Boppin' Around

On my day off.

I have been trying to get a lot accomplished on my Wednesdays so I can have relaxing weekends. On Wednesdays, the stores and parking lots are relatively empty and the lines are short.

This morning I went to Kaiser for my periodic blood test. Didn't get my vampire of choice, the one I got was a little clumsy, but I survived with nothing more than a bruise on my arm that makes me look like a drug addict. At least I wasn't there the same day as Screaming Boy this time. He makes me want to run for my life rather than face whoever is sucking the blood out of him.

Next was Walmart. I really don't like Walmart, but they have socks I can't seem to find anywhere else. I hadn't been there in a while. Half the store is now full of groceries. Have I said this before? - I think it's nasty to have groceries and clothes in the same store. Buy a sweater then throw a package of grapes and some frozen food packages on top of it; that's what they expect you to do. And I don't like having mixed bags of stuff in the back of the car, either.

There were some good things that happened in Walmart, though. I got a $5 Halloween t-shirt for Bob (Vampires loooove brains - even your tiny one.). When I was trying to lift a huge bag of cat litter into my cart a young man with his hat on backwards and wearing baggy pants stepped up and grabbed it, "Don't you do that!" he said, "That's what guys like me are for." Sometimes true gentlemen come in unexpected wrappers.

The checkout clerk was fun, he was a tall black kid with many braids and the biggest grin. He had been happy all day, he said, because he was interviewed this morning on TV. He'd been trying to sneak in the door, late to work, and there were cameras and lights. I would have picked him out of a crowd to interview, too, if only for that smile.

I found most of the stuff on my brother's list of things to buy for the truck repair project. I couldn't figure out which oil filter to buy, though, so I went to Pep Boys. Got it, then asked what I could do about the broken key. (That would be the one Bob broke off in the ignition switch several years ago.) I was referred to a key shop a couple of miles away. At the key shop I was told to go back to Pep Boys and get a new ignition switch, that it would cost a lot more to have a key maker deal with the problem than to just replace the part, which comes with 2 new keys.

I was griped that Pep Boys didn't even know this, so I went to Napa Auto Parts instead. There was a skinny old guy behind the counter; one of those fellows who knows everything. Obviously has a PhD in auto parts.

So now the only thing left to do before my brother returns is the dreaded trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV, YP). My comments this a.m. made it sound like the truck hasn't been registered for 18 years. That isn't so, it's more like 5 years. It will probably cost more to register it than it's actually worth, but that's beside the point.

Actually, there will be one more thing to do: the hood has lost blotches of paint. It looks like a Holstein cow. I'm debating whether to sand it myself and just spray paint it, or to take it off and have it done somewhere. I don't want to repaint the whole truck, that would be like putting an evening gown on a pig. Oh, wait, someone did that! (Miss Piggy)

I got a few things accomplished at home this afternoon, too. I put the Leghorn with the totally healed leg in a nice big pen with the blind Dominique Bantam cockerel. So far, so good, she's not afraid of him. And I brought the baby Taganrog pigeon in the house. It's just getting pinfeathers, and it's OK, but I've been worried about it. The parents kicked its sibling out of the nest last week when I wasn't checking every day and I found it dead on the floor. This one has been squeaking a lot, like it isn't being fed well enough. So, Leghorn out; Taganrog in. It's totally cute, with a little dot on its forehead.

The dumbo Taganrog parents laid another set of eggs. I put them under Roger, he's a peach of a dad.

At the end of the day I stopped by the travel agency and picked up the tickets to Maui. Bob, Jonathan, Travis and Brent are going too. Bob says the guys are going to rent Mopeds and ride from one public beach to another. I don't have a clue what I'll be doing. I like it that way.