe 45 minutes, but just past 11 a.m. when we were about halfway through, my brother announced his desire for some bed rest because he had some errands to run in the early afternoon before he was going to leave to catch the bus to take him drinking.

I will report on the documentary when we finish watching it.

Upon typing the sentence above late into the afternoon, despite my early afternoon nap, I had to return to bed for possibly as long as an hour because frankly I felt unwell, cramped here at my computer, hunched over for hours with my face no more than 1½ feet from the screen. Now that Bev is here and encamps in the living room right after she rises each day, usurping possession of the T.V. until she finally goes to bed deep into the evening, I am unable to take the sort of breaks that I used to often take ─ resorting to the T.V. downstairs on some early evenings as I awaited my brother's homecomings so that we could watch some shows together.

This is no longer possible for me. All I have is this computer at my bedside ─ and it was I who bought the damned T.V. back in the late Summer of 2008. Now it has been taken possession of by Bev who has absolutely no other interest than spending hours and hours of every day watching it.

Her own T.V. is in their bedroom, but she does not often watch it, for it is not hooked up to any cable service and thus has limited channel reception.

I was close to developing a headache when I took to my bed, and I may have been there for as much as an hour, rising again to see that it was a minute or two after 6 p.m.

I am going to take a proper break from this post now to round up and eat a small supper, and bide time here at my computer as I expend the early evening. If by 8 p.m. my brother is still away, I will tune in a show and enjoy a can of beer with it, and probably get to bed by 9:30 p.m. at latest.

Even if my brother does show up by 7 p.m. or even earlier, I will do as outlined. He must invite me downstairs openly, asserting the fact over Bev's wishes, or he can do without our shows for an eighth consecutive evening.

Much more of this, and I am going to let him know when he is sober that he can forget about watching any more of those shows with me, for I am going to start watching them on my own in the latter afternoon here at my computer three days a week, racking up an episode each to three or four of them while enjoying some beers.

This will allow me to be adequately entertained and to enjoy some beers while standing for periods of time in my darkened bedroom, and still allow me an early evening. Watching shows with my brother ─ due to how late he typically gets home and we engage this activity together ─ I am seldom able to get to bed on those nights until around 2 a.m.

More anon ─ it is presently 6:31 p.m.

★★★

My brother returned at some point while I was watching Black Lightning ─ episode six ("The Book of Ruin: Chapter Two: Theseus's Ship") of season four. It must have been nearing 8:30 p.m. before I started playing the episode, which was actually quite touching. I knew that at some point in the series the actress portraying one of Black Lightning's two daughters was going to be replaced, but I did not realize that it was to happen so late into the series, and that the actress would be so completely different in her appearance.

My source for the episode was this VIDsrc.net link.

Obviously the episode finished well past 9 p.m., so my brother arrived home roughly sometime between 8:30 - 9:10 p.m. I have since opened my bedroom door, and it's clear from his voice downstairs stretched out in his chair in front of the T.V. with Bev that he is rather plastered.

Right now I am going to take my empty Cariboo Malt (7.9% alcohol) beer can downstairs before wrapping things up and getting to bed, so here goes.

Okay, I was either unnoticed, or my brother is just too blitzed and into the show that they have playing.

It is 9:30 p.m., so it's late enough for me!