Loose Ends

Oriental poppies & rock pile

Today was an interesting day. I had planned to have the day off save for a one-hour work meeting in the morning. With that in mind, thinking I would take the car, I mapped out a batch of errands to do around town. On the agenda were egg delivery before the meeting (3 egg customers today), then stops at the library (drop off due books and pick up reserved ones), the seed store (seeds for winter garden), St. Vincent de Paul (donate secondhand household items and a cabinet that has been gathering spiders in the garage for months), the bank (drop off egg checks), our friend K.'s house (drop off some clothing that G2 has outgrown for her younger son), the secondhand book store (sell some of my father's old books) and the grocery store (return a giant bag of cans and bottles with deposits and buy milk). All this would make a large, tidy loop of about 5 miles toward downtown and back again. The car was stuffed with bundles, boxes and bags.

After the meeting, chatting with another nurse, I mentioned that I'd like to work some shifts for her over the summer while my family was gone. She raised an eyebrow and said "How about today?" I spluttered, thinking about everything in the car, but we agreed to split the shift. I made a dash across town (cans and bottles rattling and rolling) to the health clinic to begin work in 10 minutes. I stayed until 3, when she arrived refreshed with all her daytime errands accomplished, and then worked my way home with my many stops along the way. Check, check, check, check...it was satisfying to have the car empty out as I went. And as an added bonus, the man working in the donation truck agreed to take a split queen-sized box spring set that's also been languishing with the spiders in the garage. We were procrastinating because we thought there would be a recycling/handling fee when we got rid of it. I'm not sure the worker knew what he was agreeing to, because he looked unhappy when I returned a few minutes later with the first half and said "Oh, that's what you meant," but he accepted the second half (I drove home and back again before he could change his mind, saving at least $10).

Not quite the day I had planned, but lots of loose ends neatly tied up. Now to hang the laundry on the line (it's sunny!), take my big brown dog for his evening walk, and then settle in with some of my new library books, pictured below. Or should I hit the A & P textbook for review? Any votes?

Library books